termination question

[jovitt3283]

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

Good afternoon.

I had been employed with my employer for 1.5 years. Today, I was fired from my position due to being absent from work last week while I was in and out of the hospital. When I returned to work this Monday, I gave my employer the doctors orders that kept me from returning sooner.

The matter is also complicated due to the fact that the company I work for was recently purchased by another institution. What I missed of work, would have been training by the new institution.

Long story short: Is there any law that protects me from termination due to illness? Or does the fact that the time I missed was actually to benefit the company that I would have been working for starting the 21st?

 

[Proserpina]

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

Good afternoon.

I had been employed with my employer for 1.5 years. Today, I was fired from my position due to being absent from work last week while I was in and out of the hospital. When I returned to work this Monday, I gave my employer the doctors orders that kept me from returning sooner.

The matter is also complicated due to the fact that the company I work for was recently purchased by another institution. What I missed of work, would have been training by the new institution.

Long story short: Is there any law that protects me from termination due to illness? Or does the fact that the time I missed was actually to benefit the company that I would have been working for starting the 21st?

Short answer: No.

 

[jovitt3283]

Thanks For your reply.

 

[cbg]

Longer answer; Maybe.

OP, how many employees does this employer have, and what was the nature of the illness? Are you full time or part time? Did the employer know the reason for the absence?

 

[OHRoadwarrior]

Apparently, OP has a new employer so the FMLA laws are unlikely to apply regardless. For example I had 4 different employers over the time I worked at the same company because they were merging and creating new companies, then made it a subsidiary of the company I worked for.

 

[cbg]

The OP has been employed for a year and a half. That's long enough for FMLA. The clock does not necessarily get reset because of a sale.

 

[Zigner]

The OP has been employed for a year and a half. That's long enough for FMLA. The clock does not necessarily get reset because of a sale.

Couldn't it depend on how the sale was structured? If the former entity disappeared and the purchasing entity hired all the employees as new employees...that's along the lines I'm thinking.

 

[cbg]

It could, yes. I said, not *necessarily*.

But it's far too early to be giving him a flat no, he has no options. We have nowhere near enough facts to make that determination.

 

[Zigner]

It could, yes. I said, not *necessarily*.

But it's far too early to be giving him a flat no, he has no options. We have nowhere near enough facts to make that determination.

Frankly, I missed the word "necessarily" - I'm a bit under the weather today.

 

[cbg]

Hope you feel better, good friend.

 

[Zigner]

Hope you feel better, good friend.

Thank you