Man Gets Fired After Wife Gets Cancer

[Argo]

http://jobs.aol.com/articles/2011/06/16/wife-gets-cancer-husband-gets-fired/

"Massachusetts accountant Carl Sorabella had every reason to believe that his employer would grant his request for a more flexible schedule so that he could assist his wife, who had just been diagnosed with Stage IV lung cancer and given only months to live. After all, he'd been with Haynes Management in Wellesley, for 13 years, and had just been given a raise in November.
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But instead of a more accommodating schedule, he got a pink slip in response to his request, even though he had made it clear that he was willing to work nights and weekends to make up for the time he intended to spend taking his wife in for treatments and tests."

Whyzzat? Greed... His boss could have said "NO" to his request and put it on him to stay or leave. But chose insensitive prick. Yes, you are the cornerstone of our business and would hurt our bottom line to not work regular hours wither or not all of the work got done. Still you are replaceable. Goodbye.

 

[cecilia]

no surprise.
after all, money is more important than people.
it's the American way

 

[minator]

That would be completely illegal in most of not all of the EU. I'm very surprised it's legal over there.

 

[faethor]

The US has an Family and Medical Leave Act . What it says is the Employer must provided up to 3 months of unpaid leave to care for a sick relative. A wife with cancer would count. A more accomodating schedule is allowed, but not mandated. The employer is likely in the wrong for not offering something else.

Assuming Carl got his full raise in Nov and there were no write ups he's likely in a good position to win a lawsuit. Sucks to have to do that. But, one's gotta do what they gotta due. Likely the result will be a couple of years of salary and benefits. So perhaps Carl's boss really did him a favor.

EDIT: Thanks Wayne yes small employers are exempt.

 

[Wayne]

Harsh treatment for a dedicated, longtime employee. Unfortunately, Sorabella has no legal recourse. Federal and state laws that protect workers from this kind of treatment only apply to larger companies with more than 50 employees.

 

[the_leander]

On the other hand, the publicity for this stunt will almost certainly destroy that business given today's climate.

I hope the guy can get everything sorted.

 

[faethor]

I wish. You have to remember if the business is so small that FMLA doesn't apply it's reach isn't super huge. Also, there's probably a lot of business is always right so screw the person Republicans around that'll rush in.