Can An Employer Legally Stop You From A Doctors Appointment Envolving Cancer?legal Options Please.?
I have a friend that has skin cancer of an ear.Her doctor set her up with a appointment to see a dermatologist,but her employer said she had to change it because they needed her there.I am asking for legal options to help her.Oh her employer by the way is Aafes.
I worked for a Cosmetic Surgery Center and quit several months ago because I suffered with Papillary and Folicular cancers back in 2002, long story short I need to have a full body Ct scan annually. I made several appts and had to cancel them 3 times because my boss needed me in the office….I had to quit because my husband said it’s my health, my life do what you got to do…..I talked to friends and family and everyone agreed I should have filed a lawsuit. I however, don’t want the added stress or I didn’t and dont want to go this route, but everyone that states no employer legally can stop anyone from Drs appointments regarding cancer patients. Although all appointment must be presented to your boss at least 2 weeks in advance as i’de done and yet my boss suggested to not leave work cuz I needed to be in the office or ide risk losing my job…
Nooo!!! Legally you are entitled to 2 weeks or 4% of vacation time and 8 days of statutory holidays. You also are entitled to 10 unpaid days of emergency leave, and 8 weeks of family medical leave. If your employer has a problem than you can contact Employment Standards Act (Ontario) or which every one is similar in your province.
State laws differ. I had breast cancer and lost my job because of it. They called it “missing too much work” as I had 3 surgeries and the treatments were bad….anyway, it was legal for them to fire me for missing too much work — IN THE STATE OF FLORIDA. Oh….and it was a very large law firm who fired me. In Florida, employees have NO rights unless you can prove you are being discriminated against for age, race, etc. But they can always find ANY reason to let you go without going to the illegal issues.
Wow…thats mean…
Try filing a complaint with America’s Worst Employers….
http://www.AmericasWorstEmployers.org
Anyone can be fired from a job for any reason the employer deems acceptable. Only after the fact can you take them to court for unlawful termination. However if the employer has written policy dealing with absences, and the employee violates those policies, then the firing may be upheld. Probably not morally correct, but legally maybe so. You have to decide just how important both the job and the appointment are. Tough spot to be in.
Is it possible for your friend to have the appointment changed to a better time? If she needs her job for insurance purposes or financial reasons than she might want to reconsider and try to work with her employer as well as take care of her medical needs. Have her call her doctor to see about an alternative time.
One of the things that we have learned about doctors and appointments and hospitals is that they all seem to operate (ha) on their own time frames. Your friend may find out that she gets to her appointment and than sits there for two hours . . or worse .. the doctor is called away on an emergency call. Anyway, your friend should try to arrange it so that everyone is happy . . cooperate within reason with her employer and still be able to keep an appointment perhaps later in the day or earlier in the day. If she makes the appointment for first thing in the morning, often she will be the first patient of the day . . and be in and out quickly. I would not try to bring anything about legal options up at this point in time. Try to work with her employer. It is far better to be on good terms with your employer than have the added stress of worrying about your job too.
NO!
Yes, they can. Unless a person has vacation time or sick time, they can say you cannot take time off of work. Now there is a wonderful thing called FMLA. If a person thinks they are going to have to miss a lot of work, they can have the doctor fill out the family medical leave forms for whenever and then your work place can’t say anything. There is a place on those forms that say you will only need off from time to time.
Believe me I wanted to scream NO like everyone else, but the fact of the matter is this, when a person hires in, they have a lot of things that they sign and one of those is an attendance policy.
I don’t know this company but if she has the time earned that she can take it off for a doctor’s appointment, her company cannot decide which days she can use her time off and which ones she cannot. It is against the law.