Legal Question in Disability Law in New Jersey

Discarged due to disability

I currently am disabled with Chron's Disease. I informed my employer of that before I started working that I am disabled and that if I become ill, I will need 2 or 3 days in order to recover. I also need 1 day every other month to go to the hospital to receive an infusion.

I became ill during my employment and I called out at first by emailing my manager in the morning. No problem. Then one day she wasn't able to check her email and I got in trouble for no notifying my manager. I was written up and corrected to call my manager to call out. I was not informed that I had to call her personal cell phone number rather than her work number. So there was another instance where she was not able to check her work number because she came in later than usual (normally she is in at 6am... she changed her schedule to 10am without notifying me of the change) So I had to call out again and got in trouble again for not calling about 3 or 4 other managers just to call out for one day.

Like i stated before, I believe that they let me go more due to my disability because I was out for 2 or 3 days at a time and they just wanted to use my not following procedures as an excuse.


Asked on 6/28/05, 6:55 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Mark S. Moroknek Kelly & Curtis, PLLC.

Re: Discarged due to disability

Under the ADA your employer is required to make reasonable accomodations for you to allow you to work while disabled. It sounds as if the company was willing to but you got into a personality conflict with your supervisor who then wrote you up.

You should consult a local attorney about this or call the New Jersey equivalent of New York's Div. of Human Rights. If the company has 25 employees or more in New York the Div. of Human Rights will investigate claims for both the EEOC and violations of State Law.

While I am admitted to practice in Federal Court I do not practice law in NJ and I am not familiar

with the state agencies.

Essentially, if you can establish that the employer's reason for termination was a pretext

and the real reason was your disability you have a valid claim.

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Answered on 6/28/05, 1:58 pm


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