• Critics have slammed some companies for laying off US workers on parental leave in recent months.

• But staff on protected leave aren't immune from mass layoffs, labor lawyers told Insider.

• It can be discriminatory, but only if companies target employees because of their leave status.

Tech companies including Meta, Google, Amazon, Salesforce, and Microsoft have laid off tens of thousands of workers in the US over the past few months as they adapt to what they say is an uncertain economic outlook, with a potential recession looming.

Some of the stories that have caught the most attention and outrage on sites such as LinkedIn, however, are those of workers whose companies laid them off while they were pregnant or on parental leave.

One former Google employee who, at the time, was 34-weeks pregnant, told Insider that she was unsettled by its decision to lay off "a woman at her last bit of pregnancy" and said it was "almost impossible for me to look for a job." Another was laid off hours before giving birth, while one married couple with a 4-month-old baby – including a mom on maternity leave – were both let go.

"I've seen too many pregnant women and moms on leave being laid off and it's just not right," one person commented on LinkedIn, while another said they thought it was "unethical and unprofessional" to fire someone who was about to have a baby.

But labor lawyers told Insider that people who are pregnant or on paid parental or medical leave aren't automatically protected from being let go in mass layoffs, including those currently sweeping the US.

Does FMLA protect workers from mass layoffs?

Under the Family and Medical Leave Act, or FMLA, workers at companies with at least 50 employees are eligible for 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave for specified family and medical reasons.

This could include parental, foster, and adoption leave, people with a "serious health condition," and those with caring responsibilities. When they return to work after FMLA leave, the Department of Labor says that employees must return to the same job or one that is nearly identical,.