Legal Question in Disability Law in Tennessee
discharge for performance
my wife was working for a company here in Tn. She is bi-polar and has Lupus. Her job knows that she has these conditions. She never had a problem there until she got sick last year, with kidney problems,and was in hospital for almost 2 weeks when she got back they wrote her up for attendance. Now after she was out a couple of weeks ago for depression associated with bi-polar, they fired her for making personal phone call from work, for being late.The problem I have with it is she never had a problem about phone calls before, everyone else in the office has personal calls, but no one else has been wrote up or discharged. Also everytime she had a doctors appt they required a doctors note, never required anyone else to have it. It seems they have singled her out, and she never had a problem until her health problems started, and she told them she was bi-polar. Also they told her they had made accomodations for her, she said what accomaodations, they said we let you take time off, when you were in the hospital without firing you. What do u think? discrimination? What do u suggest first steps to be.
2 Answers from Attorneys
Re: discharge for performance
There are a couple of questions that need to be answered before any sort of meaningful reply can be generated. The first is, how many employees of this employer work within a 75 mile radius of where your wife was employed? Another question is what proof do you have of the conduct of other employees that may be similar to the reason for which your wife was terminated? Your wife may have rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act ("ADA") or the Family and Medical Leave Act ("FMLA"). Both can require the employer to give your wife time off from work and/or require modification of her work schedule. However, either will practically require that your wife be able to show that modification was possible.
Your first step is to sit down with an attorney who handles a significant number of employment law cases. The National Employment Lawyers Association, www.nela.org, is an association of these attorneys and of which I am a member. Seek out a lawyer to go over your case with you in detail, there may be something there.
Re: discharge for performance
You would have a tough employment discrimination case to prove. The ADA requires employers to make reasonable accommodation for an employee to perform his duties with his disability, but it does not require employers to give the employee time off from work to cope with the disability. The best justice you will receive is if your wife finds work elsewhere. If you wanted to embarass the employer, you could file a discrimination suit against it, but I sense the employer would ultimately prevail in this lawsuit.
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