Retaliated against for the second time over the same FMLA situation

[Tygerwoody]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? NC

Around 20 months ago I spoke on my job demotion https://forum.freeadvice.com/hiring-firing-wrongful-termination-5/job-demotion-after-returning-fmla-576994.html

Long story short. I was an award winning employee. I worked as a manager with a very large corporation(60,000+ employees). My boss informed me I was up for an Assistant Vice President promotion. Things were great.

On January 26 2012, I was injured and had to have major surgery that required I be out for 2 months. Upon my return, my boss brought me to his office and demoted me immediately. He said the reason for demotion was because I was "out for an entire 2 months and he had to get someone to replace me". After seeking legal advice from both here and other sources, it was recommended that I work with HR first before getting a lawyer. This ended up being a 3 month battle between myself , hr, and my boss. Eventually they brought in their own lawyers. I demonstrated my legal knowledge of 4 separate laws that were violated in my situation as well as coworkers(who were too scared to go to HR). An investigation was launched. After 3 months, it was decided that they would give me back my job but I still had to keep my same manager. They asked if I was satisfied with the result, i told them I was. I thought things would get better.

While i was given my old job back, half my responsibilities were never returned to me. I constantly asked for my old responsibilities back as well as new ones in addition, and it never happened. My boss would always come up with a random reason why he couldn't. My job use to require me to work 60+ hours a week, now I feel like I can get everything done within 20. They stripped so many rights from me, that asking for new responsibilities was the only route I thought I had that I could take. This past year I've had to basically "create" work and launch a number of improvement projects all on my own, as well as taking a number of training classes. All were approved by my boss, so I thought things were good. While he wasn't giving me work, I was able to keep myself busy and I thought that would pay off for me.


Fast forward to today. Today was my year end review. I was expecting a promotion + a very good rating because I accomplished so much. I received a AA rating, which I was happy with. There was an announcement that there was a number of promotions within my team. There are 7 people total in my immediate "team", 6 people got promoted to Assistant Vice President. Guess who was the only person not to be promoted. That's right. Me. I'm literally the only person on my team a lower pay band and no AVP promotion. The only one. When I asked my boss a reason, he gave me conflicting responses. He never said it was due to my work. He said he didn't think I was "ready for a promotion", but he is "confident" that next year I will be "ready".

I asked him for hard numbers on when I can expect to receive a notification on a promotion. He gave me a story about how the "earliest" he can let me know if its even possible is in April and it wouldn't even occur to at the earliest December of 2014. My return from FMLA was March 2012 and as you know FMLA only protects you for 2 years. He is telling me that I should "hear" about the "possibility" of a promotion by April 2014, one month after my FMLA "protection" expires.

I expressed my concern on this, my boss basically dared me to speak to HR again.

I don't really know what to do. Was hoping for some advice. Should I speak to a lawyer? Do I have a case? I've never went to court in my life other than a speeding ticket(12 years ago). I'm not that kind of guy, but I don't want to be mistreated due to injuring my shoulder. Now I feel like I've been humiliated by my peers as I'm now the only one who wasn't promoted and EVERYONE on my team knows what I went through two years ago....

Very bad day...

 

[swalsh411]

Your boss doesn't like you. That's not illegal.

 

[Tygerwoody]

Your boss doesn't like you. That's not illegal.

Yes. I can understand not being "liked". My boss went through a 3 month HR investigation after he demoted me. I can imagine he doesn't like me and honestly I'm ok with that. But somehow I was "liked" prior to my injury. I was told I was up for a promotion two years ago, prior to my injury. After my injury , I'm immediately demoted. Now my entire team just got a promotion except for me. Its not like I'm an employee who just joined the company and became a "problem" immediately. I've been with this company for 4 years now. I have stellars review and high ratings. Everything went down hill after I went on FMLA leave for 2 months.

Denying/delaying my promotion due to FMLA leave doesn't sound like retaliation to you?

 

[Tygerwoody]

Also let me clarify. The "promotion" every received was via compensation and AVP title. The job function of all 6 that were promoted stayed the exact same. Its not like they all applied for a job and got it. They were simply given more money and title recognition. Every single person except for me.

 

[swalsh411]

You don't get an eternal cloak of protection against anything bad that could possibly happen to you when you return from FMLA. You would have to show the negative treatment is because you exercised your rights under the FMLA.

As far as co-workers being promoted when you weren't, you would have to show that was because you are a member of a protected class. "Not being liked by the boss" is not a protected class.

 

[Tygerwoody]

You don't get an eternal cloak of protection against anything bad that could possibly happen to you when you return from FMLA. You would have to show the negative treatment is because you exercised your rights under the FMLA.

As far as co-workers being promoted when you weren't, you would have to show that was because you are a member of a protected class. "Not being liked by the boss" is not a protected class.

I'm not trying to argue that you're wrong here. I'm trying to understand your logic. Back when i was initially demoted, I spoke with both HR and the company's hired lawyer. The end result was that I was given back my old job. Do you really think they would do that to undo my boss "not liking" me? I proved what he did was in violation of FMLA without being a part of a "protected class" as you put it. Part of FMLA is that a promotion can not be denied or delayed due to FMLA leave. Would that not be what is going on now? Maybe I'm not explaining myself clear enough?

To be clear I feel I've been retaliated against moreso for going to HR, more than the FMLA case. But it was because of the FMLA case I went to HR. FMLA is linked to it , but the 3 month HR case is what I really feel my boss is retaliating against me for.

 

[Proserpina]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? NC

Around 20 months ago I spoke on my job demotion https://forum.freeadvice.com/hiring-firing-wrongful-termination-5/job-demotion-after-returning-fmla-576994.html

Long story short. I was an award winning employee. I worked as a manager with a very large corporation(60,000+ employees). My boss informed me I was up for an Assistant Vice President promotion. Things were great.

On January 26 2012, I was injured and had to have major surgery that required I be out for 2 months. Upon my return, my boss brought me to his office and demoted me immediately. He said the reason for demotion was because I was "out for an entire 2 months and he had to get someone to replace me". After seeking legal advice from both here and other sources, it was recommended that I work with HR first before getting a lawyer. This ended up being a 3 month battle between myself , hr, and my boss. Eventually they brought in their own lawyers. I demonstrated my legal knowledge of 4 separate laws that were violated in my situation as well as coworkers(who were too scared to go to HR). An investigation was launched. After 3 months, it was decided that they would give me back my job but I still had to keep my same manager. They asked if I was satisfied with the result, i told them I was. I thought things would get better.

While i was given my old job back, half my responsibilities were never returned to me. I constantly asked for my old responsibilities back as well as new ones in addition, and it never happened. My boss would always come up with a random reason why he couldn't. My job use to require me to work 60+ hours a week, now I feel like I can get everything done within 20. They stripped so many rights from me, that asking for new responsibilities was the only route I thought I had that I could take. This past year I've had to basically "create" work and launch a number of improvement projects all on my own, as well as taking a number of training classes. All were approved by my boss, so I thought things were good. While he wasn't giving me work, I was able to keep myself busy and I thought that would pay off for me.


Fast forward to today. Today was my year end review. I was expecting a promotion + a very good rating because I accomplished so much. I received a AA rating, which I was happy with. There was an announcement that there was a number of promotions within my team. There are 7 people total in my immediate "team", 6 people got promoted to Assistant Vice President. Guess who was the only person not to be promoted. That's right. Me. I'm literally the only person on my team a lower pay band and no AVP promotion. The only one. When I asked my boss a reason, he gave me conflicting responses. He never said it was due to my work. He said he didn't think I was "ready for a promotion", but he is "confident" that next year I will be "ready".

I asked him for hard numbers on when I can expect to receive a notification on a promotion. He gave me a story about how the "earliest" he can let me know if its even possible is in April and it wouldn't even occur to at the earliest December of 2014. My return from FMLA was March 2012 and as you know FMLA only protects you for 2 years. He is telling me that I should "hear" about the "possibility" of a promotion by April 2014, one month after my FMLA "protection" expires.

I expressed my concern on this, my boss basically dared me to speak to HR again.

I don't really know what to do. Was hoping for some advice. Should I speak to a lawyer? Do I have a case? I've never went to court in my life other than a speeding ticket(12 years ago). I'm not that kind of guy, but I don't want to be mistreated due to injuring my shoulder. Now I feel like I've been humiliated by my peers as I'm now the only one who wasn't promoted and EVERYONE on my team knows what I went through two years ago....

Very bad day...

Are you referring to the SOL in which an employee/ex-employee can sue?

 

[OHRoadwarrior]

Disability law does not require your boss promote you and give you a pay raise just because others get it. As you admit your responsibilities and contributions are less than that of the others.

 

[Tygerwoody]

Are you referring to the SOL in which an employee/ex-employee can sue?

I'm not really looking to sue anyone, I just want my job to continue on as if I never went on FMLA leave and never was forced to go to HR and go through a 3 month ordeal to get my job back. At first i was demoted and was able to prove to HR/legal my demotion was unwarranted. Now I just want to prove this pay increase promotion "overlook" was directly because of my FMLA/HR/Legal situation that happened last year.

I also don't want to go over the SOL because I don't want to be fired conveniently right after March 2014, 2 years after the return from FMLA.

Make sense?

 

[Tygerwoody]

Disability law does not require your boss promote you and give you a pay raise just because others get it. As you admit your responsibilities and contributions are less than that of the others.

I am not asking to be promoted due to "disability". I'm not disabled at all. I have recovered completely. I contributed a LOT during this year. I received a very high review rating due to my contribution. Last year, my responsibilities and contributions were less early on as my job function was taken away from me. Since then, i "created" my own opportunities to contribute more. I do very good work and do a lot of work. Its unfortunate that my old job responsibilities were taken away. I was never fully reinstated into my old job.



I'm not looking for a hand out or anything because of my injury. I want my injury situation to completely disappear and be treated like a person who never went on FMLA leave. That's all I've wanted since day one.

 

[OHRoadwarrior]

Again there is no law requiring they promote you.

 

[Tygerwoody]

Again there is no law requiring they promote you.

And again, I'm not asking for there to be a law to be promote me. I'm asking that I not be denied/delayed promotions completely due to my FMLA case. I just want to be treated like a normal employee. Had I not had an FMLA case, I would have received a promotion as early as last year. Not dealing with this at all.

 

[Indiana Filer]

Is there a written guarantee in your job contract guaranteeing that you will be promoted when others are? Why do you think the company is required to give you a promotion?

 

[Proserpina]

And again, I'm not asking for there to be a law to be promote me. I'm asking that I not be denied/delayed promotions completely due to my FMLA case. I just want to be treated like a normal employee. Had I not had an FMLA case, I would have received a promotion as early as last year. Not dealing with this at all.

Unless you can prove it, you're tilting at windmills - particularly so long after the initial event.

 

[swalsh411]

Had I not had an FMLA case, I would have received a promotion as early as last year.

And you can prove that how?