Does France have any kind of Federal job-protected Leave act? Does he have personal disability insurance deducted from his paycheck?
During my colonectomy process, I was medically separated (they could not accommodate my need for 4 months leave) from my job of only six months. I was not eligible for state disability, because I was not previously employed for a full year prior, thank goodness I purchased long term disability insurance, that paid me for a 60% o f my earnings while totally disabled and partial supplements when I went back to work for a full 2-years.
FMLA in the USA will protect your job for 90days, but you must have worked for your employer for a full year. I needed 4-6 months for my current injuries, but I hobbled my a** back to work in 3 months, as I did not want to risk two medically separated jobs back to back on my resume.
I was offered the chance to purchase LTD from my employer in November, but figured they would never cover an illness-related disability for my pouch if I ever once saw a doctor within a 2 year period prior to any potential disability. The HR rep said "Well, you could potentially suffer an INJURY". I laughed at her. Ha ha jokes on me, because I suffered a severe injury-related disability the very next month in December.
Now, I don't think I would ever qualify for LTD insurance for any further illness or injury. At least I qualified for state disability this time.
If I need Achilles heel lengthening surgery, I will wait until 12/18/15, so that I can apply for FMLA again, as you can only have one FMLA event each year.
The Good thing about my job is that I am difficult to replace, since you need a secret clearance, and that costs the employer a lot of time and expense to hire a replacement. They can't even hire a temp to fill in when I am on leave. The bad thing was that when I returned to work, nothing was done and I was 3 months behind on everything.