My wife’s 72-year-old brother was “written up” at work recently

[MADem]

20. I have a relative who was FIRED for the same reason; same hours, too.

He was diabetic and they set the heat to close to eighty degrees with no way for him to open a window or turn it down.

I managed to get him unemployment compensation by attending the hearings where the corporation where he worked were trying to claim that he was somehow "negligent" and brought it on himself and acting as his advocate. I brought witness statements, threatened to take them to the court of public opinion, and called them every name in the book. I really think the tool they sent had never heard the phrase "usurious bastards" before.

The judge hearing the case called them everything short of assholes, too, and ruled in his favor. Not a pretty time, though--much stress, so unnecessary.

He went on a quest for another job but without a good reference from the place he'd just left (where he'd maxed out on their pay chart--but a replacement would start on the bottom of their shitty little pay scale), and despite glowing ones from previous employers, and because he was quite experienced in what he did and would merit a larger paycheck than a twenty year old, AND because the job market sucked, AND because he was of a certain age, he had no luck.

He had a stroke a year later--a big one. Damn near died. Oh, never smoked or drank, so it wasn't lifestyle. Now he's on disability.

Thanks to the free MA health care that Commonwealth citizens enjoy, he got the best medical support to include aftercare that 'socialized medicine' could buy.