Can I collect if I am fired for attendance?

by joseph

(pennsylvania)

Where I work they have a system of how many days you can take off before getting warnings. I am up to a final warning right now. I have been sick for the past week, i’ve actually recieved my final warning earlier this week for this sickness. Yesterday I came back to work and was still feeling sick but needed to put in hours, I work in a call center and I was still having flu symptoms and I left early in my shift. Now I haven’t been fired yet cause today is my scheduled day off, but I won’t be surprised if I am fired when I come back on Wednesday. I have a dr’s appt scheduled for tomorrow to see what the problem is but i’m worried that they will still let me go. I live in pennsylvania, thank you.

Hi Joseph,

Almost all employers have an attendance policy with a progressive discipline procedure in place.

Sometimes they also have a policy about providing doctor notes for absences exceeding a certain number of days .. does yours?

It’s a good thing you will be going to the doctor .. make sure you get a not.

As long as you have been following the call off procedure and the employer is aware your absences were due to be ill .. they can fire you, but it will be hard for the employer to sustain it was for “misconduct”. Illness is a condition that is considered beyond our control .. especially when documented by you.

Comments for Can I collect if I am fired for attendance?

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Jan 05, 2010
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disability

by: joseph

its not diagnosed as a “disability”, however it does affect my work. I had FMLA, which has since lapsed for this. Since my FMLA time isn’t up for renewal until March, they wanted to see if I could covered under the ADA.

However the recent times i’ve been out of work, while health related, have nothing to do with my FMLA or ADA.

Hi Joseph,

I’m not sure what the employer hopes to gain by requesting this.

Maybe you should read up on the ADA because it may actually afford you some protection.

Job discrimination due to a disability is illegal and what they are requesting may be outside the scope of what an employer is allowed to do to find out if you have a disability. Read More.

I am not an expert on the ADA .. for that you need an employment lawyer to tell you if the employer is overstepping.

Ultimately, I suspect the employer is trying to find a way to end your employment without any further liabilities.

Jan 04, 2010
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me again

by: joseph

Since my “written warning” I had to leave work on 3 seperate “occurence” due to me currently being sick. Without going into too much detail, I work on the phones for 10hrs a day and I have a terrible sore throat (that im on meds for). On these 3 seperate “occurences” I’ve tried to work but had to leave because of me being sick. Now normally I should have been fired, cause after my written warning if I have 1 more “occurence” i go on a final, then if there is another “occurence” I should be fired. However I came back to work after those, and even spoke with my manager, but was never reprimanded. Now I’m still out of work due to this sickness about to go see my dr again.

Now here is where it gets weird, due to another unrelated illness my boss wants me to get a ADA form filled out. What I’m worried about is that my manager may think that me being sick these past few weeks may be due to my unrelated illness. Now I’ve told her numerous times that the reason I’ve been off is something totally different.

I just don’t want to get fired, and have my employer deny me because my “occurences” were unrealted to my other illness.

I’ve seen people get fired for taking off less days than I have. I may be taking this too left field, I just have a funny feeling about what is going on. I wonder if they are gonna try to fire me for something that they can say is misconduct, and hide my “occurences” under ADA even though they are unrelated.

Hi Joseph,

Do you have a disability?