My cousin my have a law suit against her employer

[diabeticman]

My cousin started with a company about 3 months ago. She is working in group homes and well...things have been interesting. First off the company has a penalty system for employees and no (NO) reward system of any sort.


My cousin got a 10 point penalty during the month of July for reporting off WITHOUT any paid time off... now she did call off with plenty of time to find a replacement and the reason why she called off was that her apartment building was having issues with the fire alarm system. My cousin's landlord told people they where responsible for their own property that night ( if was 4th of July weekend) and it would get fixed first business day. okay no big deal she has gone in every day and has worked overtime still waiting for a transfer out of the medical house because she is short and doesn't have the arm reach, strength or height that would allow her to work with 2 of the clients ( one of which is a client she hardly ever works with and the other she worked with on a daily bases.) She was going to quit but was talked out of it by the manager of the house a co-worker and an office staff person. She stayed requesting a transfer to another house.

They told her it would happen and this was in mid June. By Aug 14th the transfer still hadn't happen. Each day she tell the manager how she was kicked by the client or her back was sore the complaints fell on Deaf ears. The morning of Aug 14th my cousin got hurt tending to the client. She just figured it was the usual soreness and that she would go to sleep and by the time of her night shift she would be okay. She woke up not able to move much.

Called the house manager asking if she come an hour late to go to the hospital but the house manager started bitching and saying she wasn't doing things properly. She basically said my cousin was calling off and wrote her up giving her a total of 80 points.

The office told her she wasn't fired and that her probation was extended another month. She is on light duty and has been going to physical therapy.

Meanwhile the house manger has been fired for something massive. My cousin has found out that the manger was gloating about giving my cousin 80 points and that the whole entire 2 1/2 months she has been making the issues known to the manager ( some may say complaining about the pain) the manager was laughing at her.

Now she was told by a co-worker she should confront the office about the issue of being given another month to her probation. Considering what happened with the manager plus the fact the manger never did a 60 or 90 evaluation of my cousin. That when it comes down to it it is my cousin's word against the fired employee who they seem to not be able to reach for the past 2 weeks.

My cousin is looking for other work right now because she doesn't trust the company to give some sort of excuse to fire her.

So would you confront the company about getting off the extended probation or would you keep quiet and hope you find a job quickly.

[lunasun]

1. Keep low and look for something else imo

[diabeticman]

2. Thank you for answering. She has been debating about this issue and other opinions would be helpful

to her.

[lunasun]

3. That point system /probation is just a way to keep her in limbo ,again IMO

Live with it to get a check and experience and look for a way out. Next time she needs to make sure she is assigned correctly
Back problems can get worse and can last a life time!

[SheilaT]

4. If she's an at-will employee,

which she clearly is, she has no recourse. She can be fired for any reason, or for no reason.

An additional month's probation is, on the face of it, a very trivial thing. But given what you've said here, it's just the manager setting her up to be let go.

I'm also not entirely certain I understand what kind of work she's doing. Is it home health care? Surely there are other companies where she is that can employ her.

No one should stay with a company that is this crappy. There really are other jobs out there.

[diabeticman]

6. She is working in Group home settings. This company pays the most and right now she needs a pay

that is 10 or more an hour.

[SheilaT]

7. If they pay the most, and she's not willing

to work elsewhere for less, all she can do is suck it up. Unless she has an actual employment contract, she's an at-will employee and essentially has no rights, and never will.

Perhaps she'd like to consider unionizing her work group.

[diabeticman]

9. They have tried to unionize before and it hasn't happened.

[SheilaT]

11. Successful unionization usually takes

many tries. They should try again. They probably won't succeed this time, but eventually they may.

[Ms. Toad]

12. Does she have an employment contract?

I'm guessing not - but you can have an employment contract even if you are not unionized.

You should also check to see if the state she lives in is an at-will state. A few states aren't.

The advice you've been given about at-will employees is correct, but I haven't seen enough information to be sure that she is an at will employee.

[blue neen]

5. Back to when your cousin was kicked by the client;

there should be protocol involved in how that injury was handled. That would be considered a Workman's Comp claim. The company she's working for should have details of how work-related injuries are handled in writing.

[diabeticman]

8. The client is mentally challenged and has the mental age of a 6 month old. She kicks out and when

my cousin places her in a position to dress her or change her she kicks out.

For the past few months it kept happening it wasn't hard enough to leave bruises and this client and the issues was the known reason for the transfer request. It just took forever and she kept telling her house manager who probably should have said to my cousin no matter how small it was file an incident report. My cousin was worried of getting black listed in the field if she filed too many. She knows of a couple people who can no longer get a job in the field after filing for workman's comp.

[blue neen]

10. I understand about the client; she's severely disabled.

The company still should have guidelines in place for when employees are injured. There are laws governing Workman's Comp. Your cousin also will not be able to get a job in the field if she's so severely hurt that she can't move.

[Ms. Toad]

13. If there are injuries that may create long term problems

she should definitely file a worker's comp claim.

Worker's comp injuries are generally never covered by insurance - so years from now, if an injury from this job creates problems, she will be unable to have it paid for by insurance without lying about it. And if she lies and gets caught, she may be required to repay the insurance company.