by Jeremy
(Portland oregon)
Hi Chris,
I have my phone interview tomorrow for unemployment claim in Oregon.
Employer discharged me for tardiness I found out. Originally, I got a call to come down to work and was handed my final check and told by my shift supervisor who was handing me my final check, to file for unemployment as he didn’t know this would be happening until I got there and as it was happening.
My son broke his arm in 3 different places which ended up resulting in 10 plus doctors appointments and 3 casts. I’m a single dad raising my son full time. We do not have a vehicle so had to rely on public transportation to get him to the specialist hospital witch is 30+ miles away. So i let my direct supervisor know about these appointments and that most likely i would be late those days and he approved. The director of operations noticed these and since he didn’t know about my sons appointments because of him working on complete different shift took them all as unexcused tardiness. I have documentation from my sons specialist even excusing me from work for those days so i could take care of my 5 yr old son with all the medical transitions but i still went into work but just a little late like i had warned employer. I know my claim is tricky so any help would be awesome. Also when handed my final check they did ask me to sign something admitting i knew i was late and wrong but i did not sign and my shift supervisor handing me all this told me he wouldn’t sign either and that’s when he continued to say file for unemployment. Thank you cant wait to hear back.
Chris’s Response: Shouldn’t be that tricky Jeremy to show no misconduct, or violation of the employer’s rules occurred on the final incident of tardiness, or those just before it, causing your discharge
Medical documentation can go a long way to rebut your case as being willful, or intentional work related misconduct. The fact you are a single parent can also be supportive in that there was no other parent to handle these necessary Dr. visits.
Tell them you can fax the medical docs in support to the adjudicator.
But what would go even further, to nail the circumstances down, in my opinion, is some way you might also prove (emails can be documentation) that is in support of the fact you informed your direct supervisor about the cause for being late to work on what sounds like the last and hopefully, only ten tardies.
Of course a call off policy from the employee handbook might also be supportive of the expectation you had to follow to call-off properly, by notifying your direct supervisor .. as well as any policy about FMLA being a protective option for you to exercise .. whether you could afford what is often an unpaid leave, or not.
Did your supervisor .. tell the ops manager about your son’s broken arm, or that it was the reason for your ten late arrivals to work?
I’m guessing no, they did not pass that info on if afraid it might impact their own job, or reasonably, I would expect an ops manager to contact HR, or you directly, about the possibility you might request FMLA .. or just intermittent FMLA to protect your job from the compelling reason you were late to work.
FMLA is a viable and therefore relevant option to those who work for an employer with 50, or more employees before they quit, or get fired due to clouded facts about medical care of a dependent child .. whether a mother, or a father.
Any previous warnings about tardiness prior to the ten connected to a broken arm and dr. visits?
Or, was the final incident of tardiness not connected to your son’s broken arm and therefore, not covered by one of those dr. notes in your possessipon which could be quite useful tomorrow?