Is there anything I can do about this?
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Is there anything I can do about this?
My work place is not treating me right. I have some disabilities that my employer should be able to work with. Like I went through and applied for Social Security Disability, and they told me my employer should be able to work with me about them. I have been there for 5 years. They refuse to promote me at any level because of my bad back. And now yesterday, I found out that my spouse’s grandpa died and the funeral is tomorrow in another state. My employer will not work with me about leaving, so has left me with an ultimatum of either my job or the funeral.
Asked on October 12, 2017 under Employment Labor Law, Michigan
Answers:
SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 6 years ago | Contributor
First, as to the funeral--your employer has no legal obligation to any employee, whether disabled or not, to let them miss work for a grandfather-in-law's funeral. If you have vacation or personal days you earned, you may use them for this purpose; but unless you have and use PTO you accrued, you employer does not have to let you go and may terminate you if you do.
As to not being promoted: IF your bad back does not prevent you from doing all the responsibilities that a promotion would entail and IF you can show that there is not some other reason for your lack of promotion and IF you can also show that other people with the same or less seniority, experience, and qualifications have been promoted, THEN you may have an illegal employment discrimination claim and should contact the federal EEOC or your state's equal/civil rights agency about bringing a complaint. But note:
1) If your back would impair you from doing something that the promotion involves, they don't have to promote you.
2) If there are other employees with better experience or qualifications, or who have better performance reviews, etc. they can promote them instead of you.
3) They don't have to promote anyone--that's up to employers whether to promote employees, and if they are not doing any promotions in your area of the business, it is not discrimination to not promote you.
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