disability and termination

What is the name of your state? Minnesota

My partner was terminated from her position as a school counselor. She had been in her postion for eight years with no problems. She went out on FMLA this fall due to a health issue. Toward the end of her leave she requested that disability paperwork be submitted in case she could not return to work. This was submitted by the employer to the insurance company. At the same time we met with her principal and all parties agreed that she could return to work five hours a day for the month of December and then full-time in January. The day before her return she was contacted by phone by the principal saying that HR said she needed to retun to work full-time immedately or produce a "doctor's note". My partner the e-mailed HR every day to ask what type of documentation they needed. There was no response be e-mail, phone or mail. There was never any instruction whatsoever about what she needed to do to manage a medical leave and be in compliance with district policy. We sent many e-mails trying to get information about issues pertaining to a leave. Her principal was informed and had no problem with the leave or the flexible return. The first response in writing to her leave was the letter terminating her.

At the same time of this termination, she was notified that she would be eligible for long term disability. My questions are-

Does the termination have an impact on the disability approval?

Can an employer fire someone immediately after applying for disability?

Can an employer fire someone for not complying with a process that was never made clear or explicit?

Thank you for your consideration.

Fondej

Does the termination have an impact on the disability approval? Probably not since she was "actively employed" at the time her disability started but without being able to review the LTD Plan language, it's impossible to say for certain.

Can an employer fire someone immediately after applying for disability? Yes, as long as the reason isn't BECAUSE the person filed an LTD claim.

Can an employer fire someone for not complying with a process that was never made clear or explicit? Yes.

Since attempting to contact HR repeatedly by e-mail obviously wasn't working for whatever reason, why didn't your friend pick up the phone and call them?

Thank you for your response. The reason she sent e-mails was to have written documentation. Throughout the leave of absence she made phone calls and they were never returned. Because of the lack of communication regarding this leave, she felt it was important to have a written and date stamped document of her requests. I really don't understand how they can fire her when she was trying to comply with the process but did not know what the process was. It also seems clear that it was a lack of communication on their part when this person was able to fully comply with a disability process (a much more complicated process) but was then not compliant with the leave process.

Fondej

Barring a contract or state law that specifically says otherwise, an employer is never required to hold a job open for longer than the 12 weeks required by FMLA. (No state requires that a job be held longer than four months/16 weeks; while Minnesota does have a couple of state laws relating to family and/or medical leave none of them apply here unless the "health reason" she was out for is pregnancy.)

Somehow or other a great many people have gotten it into their heads that as long as an employee is on "disability leave" they cannot be fired. This is not true. An employer is not required to hold a job open indefinitely.