Sick leave and possible discrimination!

[techy_will]

Hi, I hope there is an attorney out there that can advise me I'm in NY. First of all, when I entered the company 9 months ago I was told that I could expect a minimum of 25% up to 50% bonus paid quarterly but of course this is not in writing. Two full quarters have passed and I have received 5% bonus to date. I confronted my manager and he denied saying anything about the 25%, so I left it at that.

Three weeks after this my manager calls me into the office and tells me that the 8 sick days in the past 9 months I have taken are considered abuse of sick leave because most of them are on Fridays or Mondays. I happen to suffer from a serious back injury which I had surgery for but my manager doesn't know this and never asked just made the accusations.

I asked HR what the written policy was for sick days and she stated that there was none. She added, that here we considered ourselves professionals and that if you were out sick then you were out sick. She also stated that our managers were responsible for our attendance and warning us of abuse and ultimately responsible for handling the situation.

I consider myself a very active person but unfortunately this causes me to have serious pain at times and sometimes on Mondays I wake up with numb legs and it is very painful to walk so I take a sick day.

I really like it here where I am working and wouldn't want to leave or be fired because of this. Does anyone have any suggestions on how I should protect myself or should I just look for a new position.

 

[volsung]

Hi...well I'm no lawyer but I think the first step in protecting yourself would be to provide medical documentation of your condition to your employer...both to the manager AND the corporate level HR dept. I know its really none of their business, but if you are terminated due to a medical condition then you have some fighting power. Check out the dept.of labor laws ok.
Also, perhaps it can be arranged that you do work from home, or make up lost time on a weekend, in order to keep your productivity where they expect it to be.
Good Luck

 

[loku]

I have a somewhat more pessimistic message. A medical condition would only protect you if it amounted to a disability under the ADA, and yours does not, or if it was serious enough to qualify under the Family Medical Leave Act, and I doubt that yours does for the same reason. However, you can judge for yourself about this by checking out the material on the Family Medical Leave Act at https://law.freeadvice.com/resources/gov_material/dol_family_medial_leave-act.htm.

Therefore, I don’t think you have good grounds for fighting it if they fire you for absences. Your choices are to let that happen, get a different job, take care of yourself on weekends so you can work on Mondays, or take Volsung's suggestion and try and arranged that you do work from home, or make up lost time on a weekend, in order to keep your productivity where they expect it to be.

 

[techy_will]

Thanks for the advice so far guys! Here is a little more info though:

Productivity should not be an issue because I more than can handle my work. As a matter of fact, I started a new department in this company and I'm the only one qualified to what I do in their NY office. If I were to compare what I do in this company as far as what I did for a past company it would be the equivalent of me doing the work of at least 7 people in my old company. Granted the pay here is better and the group is younger so they are easier to get along with, but being productive would just be an excuse in the long run for my boss....I think the matter still stems from the fact that I busted my boss's balls because he lied about my bonus and now he is doing the same to justify why he can't do any better. I guess he took it as a personal ego thing and now I'm screwed.

I will make an effort to come in even if late on the days I shouldn't, but whether I take care of myself or not on the weekends, when my sciatic nerve acts up and says you are not walking today. There is nothing I can do.

By the way, I know I made it sound like the extra activities I do on the weekends make it worse. To be honest it just affects me on Mondays and on occasion but in the past right after my surgery I had decided that in an effort not to go through the pain or chance of becoming a paraplegic. I would never be active again as I was in the past. Well, needless to say that aside from the depression I got the pain was very consistant for about two years. Most of the jobs I had then I would have to voluntairly leave, because I would literally be out for about 40 to 50 days of the year. They were well informed when I started because my doctor and I new this would be a problem. Even so they put up with it because I always did my work well but I left because I knew others always felt like they got the short end of the stick.

Now, that I believe I have pretty much reached a normal level status phyisically among my peers, I have a boss that comes to work with broken jaw and expects others to do the same.

Anyhow, keep the adice coming!

 

[loku]

Your new facts make me more pessimistic about this then before. If productivity is an excuse and not a reason for this, then offering to work weekends, etc. would not help you. You could try however.

This whole thing is unfair but I am afraid it is not illegal.