Everyone is saying I should sue my former employer...do I have a case?

[GaiaGoddess]

I live in Minnesota but my job was in North Dakota. I just got fired yesterday for refusing to transfer to a facility in Texas owned by the company which was contracted under the government, so that might change the rules a bit.

When we started the job, we signed a paper saying the employer could change our schedules at any time, including changing our hours or our location. They own multiple locations and it is common for people to get switched around, however, all of those locations are in North Dakota, but this one I was supposed to go to was in Texas. They forced us to fill out the application, said it was mandatory. Those who refused to fill out the application never got fired, but I filled it out thinking I was going to get fired if I didn't.

So when I passed the background check and was told I had to go, I asked what happens if I refuse, can I get fired? They said they didn't know, it wouldn't be up to them (it was up to the vice president or something, since he was in charge of the government contract stuff).

The reason I refused isn't because I didn't want to go there, it was because I have a medical condition called Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome. In a nutshell, it prevents us from being able to sleep during the nighttime hours, so we can only sleep during the day. I went to the sleep specialist and got a note and gave it to my employer saying I had this and therefore needed to work the night shift at all times. This job in Texas would have required me to take a class lasting for a week which was during the daytime. The last time I worked during the day for a few days I ended up in the hospital with severe sleep deprivation and was put back on nights because of the note saying I had this disorder. Suddenly now my manager said "The note didn't say you had it, it said you had insomnia". If it was good enough to switch me back to nights, why wasn't it a good enough reason not to take this job in Texas? Another reason I couldn't go was because they were only giving me 4 days notice to get there, which would require me to drive my car since I had my car there. We live at our jobs for 6 weeks therefore we have all our stuff with us so there was no way I could fly with everything, I had a microwave and mini fridge too. So anyway, the reason why I couldn't have driven there in 4 days is because with this disorder, since I don't get sleep at night, if i'm staying in a hotel to sleep, I only get like an hour or two, therefore I am a safety hazard on the road driving that tired. So I usually stop after about 4 or 5 hours and get another hotel. I usually get hotels for 2 nights, the first night to sleep when my body will sleep, and the 2nd day I have to check out by noon so i'm always tired and can't drive very far.

So I didn't take the job because it would have caused way too much sleep deprivation due to the disorder (which IS considered a disability by the government). But my manager didn't think it was a good enough reason or maybe it didn't matter to the vice president because he told my manager to terminate me if I refused to go. It was also snowing out and I wasn't about to risk my life driving in a snowstorm, at night.

After everyone found out I got fired, they were all angry at the place for doing that to me, I've been one of their best employees for almost 3 years, and they couldn't have a heart and keep me there. I feel the disorder provides a good enough reason not to do it, but my manager was being a jerk about it saying the letter didn't prove anything, even though it DID. It clearly worded the disorder by name and that they needed to accommodate that. Shouldn't that override any paper I signed? If it matters, I signed the paper a year and a half before I was diagnosed, so I didn't know at the time that I had it. I had an idea but couldn't know for sure until I saw the sleep specialist.

So should I persue this with a lawyer or do I not have any rights here at all?

 

[Chyvan]

Did you apply for unemployment?

 

[GaiaGoddess]

Yes, but I dont know if they will approve it, I guess i'll find out in a few days when I get something in the mail (or not).

 

[Proserpina]

There is only one condition which carries automatic ADA protection - and it's not yours.

Every thing else is on a case-by-case basis.

 

[GaiaGoddess]

Yeah...it would be worth a try though, right? Do you have to pay a lawyer if you lose?

 

[GaiaGoddess]

I just went on the job accomodation network site (I can't post the link, it wont let me) and it said your condition is considered a disability if it interferes with at least one of the major life activities. And this affects a lot of them, including sleep which is how you spend 1/3 of your life, so I think I could get it classified as a disability. However, I am not sure if it's too late for that, since I got fired BEFORE this could even happen. If I get it classified as disabled now, what happened before might not be affected by it.

 

[OHRoadwarrior]

The job in Texas was not a daytime requirement, 1 week training was. You could have the same situation occur at any other facility. Your doctor could have prescribed sleeping pills for 7 days if necessary, it was not a significant barrier. There are other employers that require employees move or be terminated contractually. That is not illegal if you sign a contract agreeing to it. In my company, such a relocation could involve moving from the east coast to the west. If they contest UI I do not see you getting anything.

 

[commentator]

First of all, you need to completely change your perception of the work world in the USA today. The employer is not in business to be good or fair or even reasonable to you. They don't "have a heart" they have a need to be productive. They can do just about anything to anybody that is not specifically prohibited by law. Transferring you to Texas and asking you to attend a week of daytime training though you believe your particular shift to be protected by your ADA accomodations are not illegal.

Of course, any time you are terminated, your former co workers are going to be very sympathetic and gather around and tell you that you should sue someone. However, they don't understand the way "at will" employment works, even for government contractors. Almost everyone believes they have a lot more protections and rights in employment law than they actually do until something like this happens to them. I do not think you have any reason to sue your employer. However, I think your chances of being approved for unemployment insurance are fairly good.

Even though you signed a contract agreeing that you understood you were subject to transfer at any time, that does not mean that your employer has not made a significant change in your work situation. Many people would have great reservations about transferring state to state in this manner. It may have been done in an effort to get rid of you. That's legal. If they want to, the employer can fire you for any reason. Signing an agreement to transfer, not signing an agreement to transfer, offering you a transfer they strongly suspected you'd refuse... it's all legal for them to do. And even though you may have been the greatest employee they ever had in your perception, this may not have been the employer's perception. It's not required that they agree with your assessment of your work.

But then of course when you are terminated, you immediately file for unemployment benefits. There is no downside to filing the claim. Just because you were not wrongfully terminated according to labor law does not mean you may not qualify for unemployment insurance. You must be determined to be out of work through no fault of your own. The burden of proof that they had a valid misconduct reason to terminate you is on the employer. Be sure you emphasize you did NOT quit the job, you were terminated for refusing this transfer.

If you are paid unemployment benefits after your termination, the employer will have to pay higher unemployment tax rates. So they have you sign something saying you understand that you may be transferred. Then they just offer you a transfer they are pretty sure you will not accept, and they fire you for not accepting it, and they think they've accomplished something. That's the reason they had you sign that agreement that you'd accept transfers anywhere. But even though you did sign this, as I said, most people would find it a great hardship to up and move from North Dakota to Texas. This may have been a pretty unreasonable thing for them to ask of you.

Did they transfer, say, a whole group of people to Texas all of a sudden, or were you selected for this new assignment specifically? That is something you'll want to bring up to the unemployment system. If lots of people were suddenly needed in Texas, and you were just one among many people who were given this 'transfer or be fired" ultimatum, that might have some significance. If you were all by yourself in receiving this decree, this may look a lot like a try for them to to get rid of you and dodge having to pay unemployment benefits.

So your chances for receiving unemployment in this situation are not really bad. I would keep it simple, though, and emphasize that you were doing the job to the best of your abilities, that you did not want to lose your job, that you had agreed to consider a transfer to any facility and had cooperated with your employer as much as you could.

Forego the sympathy angle. Unemployment insurance is not "needs based" and it is not very subjective. They don't require that employers "have a heart" they just want to see a good valid misconduct reason to terminate. And they understand fully that employers don't want to pay unemployment insurance and try to avoid it whenever they can. So they'll look at both sides of this situation thoroughly. Violation of your shift requirement, even though it was a shift requirement requested to accommodate your handicap will very likely NOT be an issue in your unemployment situation.

I do not see any ADA protection for you, as you were actually not offered a shift they knew you could not work due to your health issues, and the whole transfer was not or does not seem to be aimed at violating your ADA accommodations. You were only going to be asked to attend a temporary training at the new facility on the shift you did not want to work. As someone has pointed out, you could have made those types of accommodations, if for example, you'd been required to attend that week of daytime training at your old job.

 

[cbg]

Since the training class during the day was temporary, the ADA does not apply. They do not have to create a nighttime training class just for you - that's NOT considered reasonable.

You have nothing to sue for.

 

[GaiaGoddess]

The job in Texas was not a daytime requirement, 1 week training was.

One week of training and it would have taken me a week to drive there so that's 2 weeks total of hardly any sleep. You can get a ticket if you are driving while too tired, or worse, kill someone if you fall asleep driving. I couldn't take that risk. It's bad enough just driving one state away, across the country would have been much worse.

You could have the same situation occur at any other facility.

I have had to work mornings a few times at past jobs, but it was only one day here and there, not many in a row. I can handle one day but the more consecutive days the worse it is.

Your doctor could have prescribed sleeping pills for 7 days if necessary, it was not a significant barrier.

Sleeping pills don't work with this disorder. When I went to the hospital they gave me 2 different pills, one was Ambien and one was something harder that I don't remember the name of, but neither one did anything. That is why this disorder is such a pain in the ass, any "cures" they try to give us don't work.

There are other employers that require employees move or be terminated contractually. That is not illegal if you sign a contract agreeing to it. In my company, such a relocation could involve moving from the east coast to the west. If they contest UI I do not see you getting anything.

I have had 6 jobs in my life and this was the only time I've ever had to sign something like that, and actually had an employer change my hours. But, it is what it is I guess. I just don't know why EVERYONE at work is telling me I could sue them if there wasn't some truth to it being possible. I haven't talked to a lawyer yet, I plan on emailing one though.

 

[cbg]

Because "everyone" at work doesn't have a clue how the law operates. Spend enough time on this board and you'll see that a great many people believe that you can sue for a great many things that you can't.

The only law you could possibly sue under would be the ADA, and I can promise you, the ADA would NOT require the employer to create a nighttime training session just for you or relocate it just for you. Since it would be a temporary situation, and the ADA expressly does not cover temporary situations, it would not apply. Two weeks is not anywhere NEAR long enough to invoke the ADA.

But you go right ahead and email all the attorneys you want.

 

[GaiaGoddess]

First of all, you need to completely change your perception of the work world in the USA today. The employer is not in business to be good or fair or even reasonable to you. They don't "have a heart" they have a need to be productive. They can do just about anything to anybody that is not specifically prohibited by law.

I guess that's just the way it is, and it sucks. You uproot your life (in this case, since we lived at our jobs), we worked 84 hours a week, with no days off for 6 weeks, giving up a social life while you're there...and this is what they do to me! It makes me want to go into business for myself, at least I wouldn't get treated like crap.

Almost everyone believes they have a lot more protections and rights in employment law than they actually do until something like this happens to them. I do not think you have any reason to sue your employer.

Didn't that lady win who sued McD's because she spilled hot coffee on herself? If she can win, anything less should be a piece of cake. I saw a few cases yesterday on that site of people who had very common issues who got compensated, for example one lady had anxiety and was shy and couldn't talk very loud because of it. One guy had ADHD, another had restless leg syndrome. And they were able to keep their jobs and/or get compensated money for this.

Did they transfer, say, a whole group of people to Texas all of a sudden, or were you selected for this new assignment specifically? That is something you'll want to bring up to the unemployment system. If lots of people were suddenly needed in Texas, and you were just one among many people who were given this 'transfer or be fired" ultimatum, that might have some significance. If you were all by yourself in receiving this decree, this may look a lot like a try for them to to get rid of you and dodge having to pay unemployment benefits.

There were others, so I wasn't the only one. However, they hand picked who they wanted to go. They didn't do it to "get rid of" anyone though, because even people they were good friends with got picked, and good employees who had been there longer than me. Even the head chef of the entire kitchen got picked. He didn't want to go, so he quit. Another manager quit too who got picked to go there. I was going to quit too but I needed to buy a house first, which I was going to do 2 weeks from now. So that was horrible timing, just another few weeks and I would have owned a house and now i'm screwed.

Forego the sympathy angle. Unemployment insurance is not "needs based" and it is not very subjective. They don't require that employers "have a heart" they just want to see a good valid misconduct reason to terminate. And they understand fully that employers don't want to pay unemployment insurance and try to avoid it whenever they can. So they'll look at both sides of this situation thoroughly. Violation of your shift requirement, even though it was a shift requirement requested to accommodate your handicap will very likely NOT be an issue in your unemployment situation.

I wasn't going to apply for unemployment but everyone told me I will get it, especially one coworker who got it even though he quit! He just got fed up with the place and walked out and still got unemployment, AND even got hired back a year later! He told me this company fires so many people and the state always sides with the employee, so everyone always gets it. He knew other people that got it too and they got fired for actually doing stuff wrong like coming in to work drunk or sleeping on the job.

I do not see any ADA protection for you, as you were actually not offered a shift they knew you could not work due to your health issues, and the whole transfer was not or does not seem to be aimed at violating your ADA accommodations. You were only going to be asked to attend a temporary training at the new facility on the shift you did not want to work. As someone has pointed out, you could have made those types of accommodations, if for example, you'd been required to attend that week of daytime training at your old job.

There was no guarantee I would still be on the night shift though, in fact one of my old coworkers who was on nights with me got sent down there and he's on the day shift now, so there's a good chance I would have been too. But even if I knew I would be on nights, the trouble of driving on little sleep and then getting little sleep for a class where i'm supposed to be alert enough to learn things and take a test, there's no way I would have made it through. My brain was mush after 2 days last time this happened. You are legally equal to being drunk once you've been awake for 16 hours, and I had been awake for 24 after my first day then I only slept one hour then I was awake for another 12 then only slept 2 hours and so on...2 hours was all I got every night for the rest of that week. I think the problem is nobody knows what this disorder is so they think it's just insomnia, and most people have that at some point. The issue with this disorder is there is nothing that helps, sleeping pills don't help, in fact for me sedatives like that have the opposite effect, I might get knocked out for an hour but then I wake right up and i'm jittery and feel like hell. I also can't take caffeine to wake up during the day, it doesn't wake me up and only gives me heart palpitations so I have to avoid that.

 

[GaiaGoddess]

Because "everyone" at work doesn't have a clue how the law operates. Spend enough time on this board and you'll see that a great many people believe that you can sue for a great many things that you can't.

The only law you could possibly sue under would be the ADA, and I can promise you, the ADA would NOT require the employer to create a nighttime training session just for you or relocate it just for you. Since it would be a temporary situation, and the ADA expressly does not cover temporary situations, it would not apply. Two weeks is not anywhere NEAR long enough to invoke the ADA.

But you go right ahead and email all the attorneys you want.

I wasn't expecting them to create a nighttime class or relocate it, they could have given me a bunch of papers to read of the material though. And I understand this situation was temporary but it would have been a serious safety risk making me drive across the country so tired. One of my coworkers drove tired and rolled his car off an embankment (he was ok for the most part) but my manager told him from now on he can't leave to go home until he's had enough rest. Well if they cared so much about him, why were they ok with forcing me to drive tired?

 

[cbg]

None of which changes the fact that the ADA does not apply in this situation and there is no other law that grants you legal recourse, either.

 

[Proserpina]

You clearly don't understand what actually happened with the McDonalds case.