Fired For taking Short Term Disability

[Andrea04]

What is the name of your state? Michigan

I went on short term disability i came back two weeks earlier then I originally was supposed to come back, everything was fine for two weeks then I got sick again, I followed company protocol for everything, I was told my job waas fine, they told me I could take a non paid medical leave, since I had already used my short term disability, During this process I was told my job was fine, in my opinion that is a verbal agreement contract whatever you want to call it, they told me over and over again I would not lose my job. I was called back in to the office and was told that I had to resign, because I was missing to much work, and I said that's weird I thought it was ok for me to take a non paid medical leave, I had permission from the right people, anyway I didn't resign so therefore they terminated me.

I am collecting unemployment at this current time, However I feel that AT will law is complete crap because if they tell me that my job is ok, I should be allowed to come back. I was basically asked to leave for using an option that was rightfully mine to take.

If they have the right to fire me for any reason then I feel I have the right to sou them for any reason, At will Laws can go both ways and I have the time to sit in court since I'm not working.

Also the At Will law totally contradicts itself anyway I hope Granholm our governor is good for something, I hope she is good at keeping her word. They should abolish the AT Will Law because it is not fair, and it basically infringes my civil rights, I can't control the fact that I was sick, and I used an option that was rightfully mine to take. Unemployment said I should consider getting a lawyer what do you think?

 

[Andrea04]

I know my rights and my local state laws already so an answer without attitude would be nice, My uncle is also a criminal defense attorney so I pretty much know my rights, isn't this message board here for advice, if so then why is every reply answered with an attitude.? Just curious.

 

[enjay]

How exactly do the at will regulations contradict themselves? You can quit for any reason, and they can fire you for any reason other than a few prohibited ones.

Unless you had an illness that falls under FMLA and you met all of the requirements to be covered under FMLA, a company can fire you if you are missing too much work.

 

[Andrea04]

How exactly do the at will regulations contradict themselves? You can quit for any reason, and they can fire you for any reason other than a few prohibited ones.

Unless you had an illness that falls under FMLA and you met all of the requirements to be covered under FMLA, a company can fire you if you are missing too much work.

I was told I wouldn't lose my job by both My supervisor and the head of the HR department, Ifollowed the FMLA rules for leave I had proper paper work, and documention. This is an infringement of civil rights, how could I control or know that I would be sick, why do company's have sick pay, or paid time off if your not allowed to take it, why for that matter do they have Short and Long term disability, if I'm given these options shouldn't I be allowed to use them I had perfect attendance until this issue happened. I was never insubordanite, they had no grounds to fire me. I never went over the amount of days I had saved in my Paid time off or sick time off bank. I got along with everyone I worked with, I did my job I stayed out of everyones way.

I'm just curious are any of the people on hear even lawyers? or have degrees in the some kind law enforcement job.? And as an employee do I have any rights at all because if I don't then I'm just gonna say screw working I'm collecting unemployment for the rest of my life so I don't have to put up with this crap.

 

[Andrea04]

How exactly do the at will regulations contradict themselves? You can quit for any reason, and they can fire you for any reason other than a few prohibited ones.

I would like to know what those prohibited ones are...

 

[Beth3]

Andrea, you have so much legal mumbo-jumbo and misinformation in your posts, I'm not even going to try and address those. I will tell you though that "at will" is not a law; it is a doctrine recognized by the courts in 49 of the 50 States that allows either party to sever the employment relationship at any time for any reason, except for a specifically prohibited reason. This situation has nothing whatsoever to do with "civil rights."

You've titled your post "Fired for Taking Short Term Disability." That doens't seem to the case at all. The question is whether you were fired in violation of the FMLA.

How many weeks IN TOTAL were you off work in the 12 months prior to the date you were terminated? That is the key question.

 

[enjay]

Gender, age, disability, race, religion, national origin.

 

[Beth3]

Plus veteran status. Some States also include marital status and sexual orientation. There are also additional prohibited reasons at the State and Federal level that fall under the category of "public policy" violations.

 

[Andrea04]

Andrea, you have so much legal mumbo-jumbo and misinformation in your posts, I'm not even going to try and address those. I will tell you though that "at will" is not a law; it is a doctrine recognized by the courts in 49 of the 50 States that allows either party to sever the employment relationship at any time for any reason, except for a specifically prohibited reason. This situation has nothing whatsoever to do with "civil rights."

You've titled your post "Fired for Taking Short Term Disability." That doens't seem to the case at all. The question is whether you were fired in violation of the FMLA.

How many weeks IN TOTAL were you off work in the 12 months prior to the date you were terminated? That is the key question.

They refused to give me a reason as to my termination, it's all a little to concidental for me to believe that I wasn't a good employee. I'm a human being do I have any rights, or is that unconstitutional, or whatever.
i'm sorry I'm just a little pissed off that companys can get away with this kind of crap, I'm fighting them I don't care what the outcome is I will feel better about myself in the long run, at least I will die happy.

I missed two days prior to taking my short term disability, if that was what you meant, and it was all time I had in my sick pay, so I was entitled to it. And yes It was a violation of my civil rights, being fired for a reason that I could not control. I was also mislead into believeing that I had a job to come back to, if I would have known that I would have lost my job I would never have taken the time off and would have come into work suffering in excrutiating pain. which would have affected my job performance and I'm sure I would have been fired anyway, so tell me what are my rights? exactly do I have any because it doesn't sound like I do, I can still take them to the eeoc the Unemployment office said they would help out in anyway they could. so I don't see why there is any arguement here.? I looked up the FMLA regulations for serious illness and I do qualify, so I'm fighting for my job. if not they are going through one heck of a lawsuit.

 

[truly]

I think you are missing the above posters points...the term at will means just that, your employer can fire your at will...you can quit at will...flip the table, if you have a job you hate, and you decide to look for a new one, find one and get hired and decide to quit the job you hated, you can AT WILL walk into work, gather your things and say Later Suckers and leave....at will. You can keep on fighting this company, fruitlessly, or take the unemployment, which you have done, buy a new navy suit and pound the pavement.

 

[Andrea04]

I think you are missing the above posters points...the term at will means just that, your employer can fire your at will...you can quit at will...flip the table, if you have a job you hate, and you decide to look for a new one, find one and get hired and decide to quit the job you hated, you can AT WILL walk into work, gather your things and say Later Suckers and leave....at will. You can keep on fighting this company, fruitlessly, or take the unemployment, which you have done, buy a new navy suit and pound the pavement.

Your missing what the topic states I was fired for taking short term disability, it was an option given to me by my company, where in the AT will Docturine does it state that is allowed. I was diagnosed with a serious illness while I was employed by them they were informed as soon as I found out, I kept them up to date on everything, the law clearly states they can not fire you for a disability, or illness. this is not an AT WILL discussion thread. If I'm not making sense I'm sorry its probably all the medication I'm taking for this illness.

 

[enjay]

How much time were you out on disability and how much time total did you miss over the past year? How many employees does your company have and how long did you work for them?

This isn't a civil rights issue and it is definitely not an eeo issue. The only possible issue is FMLA and that is questionable.

 

[Beth3]

enjay is right. This has NOTHING to do with the EEOC and NOTHING to do with civil rights.

Until you answer the question as to how much leave time IN TOTAL you took, along with the other questions enjay asks, nobody can advise you. So please quit ranting and raving about irrelevant legal issues and answer the pertinent questions.

 

[kerrimac]

My husband was an excellent employee for 18 years at same company, he got sick and was approved for FMLA. Once that was used he was terminated. We went to a lawyer and asked if this was OK for them to do and were told once FMLA time expired they could do whatever they wanted. You are lucky you are getting unemployement. We are not so lucky, since he is sick and not able to work he has been denied and we have appeal pending. We are in Connecticut.

 

[Andrea04]

enjay is right. This has NOTHING to do with the EEOC and NOTHING to do with civil rights.

Until you answer the question as to how much leave time IN TOTAL you took, along with the other questions enjay asks, nobody can advise you. So please quit ranting and raving about irrelevant legal issues and answer the pertinent questions.

I answered you above I missed two days, that were saved in my pto=paid time off, when I was hired they told us that if we got sick that we were allowed to take short and long term disability if it happened before we were allowed to take FMLA, I went to a website for Michigan Law that states and I quote " if the company has more then 50 employees, it has to abide by the family medical leave act," I took three weeks of short term disability, I came back two weeks earlier then I planned to. Then I got sicker then I orginally had been and was told that they would not pay for another leave but, that I could take a non paid medical leave. They also told me over and over again that my job would be saved, I could come back whenever I wanted too. That was a bunch of crap, they said that so I would take the leave, they originally asked me to resign which I refused to do. So therefore, it meant I was terminated. That all happened while I was taking the non Paid leave. I was still told that if I was feeling better I would have a job to come back to.

I stated all of this in the first post. I'm not repeating myself again.