A doctor's note. Time off for treatment. A lifting restriction, a chair, a schedule change, leave for surgery, leave of absence. You did not complain about anyone — you asked for something you needed. Asking is itself a protected act, and an employer may not punish you for it.
You did not have to complain about anything. You did not have to accuse anyone. You asked for something you needed because of a disability/impairment/serious medical condition — time off for treatment, a lighter lifting limit, a stool to sit on, a different shift, leave for surgery, a parking space closer to the door — or you handed over a doctor's note. That request is itself protected.
This is the single most common misunderstanding among people who call this office. They assume that because they never made a formal complaint, there was nothing to retaliate against. There was.
Federal law puts it in unusually wide terms:
"No person shall discriminate against any individual because such individual has opposed any act or practice made unlawful by this chapter or because such individual made a charge, testified, assisted, or participated in any manner in an investigation, proceeding, or hearing under this chapter."
"It shall be unlawful to coerce, intimidate, threaten, or interfere with any individual in the exercise or enjoyment of, or on account of his or her having exercised or enjoyed … any right granted or protected by this chapter."
Americans with Disabilities Act, 42 U.S.C. § 12203(a) and (b)Read subsection (b) again. It is not limited to firing, and it is not limited to employers — it says "no person." Interfering with someone who is trying to exercise the right to an accommodation is its own violation.
If you asked for family or medical leave, a separate federal provision makes it unlawful for an employer "to interfere with, restrain, or deny the exercise of or the attempt to exercise, any right provided under" the Family and Medical Leave Act. 29 U.S.C. § 2615(a)(1). Note the words "or the attempt to exercise" — you are covered from the moment you ask.
The New Mexico Human Rights Act protects against discrimination because of a "physical or mental disability" — and, separately, because of a "serious medical condition." NMSA 1978 § 28-1-7(A).
That second category matters. A condition that is temporary, or that an employer would argue is not a "disability" in the technical sense, may still be covered in New Mexico. Cancer treatment, a difficult pregnancy, a serious injury with a long recovery, a condition that flares and subsides — these are the situations where the two categories do different work.
There is also protection for "pregnancy, childbirth or condition related to pregnancy or childbirth" as its own listed characteristic.
The Act reaches "any person employing four or more persons and any person acting for an employer." § 28-1-2(B).
Employers almost always respond that the employee simply could not do the job. New Mexico's jury instruction defines the term the case turns on, and it defines it in your favor:
A person is "otherwise qualified" if that person "is able to do the job in spite of" the disability/impairment/serious medical condition.
New Mexico Uniform Jury Instruction, Human Rights Act seriesIn spite of — not without. The question is not whether your condition made anything harder. It is whether you could do the work.
In Texas the equivalent duty sits in Labor Code § 21.128, which requires an employer to make a reasonable workplace accommodation to a known physical or mental limitation of an otherwise qualified individual, unless doing so would impose an undue hardship. Texas protects "disability" as one of its seven listed characteristics. Tex. Lab. Code § 21.051.
Accommodation cases produce some of the shortest gaps of any category in this office's files. The sequences that come up again and again:
Two claims often live inside one of these firings. There is the failure to accommodate — the employer would not give you what you needed. And there is the retaliation — the employer punished you for asking. They are separate, and you do not have to choose between them.
You do not need to have filed anything with an agency. You do not need to have used the words "accommodation" or "ADA." Asking in plain language is asking.
If it is safe and lawful for you to do so, keep copies of the doctor's notes, the leave paperwork, your restrictions, your evaluations, and the termination notice. Do not take anything you are not authorized to access.
No. There are no magic words. Telling your supervisor that you need to leave early on Thursdays for treatment, or that your doctor says you cannot lift more than twenty pounds, is a request for an accommodation whatever you call it.
Possibly, and in New Mexico this is a real advantage. The Human Rights Act protects both "physical or mental disability" and, separately, "serious medical condition." A condition that would be argued about under a narrower definition may still fall within the second category.
Undue hardship is a recognized defense, but it is the employer's to prove, and "it would be inconvenient" is not the standard. What often undoes this defense is the employer having granted the same thing to someone else, or never having looked into the cost at all.
Tell us. That sequence appears repeatedly in this office's files. The closeness in time between a protected act and the adverse action is itself evidence, and a termination timed to a return date is about as close as it gets.
That is worth a conversation. Where the absences were the direct consequence of a condition the employer knew about, and no accommodation was considered, an attendance rationale can be both the stated reason and the violation.
Nothing upfront. This office works on a contingency fee and advances the costs of the case. Attorney's fees are owed only if there is a recovery; clients may remain responsible for case costs and expenses.
Some are much shorter than people expect. The sooner you call, the more options are still open. Tell us what happened — free, confidential, and no obligation.