CA Disability - Wrongful termination?

My wife is on short-term disability as we are fighting breast cancer. In the past 4 months she's been through a mastectomy, and has started her chemo.

Two weeks ago her doctor signed approved her moving to long-term disability. My wife let her boss at work know about this and the response from her boss was that she would look out for the new paperwork.

We received the LT-disability forms yesterday and today being a treatment day at the hospital (the day her chemo is administered) we took the forms to the hospital filled them out and got them signed.

Today, while we were in hospital, we received a call from her employer (her boss' boss) saying her position was eliminated. Notwithstanding that this is supposed to be a large Fortune 500 employee friendly company and is among the top companies to work for in SF and notwithstanding that my wife - a top employee of 10 years is going through one of the toughest times in her life - can the company do this? What are my rights? We speak to HR tomorrow. Here are my questions

I would like to know - is this move legal?

What happens to the LTD process (all the paperwork is already signed and being faxed over today)? Does it continue? Who pays the premiums?

What happenes to the health insurance?

Doesn't there seem to be a connection between the time we let the employer know of the move to LTD and being laid off less than 2 weeks later?

Is she eligible for LTD and severance together?

Your responses and pointers are very much appreciated

Assuming that your wife was otherwise protected under FEHA (Fair Employment and Housing Act), whether she was wrongfully terminated depends on whether her job cut was part of the legitimate work force reduction (which is always legal) or an employer's attempt to disguise disability discrimination by making this specific termination look like a layoff.

To determine whether the termination was pretextual and discriminatory, it would be useful to find out how many people were laid off and whether your wife was replaced with another employee, among other factors.

Thanks, and feel free to follow up.

Arkady Itkin
Employment Attorney
San Francisco / Sacramento/ San Jose
http://www.sanfranciscoemploymentlawfirm.com

Thanks, sorry.

Indeed, the employment law is dynamic. I like being a member of Cal employment section of the bar as i get case alerts from the Department of Fair Employment and Housing, but this only applies to California employment law of course.

Thanks guys. We speak with their HR tomorrow after which I will likely call Arkady (sorry I'm writing this blind from memory and I don't see your name in front of me so I have probably messed it up)

What are the questions I should be asking them?

Here are some I have

1. How many people were layed off from the specific San Francisco location?
2. How many in my wife's group?
3. Given she was about to go on LTD - what savings is the co. going to have from such a termination?
4. How does this impact the LTD process? Is she eligible for LTD? Who pays the premiums?
5. What severance is being offered for 10 years of service?

Any other questions I should be asking (or any I should not be asking?)

Thanks very much in advance

Have left a message for Arkady. Thanks for the input

Ok seems like there's a few people on disability who got hit. 2 out of 3 in my wife's group. Smells suspicious?

ak2009 wrote:Ok seems like there's a few people on disability who got hit. 2 out of 3 in my wife's group. Smells suspicious?

Smells VERY suspicious. Seek legal counsel.

I can't answer all of your questions. I am not familiar enough with CA employment law. I can, however, answer whether or not it was legal. If they eliminated her position, and it would have happened regardless of her disability, then yes, it is perfectly legal.

I wonder how many other "disableds" got the axe....