My question involves labor and employment law for the state of: Michigan
I have a question about FMLA coverage and an absences policy issue. At the end of February, my mother had a heart attack and was in ICU for 11 days, and then passed away. During that time, I came into the office when I could, but had to use up my sick time per my boss – 4 days worth. I received bereavement time during the funeral. At no time was I offered FMLA coverage.
In addition, I have a chronic auto-immune condition of which I am under the care of a rheumatologist (and my boss knows this.) In early July, my chronic condition flared up and I had to take 3 days off (1 day in early July and two days in August. Due to me taking the 2 days, my sick hours went negative by 6 hours. It is written in our policy book that you cannot take more sick time than you have allocated. Due to this, my boss gave me a verbal warning and said if I miss another day while I am in the negative, I will be written up. HR made him do this and he assured me this had nothing to do with my work performance. We earn our sick time so I would not have a full sick day until November. Knowing I have a chronic health condition, I was very concerned that I would need sick time prior to this. He referred me to HR. She told me I could take FMLA coverage on an intermediate basis. I then contacted my doctor’s office and could not get in to see him for almost 2 months. Due to my concern that if I missed a day during the wait to see my dr, I reviewed FMLA coverage and discovered that once I filed, I had 15 days to get a response from my dr. I also discovered that they should have offered me FMLA coverage during the time I was off with my mother and since they didn’t, they couldn’t hold the time I took off against my attendance record.
Before I could discuss this with HR, I came down with a bad virus and was running 103 degree fever. I had to call in sick. This lead to me being written up. In the letter that I had to sign, it did not mention me going negative in sick hours, but instead said due to me using 4 days during the last three months, I went over their threshold and that was why I was being written up. Now there is no mention in the employee handbook that says how often sick days can be used. I have been at the company for 4 years, and they pulled a three month snapshot to figure out this ratio. Also, had I not had to use the 4 days when I was out with my mother, I would have had more than enough hours in my sick hour bank.
They also mentioned that they had offered me FMLA coverage but I didn’t fill out the paperwork. I explained to HR that it was because of my drs appt being so far out and I knew I needed to get a response within the 15 days. They claimed that if I filed the paperwork, they would retroactive it back to July 1 and I would be fine. So I did. I had my dr fill it out without seeing me which he did because of his knowledge of my history. In the question where it says “Dates you treated patient for this condition” he responded with a date range – 1/2010 through 2/2012 since my last appt with him was in Feb. My HR department questioned this and said that they needed specific treatment dates. I contacted my dr’s office and left a detailed message. My dr knew I had my appt coming up and he waited until he saw me on Oct 10 and I explained the situation. I told him they now wanted treatment dates. So he went through my file and wrote “Patient was seen in my office on ….” and listed every appt from my first until Oct 10, 2012. Now my HR department has come back and said that they requested treatment dates that he specifically treated me for the condition that I am requesting FMLA coverage for. I wrote them back and said that he is my rheumatologist (that clearly is stated on the FMLA coverage paperwork) and only treats me for this condition. She said that since it is says I was seen in his office on those dates, those are office visits, and it needs to say they are treatment dates, not office visits.
I have requested my doctor do this, but I know my dr is getting frustrated as am I. 1) I feel like I am being targeted. 2) I believe it is illegal for them to have written me up since because I never was offered FMLA coverage for the days I missed during the time I was in ICU with my mother, those days cannot be held against me. Please advise me what my legal rights are at this point. Also, if they deny the FMLA coverage what recourse I have. Thank you!

