Fired for being sick!!!

If the company is large enough, they may have obligation to give FMLA unpaid time.

A disability case is more likely for an accommodation, and (only IMO) less likely for complete absence.

In the US, the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) laws can help you. The company does need to be big enough for FMLA (mine isn't). No idea on the success rate or cost of pursuing legal action on these cases. A lot of companies have clauses that they can fire an employee for any reason. You'd have to prove it was due to uc, and that it was discrimination based on a medical conditon.

It really depends on the size of the company and their ethics. Smaller companies in the US are not required to follow as many labor laws as the larger companies.

I know that we are splitting hairs here but he was fired for "Poor performance" not for having UC but we all know that is it UC which was the cause and his former employer's lack of compassion.

Stuff like this makes me really mad, depending on your ethics you can get some revenge on your husband's former employer. You could write negative reviews on their Google + page(s), tweet about their company, FB, Yelp, set up some Blogspot pages about their company with their company name in the blog name, Google the company's name and post all around the Internet about them. If you want to write really nasty stuff (making stuff up) then I'd keep it as anonymous as possible with your name/IP address(use an IP Proxy) etc. for legal reasons. If you are going to be true and accurate then don't worry about it, either way it will cost them thousands of dollars in lost business and rep-management fees to fix the problem that you caused them.

If your husband had insurance through the company then I'd suggest that he stock on his medications as much as possible if he is losing his insurance.

The other thing is that your husband should consider getting his UC under control whether it be with stronger medications or possible surgery. I had surgery in the Fall and I feel better than I have in years, I can do almost anything that I want now and I don't have to worry about UC anymore.

msoutherland said...
He says he would rather die than have a bag but his quality of life might be better!!!

If he needs a bag it would only be temporary, sometimes 3 months and other times 6 months depending on the number of surgeries that he needs due to the medications and how sick he is at the time of the surgery. If he is really stubborn about it there are some surgeons that perform j-pouches on UC patients with only 1-step so no bag is required but it's not the best way to do it for UC patients.

From my experience I woke up from surgery with a bag and I felt actually healthy again for the first time since my UC started. As my GI put it so accurately, you wake up and you feel like the monster has been removed from your body.

Living with a temporary bag isn't that bad, I was eating oatmeal, salads, vegetables and fruit for the first time in almost decade. My joint pain started going away. Most UC patients who have j-pouch surgery say that their only regret was that they waited so long to have surgery, I am one of those patients.

My mother saw me after I had my colon removed and she said it's nice to see you smiling again, I haven't seen you smile like that in years. Its nice to finally feel healthy again.

If he doesn't want surgery then he should consider stronger medications to get his UC under control so he stays out of the hospital.

It doesn't matter what size the company is, except for FMLA. This is flat out discrimination, no matter what the company size is. Same thing with Sarah. You CAN sue. The proper procedure is to file a complaint with your local Equal Opportunity Rights Commission or Human Rights or Relations Commission, they are called something a little bit different in different areas of the country. They will actually stand up for your rights for free and it is a major deal for the employer to go through. They will pretty much force the company to take the aggrieved employee back or make a settlement. If the company refuses and believes they have a case they can let the case go to court with real attorneys, which they rarely do. UC is a disability (even though you usually can't collect disability) and therefore wrongful termination due to a disability is discrimination. I'm surprised the OP's employer and Sarah's were so flagrant in the terminations. Both sound like easy wins to me. The EEOC will do all the work for you for free. I'm not sure how it works if you actually wind up going to court but that rarely happens.

Some states are "right to work" states which really means "right to fire for any reason". They don't have to give any reason and you may have a hard time proving it was because of UC.
Yes it sucks but at least he can now get health insurance on his own even with a pre-existing condition. And in some states he may be able to qualify for virtually free health insurance if income is low enough (depends heavily on which state).

Prior to the ACA he would both be out of work and have no access to insurance ever unless a spouse could put them on (not happening much nowadays).

This is a stressful time for him and you. Try to lower the mental stress and concentrate on his getting better. Talk to a social worker and see what your options are for insurance, unemployment comp. That's what the safety net is there for.

Tell him to come here for support.

edit: oh I just read that you are a social worker. Ask around for someone who has that info.

Well, they cited low performance. I don't think they are stupid enough to state "Laid off because of medical issues".

So if they have to argue the case, they will just say they weren't satisfied with his work and nothing related to his illness, enough though, underneath it all, it's all because of that.

beatUC said...
I'd talk to an attorney right away. IT's illegal to fire someone because of health issues.

Maybe it should be, but this is a myth if it is a private employer. Judy and others said it above. Even under ADA, the accommodation has to be reasonable, and having someone do the work because you aren't there for long periods is not reasonable.

www.employmentlawfirms.com/resources/employment/wrongful-termination/can-employer-fire-someone-being-sick

KS: I actually have real life experience in these matters. Going off of the OP's statements, this case seems to be a slam dunk against the employer.

"he was fired from his job of 3 years for low performance due to his Ulcerative Colitis". OK this one could only be the opinion of msoutherland but if he really was fired "due to UC" then that is discrimination.

"when he went back to work yesterday with a note from the hospital for the last two weeks he was fired". This is really what makes the case a slam dunk. It really doesn't matter what his work performance was like before being hospitalized. Any legal place would rule that he was not fired due to lack of performance because if that were true he would have been fired before being hospitalized. Any legal system would rule that the was fired due to the hospitalization (for which he had a note) and that is flagrantly against the law, especially when there is proof that you are "disabled". He should also be able to get unemployment on top of a discrimination settlement, or forced return to work.

The exact same is true for Sarah's story. They knew about her disability but after being hospitalized she wasn't allowed to return to work. Flagrantly against the law and also discrimination.

Both need to go to their local Equal Opportunity Rights Commission and tell them their stories. It costs zero and they will do all the work for you. If you don't have a case they will tell you but I honestly can't see that happening. This has no cost to you except your time and it will be a very very big deal to the employer. They will be behind the eight ball very fast, probably offering them their jobs back or a settlement. They don't want it to go to court where a sympathetic jury might award them hundreds of thousands of dollars.

I'm very sorry to hear about this. You'll want to register for unemployment right away. I would also document all of the details regarding the firing so you can refer to them later if/when you seek legal counsel. Did they give him anything in writing explaining why he was fired? It is helpful that he worked there for three years...I don't think he should have trouble getting unemployment. The employer can fight it but in this case they would surely lose. They could delay unemployment, though, so I'd start the process now.