Is this correct?

[alvarerc]

What is the name of your state? California - I worked for a large utility company for 23 years and after suffering in a hostile work environment for lat 2 years I finally turned in a letter of resignation in September asking that my last day be October 25th. A couple of weeks later on October 1st the Company sent me a Family and Medical Leave Package. My doctor, who I had been seeing for a couple of months, agreed to complete the forms and placed me on disability effective October 6th. I went to work the following day to turn in the forms and a letter stating that I would be on disabilty and wanted to withdraw my resignation. The next day, October 8th, I received a letter from the Supervisor telling me that my last day of employment was that day - October 8th. I've been told that the Company should not have ended my employment while I was on disability. Is this correct? Thanks in advance.

 

[JusticeSeeker1]

More information is needed here.
1. Is this a private sector or government job?
2. Does the company have printed guidelines for firing such as in a manual?
3. Are you in a union?
4. What do you mean by Hostile work environment? Are you a whistleblower?

You may want to contact the CA worker's compensation board and ask if this can be considered retaliatory firing. However, your resignation letter may prove to be problematic.

 

[alvarerc]

1. Is this a private sector or government job? Private sector.
2. Does the company have printed guidelines for firing such as in a manual? I don't know.
3. Are you in a union? No.
4. What do you mean by Hostile work environment? Are you a whistleblower? The Supervisor would do many things that eventually cause all his direct reports to write letters to the Manager complaining about him and the hostile work environment he created. After 8 years, several consultants, many employees leaving the work group, and after I left, the Company has reorganized and has removed any direct reports from him. The last two years, he focus on me to the point that my doctor released me from work. I guess I'm a whistleblower ... but everyone was whistling - I just whistled louder.

Thanks for the advise.

 

[Beth3]

You resigned your employment in September. Your employer had no obligation to allow you to rescind your resignation because you subsequently decided to apply for medical leave.

Hostile work environment has a very specific meaning in the law. You still haven't explained what the boss was doing that makes you believe you and others were working in a HWE. If you just mean the boss was a major jerk and nobody liked him, that is not a hostile work environment.

Absent further information regarding the alleged HWE, I don't see that your employer has done anything unlawful.

 

[cbg]

I've been told that the Company should not have ended my employment while I was on disability. Is this correct?

No, it is not correct.

Somehow or other, a great many people have gotten it into their heads that it is illegal to terminate someone if they are on medical disability. That is NOT TRUE. IF the specific disability qualifies under FMLA (not all do) then you cannot be termed (with certain exceptions) until the FMLA expires, but once the FMLA expires you most certainly can be termed. The law does NOT require the employer to hold your job open indefinitely, no matter how legitimate the reason.

If FMLA does not apply, then you have no protection from termination regardless of the length of the disability claim.

In a few cases (not even remotely all) IF the disability qualifies under the ADA (and only a VERY small percentage of disability claims do) it MIGHT be considered a reasonable accomodation to extend the medical leave for a SHORT time. (According to my attorney, SHORT means no more than six additional weeks.)

While the law says that you cannot be termed BECAUSE you have an ADA qualifying disability, that is a very, very large step away from not being able to be fired as long as you're on medical disability leave.