Fired due to injury

[aw3375]

What is the name of your state? MI. I am currently employed in MI and I twisted my knee at work. It only hurt for a couple of minutes when it happened so I thought nothing of it. After a couple of days I began to notice a sharp pain in the side of my knee when I bent it or turned my foot. As the pain got worse, I left work early and went to my doctor who sent me to the hospital for x-rays. I provided a release back to work from the doctor and had to take an additional day off due to the pain. I also provided documentation from my doctor for this day. Since then I have continued to work with the pain and in the last couple of days I have slowed down and have not kept up with my ussual pace. Today I told them I was leaving early due to my knee and was advised that because I did not file an accident report and go to the med center that I was not covered under worker's comp and therfore may be terminated. The company has made special accomidations for other employees in the same shop for injuries that happened outside of work.
Can they terminate my employment for temperary lack of ability to perform job duties at a certain pace due to injury. Thank You.

 

[Beth3]

Well, in theory they can terminate you for violating company rules which in this case appears to be that employees are required to report all work place injuries immediately to the company. It's not clear when you actually DID inform your employer that you injured your knee at work but chances are that if they do terminate you for this reason they'd have a difficult time substantiating that your discharge was not retaliatory for filing a WC claim. If they fire you, you should speak to a worker's comp attorney asap.