You're Sick -- You're Fired

I don't often blog about work related issues. In part, my blogging is my time away from my legal practice, so I don't want to feel like it's work. There is also a concern about possibly disclosing too much information about client matters, which are subject to attorney/client privilege. Better to rant & rave about politics.

But this article reminds me of a situation that I've seen several times of late. The Washington Post writes about 2 government employees who were terminated after being on leave with cancer, Stricken With Cancer, and Then Terminated. One employee, Katie Tremul, tells her story:

[She worked for] the City of Manassas in May 2006, when a doctor told her she had breast cancer. She had worked as an emergency communications specialist, directing calls for the fire and police departments for 12 years. But July 26 this year, after going on long-term disability while she underwent seven surgeries and chemotherapy, Tremul received a letter in the mail terminating her employment. With her job went her health and life insurance benefits, she said.

"You don't cut someone off at the knees when they're sick. And that's what they did," Tremul said. "I was fired for having cancer."

Another employee, who had been a Manassas firefighter for 20 years, had a similar medical crisis -- his with colorectal cancer -- when his letter arrived. As the article noted:

Lawyers who specialize in employment law said that although public servants tend to have more rights than those in the private sector, the degree of their rights depends on the municipality. Virginia law lays out a basic template for personnel policies, and the federal Americans with Disabilities Act offers umbrella protections, but a degree of discretion is left to each jurisdiction, they said.

"The thing with employment law is it's very fact-specific. You can't say one situation applies to another," said Camilla C. McKinney, a Fairfax-based lawyer who handles employment law throughout the region. "There's a difference between something that seems unfair and unjust and whether it's a legal cause of action."

Like Virginia, Pennsylvania (as is true in most other states) doesn't provide much job protection for long term illness. Most people tend to think they have more rights than they actual have under the law. I get to be the one to deliver the bad news. And once the job is gone, so is the health insurance and related benefits -- just when you need it most.

My clients are mainly health care professionals and I serve as their business attorney. However, every so often I take on a matter representing employees who are having work related problems. These are generally situations where the employee has been reprimanded or terminated. My role is to review the employment law issues and give my recommendations on a course of action. If possible, I get involved in trying to resolve the dispute. If it gets to litigation, I refer it elsewhere. Mostly, I do this work pro bono, since the people are hardly in a financial position to afford my fees.

I've had a few cases recently where the problem was a health related issue, which resulted in a termination of employment. In one, the employee suffered from serious depression and was hospitalized because of her illness. She had been a long term employee, who had always received excellent evaluations. After her return to work, she was put on probation for being behind in her work (duh, she was in the hospital because she had a severe mental health issue, when was she supposed to do her work?). This caused a relapse and another hospitalization. She was then terminated.

I managed to negotiate a decent financial severance package for her, including having the bad review rescinded, which was her biggest concern. Even better, her employer ended up putting her on a leave of absence, which permitted her to apply for long term disability. Her mental state was so fragile that she didn't even want to apply, but I convinced her to try. She was approved for long term benefits, which was great news because it meant that her health insurance was now covered by her employer so long as she was out on disability. And of course, continued coverage was a major issue, since she'll never be able to get coverage because of her pre-existing condition.

That this situation exists -- both the loss of employment and health benefits due to illness -- is yet one more example of our lack of compassion as a society.

At least every once in a while I get to do something good instead of being the scourge that attorneys usually are. I save that for the rest of my day.

Tags: Law