Article 72: Involuntary Leave, Hearings, and Reinstatement

New York Civil Service Law Section 72 allows a public employer to place a civil service employee on involuntary leave when a non-work-related disability keeps the employee from performing the job, but only after written notice, an employer-arranged medical examination, and an opportunity to demand a hearing. A 2024 amendment, effective January 1, 2025, added disclosure obligations that give employees far more visibility into what their employer is telling the medical examiner and relying on to justify the leave.¹

When Section 72 Applies

Section 72 covers civil service employees whose disability is not the result of a work-related injury or occupational disease. If your condition falls under the Workers’ Compensation Law, your employer cannot use Section 72; a separate framework under Section 73 of the Civil Service Law governs that situation instead.¹ The line is drawn by the source of the disability, not its severity. A back injury sustained on the job goes down one track; a disabling condition unrelated to your duties goes down the Section 72 track.

Written Notice and the Medical Examination

Before your employer can send you for an examination, it must give you written notice describing the specific facts behind its belief that you may be unfit. Vague statements about seeming unwell do not satisfy the statute. The notice must identify the behaviors, performance issues, or observations that raised the concern.¹

The examination is conducted by a medical officer selected by the civil service department or municipal commission with jurisdiction over your position, at the employer’s expense. You do not pick the doctor. The medical officer’s job is to evaluate whether you are physically or mentally fit to perform the duties of your specific title.¹ Skipping or refusing the exam creates real risk, because the process can proceed on whatever information the employer already has.

What Your Employer Must Show You

Chapter 306 of the Laws of 2024, in effect since January 1, 2025, changed how much you get to see. Before your examination, your employer must give you copies of any written, electronic, or other communications sent to the medical officer or evaluating entity. The same materials must go to your authorized representative and the civil service department or commission with jurisdiction.¹

If your employer decides to place you on leave, it must give you a written statement of the reasons along with complete copies of all documentation, reports, and records the medical officer relied on, including any reports or correspondence sent back to the employer after the evaluation.¹ Failure to hand over these materials is a violation of the statute and can support a later procedural challenge.

Requesting a Hearing

If the medical officer certifies you as unfit, your appointing authority must serve you with written notice stating the reason for the proposed leave, its proposed start date, and your procedural rights. Service is by personal delivery or by certified or registered mail.¹

You have ten working days from service of that notice to object and request a hearing, filed in person or by certified or registered mail. Miss that window and you lose your chance to contest the leave. Request the hearing on time and the proposed leave is held in abeyance until a final determination is made, meaning the employer cannot actually put you on leave in the interim.¹

Once you request a hearing, the appointing authority must supply you, your personal physician, and your authorized representative with copies of all diagnoses, test results, observations, and other data supporting the certification. The hearing must take place within 30 days of your request. It is conducted by an independent hearing officer agreed upon by you and the appointing authority. You may be represented by an attorney or a union representative, and you may present your own medical experts and other witnesses.¹ Bringing an independent medical opinion is the practical weight of that right. Without one, the hearing officer has only the employer’s physician to consider.

Emergency Removal

Subdivision 5 of the statute allows immediate removal when an employee’s continued presence poses a potential danger to persons or property, or would severely interfere with operations. The normal notice-and-examination sequence does not have to come first. Even so, the employer must give the employee the supporting documentation being shared with the medical evaluator, either at the time of the removal or as soon as practicable afterward.¹ An employee found fit after the examination is entitled to restoration of the position and any leave credits or salary lost during the removal.²

Pay, Leave Credits, and Benefits While You Are Out

While on Section 72 leave you may draw down all accumulated, unused sick leave, vacation time, overtime credits, and other time allowances standing to your credit.¹ Once those accruals run out, the remainder of the leave is unpaid.

The move to unpaid status affects the rest of your compensation package. Pension contributions stop, and responsibility for health insurance premiums may change depending on your bargaining unit agreement. If you are FMLA-eligible, your employer is generally required to maintain your group health benefits on the same terms as if you were still working for up to 12 weeks.³ After that window, or where FMLA does not apply, coverage terms come from your collective bargaining agreement and employer policy.

If you prevail at the hearing or are later found fit to return, the statute requires restoration to your position and restoration of any leave credits or salary lost because of the involuntary leave.²

Applying to Come Back

If you believe you have recovered enough to return, you can apply to the civil service department or municipal commission with jurisdiction over your position for a new medical examination. You have one year from the date your leave began to file that application, and you can continue to file after the one-year mark at any time until your employment status is formally terminated.¹

The reinstatement exam parallels the original fitness evaluation. A medical officer selected by the department or commission examines you to decide whether the disability that led to the leave has resolved or improved enough for you to perform your duties. Clearance means restoration to your former position or a comparable role in your agency.

What Happens After One Year

If you have not been reinstated within one year of the date your leave began, your employment status may be terminated under the procedures in Section 73 of the Civil Service Law.¹ Termination is not automatic, but it is the likely outcome absent a demonstration of fitness to return.

Termination does not end your relationship with the civil service. Under Section 71, your name can be placed on a preferred list for your former position, keeping you eligible for reinstatement from that list for four years.⁴ It is priority for vacancies in your former title, not a guaranteed job.

Going to Court

Once you have exhausted the administrative hearing process and a final decision upholds the leave, judicial review is available through a CPLR Article 78 proceeding in New York State Supreme Court.¹ Article 78 courts generally do not substitute their own judgment on medical questions, but they will set aside a determination that was arbitrary, lacked a rational basis, or resulted from procedural violations. The 2024 disclosure amendments give employees more procedural ground to stand on, because any failure to hand over the required communications or supporting records can be raised as a defect in the agency’s determination.

1
New York State Senate. New York Code CVS 72 – Leave for Ordinary Disability
2
New York Courts. Matter of McShane v State of New York
3
U.S. Department of Labor. Family and Medical Leave Act
4
New York State Senate. New York Code CVS 71 – Reinstatement After Separation for Disability