I live in New Hampshire, husbands workplace was in Massachusetts.
This is going to be long but I want to provide the most information as possible.
My husband hurt his knee outside of work in May 2017. He went to the doctors and found out he needed to have a donor ACL. His job (hvac engineer at a commercial building) asked for a doctors note because his doctor said he could put the surgery off a few months while we plan and save for it and his doctor cleared him to work FULL DUTY. After bringing that note to work he worked for about two weeks with that note then he got a call from his boss on his day off saying that Human Resources really just wanted him to have it done and he couldnt come back to work until he had surgery and recovered. He told them (and they knew this prior) that it was a six month recovery and he wasnt prepared to be out that long and they said dont worry about it just schedule your surgery and get well. He couldnt get in for surgery for 3 weeks after that he was told he couldnt come back so he called work and told them it was scheduled for July 5th and asked if he could come and work since he had a note saying he could work without restrictions until the date of his surgery. He was told NO. He was also told he could file short term disability right away.
Turns out they were wrong about that and STD told him he could file on July 5th and thats when he would be considered disabled. He only had 2 weeks of vacation and sick time but his work continued to pay him until his STD kicked in.
The only thing that was ever said about his time off was just keep checking in and keeping us in the loop as to when you can come back. They never mentioned FMLA nor did we receive any paperwork on FMLA. We only spoke to his union who gave us instructions on how to file for short term disability.
At his check up on 9/12/2017 he was cleared to work on restricted duty, his work said no, had to be full duty no restrictions. They never even inquired what kind of restrictions he would need.
Finally on 11/27/2017 he is cleared to return to full duty work. He sent the letter to his boss. No word. He calls his boss, no answer. He calls another boss and he tells him he will have someone call him. No call ever came. Finally he gets a text saying that we should have a certified mail from them at the post office.
And that we did. It was a big envelope with a smaller one inside, the smaller one was a letter dated 11/1/2017 saying he had exhausted all of his time off and they would need to terminate his employment effective that day. The other letter said there was a mix up with USPS and thats why we never got the letter and they just discovered it in their mail room.
He talked to a regional manager later that day who told him that he used up all of his FMLA and then some but if he was off under FMLA then why was it never mentioned? That would have given him just 12 weeks and we already knew recovery was much longer than that.
Also in my opinion it was wrong that he was forced out and never given a timeline. He was having a surgery that would take some time to be able to bend his knee in order for him to climb a ladder again. He was told because the injury didnt happen at work they didnt have to accommodate restrictions. Basically it feels like they knew this would be the end result but forced him into surgery anyway.
He is going to file a grievance with the union on Monday morning. We dont really want a lawsuit, he just wants his job back.
This is going to be long but I want to provide the most information as possible.
My husband hurt his knee outside of work in May 2017. He went to the doctors and found out he needed to have a donor ACL. His job (hvac engineer at a commercial building) asked for a doctors note because his doctor said he could put the surgery off a few months while we plan and save for it and his doctor cleared him to work FULL DUTY. After bringing that note to work he worked for about two weeks with that note then he got a call from his boss on his day off saying that Human Resources really just wanted him to have it done and he couldnt come back to work until he had surgery and recovered. He told them (and they knew this prior) that it was a six month recovery and he wasnt prepared to be out that long and they said dont worry about it just schedule your surgery and get well. He couldnt get in for surgery for 3 weeks after that he was told he couldnt come back so he called work and told them it was scheduled for July 5th and asked if he could come and work since he had a note saying he could work without restrictions until the date of his surgery. He was told NO. He was also told he could file short term disability right away.
Turns out they were wrong about that and STD told him he could file on July 5th and thats when he would be considered disabled. He only had 2 weeks of vacation and sick time but his work continued to pay him until his STD kicked in.
The only thing that was ever said about his time off was just keep checking in and keeping us in the loop as to when you can come back. They never mentioned FMLA nor did we receive any paperwork on FMLA. We only spoke to his union who gave us instructions on how to file for short term disability.
At his check up on 9/12/2017 he was cleared to work on restricted duty, his work said no, had to be full duty no restrictions. They never even inquired what kind of restrictions he would need.
Finally on 11/27/2017 he is cleared to return to full duty work. He sent the letter to his boss. No word. He calls his boss, no answer. He calls another boss and he tells him he will have someone call him. No call ever came. Finally he gets a text saying that we should have a certified mail from them at the post office.
And that we did. It was a big envelope with a smaller one inside, the smaller one was a letter dated 11/1/2017 saying he had exhausted all of his time off and they would need to terminate his employment effective that day. The other letter said there was a mix up with USPS and thats why we never got the letter and they just discovered it in their mail room.
He talked to a regional manager later that day who told him that he used up all of his FMLA and then some but if he was off under FMLA then why was it never mentioned? That would have given him just 12 weeks and we already knew recovery was much longer than that.
Also in my opinion it was wrong that he was forced out and never given a timeline. He was having a surgery that would take some time to be able to bend his knee in order for him to climb a ladder again. He was told because the injury didnt happen at work they didnt have to accommodate restrictions. Basically it feels like they knew this would be the end result but forced him into surgery anyway.
He is going to file a grievance with the union on Monday morning. We dont really want a lawsuit, he just wants his job back.