COBRA Violation by Employer

My question involves labor and employment law for the state of: Connecticut

I live in NJ and worked in Connecticut. My employment was terminated effective 1-21-10. following are the violations I feel I should get a justice for.
1) employer has terminated my health insurance effective 1-31-10, hasn’t sent me COBRA enrollment forms till now, I have dependent wife and two little kids 4 and 8 months.
2) Prior to termination, I had an approved vacation of 2 weeks starting 1-25 and return to work on 2-8-10. I haven’t received any encashment for those approved vacation days. Company so far in the past has compensated for balance of vacation days to the terminated employees.
3) On Dec 25th my trip to Asia was cut short in 3 days because I was told my being in office was extremely necessary in the event of some projects and I was verbally told any charges for change in flight fees etc will be reimbursed but nothing has been given. I also feel discriminated as I was the only one who was asked to come for work during Christmas Holiday on the 24th when everyone else was off and I was asked to cut short my trip to return in 3 days. I feel discriminated and need to take an action.
4) Earlier on Dec 1st I became eligible for company health benefits but since the renewal was going to take place in Jan 2010 I was told I could get a reimbursement of company contribution for December later that was denied.

If any one could help me with getting guidance on the above points that would be really appreciated.

One Troubled.

1. The employer has a LOT more time to send you COBRA information, so no violation there.
http://www.dol.gov/ebsa/faqs/faq_consumer_cobra.html

2. You can file a claim for any earned unpaid vacation with the CT Dept of Labor. The fact that other terminated employees have received payout of vacation at termination will bode well for your side.

Quote:

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If an employer policy or collective bargaining agreement provides
for payment of accrued fringe benefits (which is defined to include vacation pay), pay for accrued unused vacation as part of final wages according to the
agreement or policy, but not less than the earned average rate for the accrual period.

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3. There is no law that is going to force the employer to reimburse you for extra fees related to your early return. You can try filing a small claims action, but I wouldn't be optimistic. And it may or may not have been "discrimination" to require you to return when other similarly situated employees did not, but you have not posted anything which would indicate this was illegal discrimination.

4. If you enrolled and were covered for December, why should the employer reimburse you for anything?

Patty,

Thanks for the response and the link. I have one more question and answers to your questions as per below;

3) Initially CEO/President agreed (verbally) for my trip and to let me take 3 days off in between Xmas & New Year. Then the company asked couple of other employees to work on the 24th & the week after XMas. The other vP still went on vacation stating he could not cancel, my subordinate said the same thing under different personal reason. I was told if I don't come back in 3 days I would look like an irresponsible person and stepping up at that time is very important for my profile a) I feel discriminated because I was the only recently joined (Sept 2009) employee as compared to others b) I was only non-American person.

4) Company changed health plan effective 1-1-10, I was suggested instead of enrolling twice and having to change plans doctors etc, I could be better off staying with my previous COBRA and company would reimburse as it did for another employee in the recent past. I opted for the same, initially the CEO agreed to the controller, the controller cut the check gave it to me & within couple of hours came back saying the CEO asked him to hold on.. etc. Then denied to reimburse it completely.
5) Also I have enrolled in the FSA plan, company deducted my two payments in January and they haven't sent my FSA cards yet which otherwise would have entitled me to pay $1500 pretax for dependent care medical expenses etc.

Thanks again for all your help.

You'd need more than simply being the only African-American and the one who was required to come back. You'd have to show that was the sole reason you were required to return early.

Not my area of expertise, but was January still in the open enrollment period? Plus, once there is a qualifying event (such as becoming eligible for another employer's plan), COBRA is no longer applicable. Hang on for someone whose expertise is more in benefits than mine.

1)The two other persons (actually more than two) are all Americans who were allowed to take the 24th off. I had a flight on the 25th and had to still shop some baby food etc for the flight on the 24th, the stores close early on the 24th but I was still asked to stay until almost 3PM then I had to rush for shopping. A few times before that and after that I was the only one asked to work from the CEO's home on weekends. A few times I was asked to work from home on weekends. I will try to recollect more such incidents.

2) Yes, January was still in the open enrollment since the last date to enroll was December 14th or even earlier. I received the new ID's for January and then it was deactivated as of 1-31-10. Shouldn't they keep it active but have me pick up the cost under COBRA from Feb 1st onwards? I took my little one to the doctor yesterday where they said it isn't active from Feb 1st. Normally I should have been able to take the benefit, if I didn't opt for COBRA then the carrier would have either refused to pay the office or would have billed me for the amount paid but the medical treatment would not have been denied for non active insurance.

If the last date to enroll was December 14, then as of December 15 it was no longer open enrollment.

The plan document determined when coverage ends. In my experience, which is a good 30 years worth, it is about 50/50 between ending on the last day of employment, and ending on the last day of the month in which employment ended. If your last day of work was 1/21, then ending your insurance 1/31 is quite reasonable and very likely entirely legal. The employer and the administrator between them have up to 44 days to send you your COBRA information; they are NOT obligated to leave your insurance active until you have made your election and sent in your first payment. COBRA coverage will be retroactive to 2/1 so there will be no gap in coverage.

cbg,
thanks for the respons. what about the FSA card? Aren't they obligated send it to me since the enrollment was effected on 1-1-10 and two installments were deducted from my pay checks? The plan is offered by OxFord and earlier we were told the administrator is liable for the amount employees signs up for, this is regardless of the employee is with the company for the whole year or not. In my openion company owes me the card with full amount (we were also told this by the carrier and broker at the time of plan presentation back in December)
Thanks

Was this for dependent care or medical expenses? It makes a difference to the answer.

This is for medical expenses.

Medical expenses are a bit more complicated and what you can access will depend in part on how your plan is written. You really should contact someone in HR to ask specifically about your plan.

When the plan was written it was explained (I was part of the admin at that time) after we distribute the cards the company was out for the amount signed up by the employee. Also one can use up the entire signed up amount in one month and still the payroll deductions would have to be equated over the year. if they employee was fired or left the company in between, it would be company's loss since they would not have a recourse to get the money back. But now the problem is the company hasn't still sent out my card nor are they going to send it anymore. Is there a way or a law under which I can compell them to send it to me?

Before I answer that, let me ask you a question. Have you incurred expenses up to this point that would be coverable under the plan? There's a reason I'm going about it this way.

Yes, I have incurred expenses within the country as well as outside the country. I was traveling from 1-23-10 to 2-7-10 ( and my family were already overseas from Dec 25th to Feb 7th). I incurred medical expenses for my kids overseas as well as after we all came back.

You will definitely be able to be reimbursed for any expenses incurred within the US prior to 1/21/10. Whether or not you will be able to be reimbursed for any expenses incurred after that date, or incurred on any date outside the US, will depend on the wording of the plan document. Many plans will allow you to be reimbursed for expenses for a period of time after termination, but whether that is the case for you, or whether that period, if one exists, is 30 days, 60 days, 90 days or something else altogether, is up to your specific plan. The same goes for expenses incurred outside the US - I'm not certain if they legally even can allow expenses incurred outside the US to be reimbursed. (Federal law has very strict regulations on what can and cannot be considered an eligible expense.) You should not be limited in terms of dollars up to the amount you elected (in other words, if you elected $1200 you can still be reimbursed for eligible expenses up to that amount, even if you only put $100 in) but you are very likely limited in terms of what timeframe you can expect reimbursement for. That is something that only your HR department can tell you. Because of this, they may or may not be required to send you the FSA card; they may simply tell you to send in receipts for your expenses. You'll have to get the specifics directly from them.

Can a company pay different severances or no severance to laid off employees? for example I was laid off with no severance as per termination letter, then I was told company paid me for 2 vacation days and 6 days of severance, later the continuing controller sent me an email stating the additional severance of 9 days will be paid on the next check, then she said it was a mistake and she did not know that there wasn't supposed to be any severance to me.
whereas other employees got laid of before me got as good as 1 years salary as severance under the severance agreement, later another employee was paid 3 weeks of severance and some laid off along with me might have gotten atleast 2 to 6 weeks of severance. If the company paid X amount to earlier employee, havent they formed a pattern or on the basis of precedent can i claim for severance to the equivalent of other employees severance?
This is also one reason i feel i was a victim of discrimination. someone please help

With limited exceptions in only three states (and your situation would not fall under any of them; nor is your state any of the three), severance is not required by law. A severance agreement *can* be binding; it is not always.

It is legal for different packages to be distributed to different employees. It always has, and it most likely always will. Unless you have a legally binding and enforceable agreement for a particular amount of severance, or a valid and supportable reason to believe that your severance was not the same as someone else's BECAUSE OF your race, religion, national origin, or other characteristic protected by law, it is quite legal for your severance to be less than someone else got.

The matter of the fact that other employees all Americans got sevrances & I am a non-American did not get severance and all other points I stated earlier, aren't enough to prove the discrimination?

Not on the surface; not enough for proof. There are other factors that would have to be looked at; individual agreements signed at hire, length of tenure, reason for termination; and a host of other variable factors. Then, after all the other factors have been looked at, if the ONLY consistant difference is your national origin, THEN we're looking at illegal discrimination.

You are free to complain to the EEOC if you believe that to be the case, but you do not at the present time have sufficient PROOF of discrimination.

Let me give you an example. A few years ago I was laid off. I was the only female employee; I was the only employee laid off. But we had reached the slow time of the year; my major job duty would not be needed for another six to eight months; my other duties could easily be picked up by other employees. No one else's major job duty was going away; therefore no one else was being laid off. I was being laid off IN SPITE of being female, not BECAUSE of it.

For a claim of illegal discrimination to hold up, you need proof that you are not getting severance BECAUSE of your national origin, not IN SPITE of it.

cbg, thank you very much for all the help and guidance extended by you.