How to Remain Employed to Proceed to Appeal

I am a federal contractor and lost my clearance in FEB 2018 from DoD CAF (likely foreign national contacts). I still await ‎the SOR with my security clearance lawyer. My firm informed my last day is 22 MAR 2018, with an eligibility to rehire once I resolve the issue. However, I cannot proceed to address the issue if I am unemployed, that is if my clearance is not sponsored. I have requested my company to keep me on UNPAID administrative ‎leave; thus I am employed on paper. Surprisingly, few companies are aware of this legal ‎practice. ‎ How can I convince the firm to keep me, as I am aware they do not owe me anything. Any insight would be valuable.

Thank you, A.