too little too late?

[Traden41]

I was suspended for excessive absences pending termination. However prior to my suspension I was set to be on paid leave of absence due to a workers compensation claim. So I was suspended pending termination and the next week I was out on workers compensation. After two months of being out on wkrs. comp. I had not received any word on my suspension, so I tried contacting my unions greivance committe, vp, and president. No one seemed to know what was happening with my case. In fact they had lost any and all documentation of my suspension and had totally forgot about my case. During this time the union had its annual elections and all those who where aware of my case where replaced in their prospective seats and the new committee members had no idea or reference of my case. So I finally get word that the company had terminated via ph. call by one of my union officials. So I remained on workers comp. and my union asked for what is called a fourth step meeting between the companies h.r. and our unions committe and president and myself. The meeting was for me to plead my case. And to note this meeting took 6 months of me persistently calling my union officials and in turn them (being my union officials) persistently trying to set up a meeting with my companies h.r. dept. head. I pleaded my case and to note the reason for the majority of my absences where due in fact to me taking care of my mentally ill mother. And I was told of Fmla prior to suspension but did not understand that I actually met the requirements. I actually filed for fmla during the first 3 days I was suspended and was approved, and have the documentation. Well I was told the company had 20 working days to reply to plea. Two months later I was informed that they did not accept my plea and was still terminated. My union president said he was willing to take it to arbitration. During this time I was able to obtain a print out of from the head of our companies accounting department listing the days all the days that I was paid. And there it was two of the so called days of absence where in fact false. This dawned on me that during the course of those two days I was in fact having trouble with my swipe card and was relying on one of my bosses to infact badge me in and out. He had badged me in through whatever application that is used to do such a job. But this same application does not apply to our digital time clock that registers to a database and raises a red flag when there is an absence. So now I explained this to my union president about a month ago and have relentlessly called him and have had no answer on arbitration. What should I do? This has gone on for sooo long that its almost a year to the date that I was suspended.

 

[Patricia_Young]

I can address only the legality under the LAW of your termination and it was legal, FMLA not withstanding. FMLA does not protect your job when circumstances are such that you would have been terminated anyway (as in the case of excessive absences not related to FMLA, badging/time errors, etc.).

I think your union is your only recourse here.

If you have been medically released relative to your injury, have you filed for unemployment?