by Patrick
(George, Iowa)
They are going back about two years ago when my back went out at work, after a year of lost hours MRI’s, injections, and ex rays they started writing me up…not cleaning up well enough etc.I did have surgery to correct my back problem and even though it was aggravated by work I did not claim it as a work related issue, mostly because I had seen how they treated employee’s who have been hurt on the job. my wife is disabled and has a laundry list of problems I live in a rural part of Iowa and have no family to help us nearby so when she is down and unable to care for herself or a sick kid it’s me that has to take time to care for them. over four years of service without a write up and then they started writing me up for everything they wrote me up for three tardies in a month and then they wrote me up for excesssive absences. about a month ago they told me that if they wrote me up again for any reason in the next year they would have to let me go…I was late on Monday worked ten hours of a twelve hour shift and then they called me into the office and fired me, without any reason to write me up. I feel cheated I busted my hump and was going to make the year no matter what, they made an unfair stipulation and then didn’t even stick to it. I usually gave them doctors notes and filled them in on all of what was going on even though by law I didn’t have to because I didn’t want them to think I was doing what a lot of the other guys do just call in to go fishing or what ever. They seem to go out of their way to cover for alcoholics and drug users but not me I guess they thought they had a solvable problem and I didn’t but they broke policy to pay them while they went to rehab several times when they should have been fired they wrote me up for a bad check and then didn’t write a co worker up for the exact same scenario. They took me into the office and called me a liar when I was having problems with my back and I had submitted documentation on every Dr.s visit or loss of time situation. Can I get unemployment or why can’t I? and what should I do?
Hi Patrick,
First, let’s get the FMLA question out of the way. How many employees work for your employer? Did they tell you or did you ever request FML?
And why were you tardy on the day you were fired?