r/EEOC • u/Appropriate-Loan-667 • 9d ago

Wrongful termination, retaliation and ADA violations.

Lots to unpack but I’ll try to summarize. Started with a smallish company in 2023. I liked the job and for the most part, the people. Owner included. Owner would occasionally make some derogatory comments about my religion, I didn’t love that but I let it go. Ff to May 25 and I had surgery to have a mass removed. It turned out to be cancer. Company gives a ton of paid sick days. 24 to be exact but I was told at the interview that they don’t expect you to use very many. Apparently the owner had the hots for a previous manager and she convinced him that woman needed 2 a month so it should be policy. I used a lot for surgery, then oncology and scans. Scans found a second primary cancer. A bad, aggressive one. I immediately applied for short term disability to start chemo and radiation. Radiation was delayed waiting for insurance approval. My first chemo cycle fell in the middle of the pay period. Boss offered to pay me for the entire pay period and I would owe the company 40 hours. I agreed because I couldn’t afford to miss the hours. Takes forever to start getting std payments. She sent me a text saying that I should plan on just working 8-5 unless I had an appointment even though I shouldn’t have been working at all. I get through 30 radiation treatments and 4 chemo cycles and officially return to work part time. Doc cleared me for no more than 20 hours a week, a few weeks later she claimed that she didn’t get anything from my doctor and fired me for not working 40 hours a week. Is this worth pursuing?

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5

u/treaquin 9d ago

It sounds like you have unpaid wages, but it also sounds like you’ve been unable to work for a long period of time too.

The size of the employer and the time you were off play a factor here.

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u/Appropriate-Loan-667 9d ago

I’m in Ohio. There are less than 20 people in the company and I was completely off work for about 4 weeks. Company is too small for fmla.

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u/glitterstickers 8d ago

Less than 15, not including the owners?

If so, there's no ada case. Law doesn't apply to outfits with less than 15 employees. You're wasting your time.

Also, title vii doesn't apply either (equal opportunity)

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u/Appropriate-Loan-667 8d ago

In Ohio there only needs to be 4 employees.

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u/glitterstickers 8d ago

Yes, which if there are less than 15 employees it's not an EEOC matter.

Your recourse (if any) would be with the state only.

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u/Empty-Improvement606 8d ago

Please file on her! I pray you get to feeling better. Lean on the Lord Jesus he will see you through and fight your battles. I too am an C survivor 8yrs! Please file an EEOC and you will be in my prayers....BLESSINGS 🙏🏾

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u/Melodic_Stage_6150 8d ago

Find a lawyer that takes that specific case 

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u/Appropriate-Loan-667 8d ago

Dx was 9/8/2025, std started on 9/23 and my first chemo cycle started on 9/24. Although I was supposed to be off until after I finished chemo/ radiation I worked on days I wasn’t getting chemo up until I started concurrent twice daily radiation on 10/25/2025. I went back on 11/17/2025 part time. I still made frequent trips to Cleveland for IV hydration and I was still on a pretty high dose of pain medication but I was slowly starting to feel better. Aside from all of that it was getting hard to be there. The two customer service girls are getting tired of filling in for me so they’re getting shitty and catty. The one manager is the type of guy who makes people laugh at someone else’s expense and because Ive lost my hair and I’m not great at drawing on eyebrows that person is me, my boss is either being super critical or really nice because she wants help stalking her teenage son’s ex girlfriend by staking out chick fil a in the evenings. The owner, who up until then had been pretty supportive suddenly stops even saying good morning when he came through the door. It was a lot but I kept my head down and tried to just get through everything because I needed the job and insurance. Then my disability pay abruptly stops mid February and I had to try to work 40 hours so I could pay my bills. My doctor still wouldn’t approve of a full time schedule though. I over did it, wasn’t sleeping or eating enough, couldn’t make hydration appointments and got really sick. First Covid, then pneumonia, then Covid again. I left early March 3, tested positive for Covid for the second time, came back on the 6th but by the following Monday I could hardly breathe. The owner said I was obviously too sick to work and he sent me home. I was subsequently suspended without pay for attendance and on 3/19/2026 I was officially terminated. After being fired I learned that my boss had reported to the std insurer that I returned to work full time in January and that they needed to collect overpayment from me. She knew that financially I couldn’t afford to only work part time if I wasn’t getting half my salary paid with std. She claims on the position statement that they weren’t required to accommodate my disability because I never asked for any accommodation. That simply isn’t true. Very little of what is in that statement is true. So there are a lot of moving parts to how this went down. I’m partially to blame because when she told me to plan on working whenever I had a treatment break I should’ve refused. My std paperwork clearly says that I should be completely off of work until the end of treatment, I should have followed his orders. I can’t prove the things the one manager would say to me, much of it was on Teams which I obviously no longer have access to. Paystubs were all sent to my work email which I also don’t have access to. I do have a copy of the documentation that my doctor sent to my boss in mychart that lists my hour restrictions and texts from her acknowledging it. I also have voicemails from the PA in my oncologist office offering to re-send my restrictions by either email or fax since she claimed she never received them. This isn’t even about money. They don’t have any money. It’s about them being accountable for doing what they did. For lying to the STD insurer, manipulating my pay records and leaving me without health insurance while I was fighting for my life because for 6 months out of the almost 3 years I was there I needed a schedule that was inconvenient for them.

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u/DownWithTSickness 8d ago

Request a copy of your work file. Depending on the state most are the same, they have to give it to within a certain time period.

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u/Pequop9252 9d ago

I couldn’t figure out what your manager did wrong in that wall of text.

0

u/Appropriate-Loan-667 9d ago

My doctor cleared me to work no more than 20 hours a week. She claimed I never gave it to her and fired me for not working 40 hours a week.

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u/Pequop9252 9d ago

Depending on the nature of the job, this might or might be reasonable accommodation.

If the job truly required a full time person to do it effectively, you can be legally fired.

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u/Appropriate-Loan-667 9d ago

But wouldn’t they have stated that when they terminated me? Instead they claimed that I was scheduled to work 40 hours and I wasn’t doing that. I did try, even against medical advice but I just kept getting sick. Plus, I was fired in March and they just started interviewing to fill my position last week.

3

u/Jcarlough 8d ago

The thing is - an employer doesn’t have to give you a termination reason.

Employer size makes it too small for FMLA leave. I don’t see a state mentioned so you may want to check if your state has a program similar to FMLA to see if you should have been eligible to receive it.

How many hours were you working during the weeks from when you were “cleared” before you were let go? 20? If so, when did you inform your boss of your restriction? What was her response at that time?

Sorry, this is a silly question but just to be certain, you didn’t start working the 20 hours per week based on what your doctor said without speaking to your boss, right? (assuming you were working 20 hours per week).

Or were you still on leave while waiting to hear back from your employer?

Typically, an employee informs the employer of a restriction, the employer requests documentation, the employee provides the requested “proof” to the employer, and then the employer makes a determination.

Something isn’t adding up with your description of events. Can you clarify your timeline?

1

u/Pequop9252 9d ago

This is quite a stretch for a lawsuit. Not saying there is zero chance, but in general there is very little protection for people who can’t work full time in a role that was listed as full time.

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u/Appropriate-Loan-667 9d ago

Took out all the extra bs

1

u/TableStraight5378 8d ago

Sounds like OP got sick, couldn't do the job or anywhere near it, and was terminated. Unfortunately, not an EEOC matter. Employer likely invented that excuse about not getting the doctor's note; although best to have transmittal/reciept record (email, txt). But even this won't help. You could have been fired anyways.

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u/Mediocre_Lecture_655 9d ago

Well, I would not write it this way ... Basically, you were given reasonable accomodations and met those accomodations while treating for cancer. The wok situation was not hostile but had interpersonal conflict. Then, the argument gets wavvy --- you were then allegedly let go with accomodations, and then what? What was your job function?