If I lay off an employee on pregnancy disability leave, can they still collect SDI or PFL benefits?

When an employee who is receiving state disability insurance (SDI) benefits is laid off, the employee does not lose eligibility to continue receiving those benefits. The SDI program does not take into account whether you are holding the employee’s job.

Since your employee became disabled by pregnancy while still working, and the employee’s SDI claim was approved at that time, they can continue to receive benefits even though there is no longer a job to which they can return.

The SDI benefits will last as long as the employee is disabled by pregnancy or until the benefits are exhausted under the terms of the SDI program.