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Wrongful termination?

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kennen07

Junior Member
What is the name of your state? CA

Does employer have the right to terminate employee with a valid medical note from doctor?
Employee have history of medical emergency while employed.
Employee have medical statement from doctor that employee is not able to function when ill.
Employee notified employer via email that he/she will not be returning to work at such date.
Employer proceeded to terminate employee.

Thoughts????

Kennen07What is the name of your state?
 


cbg

I'm a Northern Girl
Ah, the myth that a doctor can order the employer's business persists.

Outside of FMLA (and MAYBE an occasional ADA issue) a doctor's not has no force in law.

There is NO truth to the persistant belief that you cannot be fired while under a doctor's care.

The answer to your question depends on whether or not the employer, the employee, and the medical condition all qualify for FMLA, and, if so, how long the employee has been out of work. Thus:

If FMLA does not apply, yes, the employer may fire an employee EVEN WITH a valid note from the doctor
If FMLA applies but the employee has already used a full 12 weeks of leave, then yes, the employer may fire the employee EVEN WITH a valid note from the doctor
If FMLA does apply and the employee has not yet used a full 12 weeks, then no, the employer may not fire the employee UNTIL the FMLA is used up.
 

kennen07

Junior Member
Hello cbg,

Due to serious illness, employee has been out from work few times in the past month. But has not been out for 12 consecutive days. Employee was out from work again due to illness for 3 days.
 

AL HR

Member
They don't have to be out a consecutive 12 days. The first thing to do is to determine if the employee (ee) is covered by FMLA to see if they have job protection due to illness of their own or of a family member as defined by the regulation.

To determine, the following questions must be answered:
1. How many people were employed by this company within a 75 mile radius of the ee's worksite?
2. How long had the ee worked for this company?
3. How many hours were worked in the previous year? Over 1250? (40 hours per week for 52 weeks equals 2080 if that helps)
4. How much time was taken off for illness in the past 12 months?
Once these questions are answered, we can better determine if FMLA applies.
 

AL HR

Member
I almost forgot, what was the medical reason and were all the absences related to that one reason...
 

kennen07

Junior Member
State: CA

Hello AL HR,

Medical reason: chronic intestinal illness, doctors are conducting test. No results as of yet. Absences related to same reason.

FYI: i have yet to research FMLA rules. :)
 

kennen07

Junior Member
Wrongful Termination?

State: CA

Hello:

To answer AL HR's questions,

1) 20 total employees
2) Employee was employed for 2.5 months (FTE)
3) Employee has been hospitalized 4 days; out ill 6 days.

Terminated while ill. Per employer, terminated because "it just didn't work out". :confused:
 

Betty

Senior Member
FMLA doesn't apply - doesn't meet the requirements. Therefore, the employer could fire the employee even with a valid note from dr.
 

AL HR

Member
The only exception to the at-will rule would be if you worked under a collective bargaining agreement or had a valid written employment contract.

Without either of those, the termination was legal. Fair? Maybe not, but not illegal.
 

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