My question involves labor and employment law for the state of: Louisiana.
I have been employed at my civil service job for six years. I have ten years experience and a two year degree in Land Surveying. From July 2015 I began intermediate FMLA. There are only two surveyor positions.
One that works on back burner projects and does inspections. That's where I started. The other is supposed to be an equal position but is cleary more desirable and carries more responsibility and importance as they are in charge of permitting, project layout, training, stakeouts, and any other jobs as needed. The employee that is in latter position is viewed to be most important as the whole dept relies on their knowledge for permits getting done correctly everytime and most projects are based off the data they provide.
Two years ago the surveyor holding the 2 position got fired and I stepped up. I did great! I never made any mistake that costs the dept money. I managed my 4 employee office efficiently so that work deadlines where always met and employees stayed busy. They hired a second surveyor to fill the 1 position. He had no experience in surveying and lacked the mathematical skills to perform duties. I was instructed to teach him. So everything I did he came along. I trained him, fulfilled my duties of new position, fulfilled duties of old position, trained another new employee under qualified for his position, and did all this with ease and never complained.
About Aug 2015 I began to severely suffer from carpal tunnel syndrome caused by the demands of my job. I got on fmla and missed work sparaticly up untill Feb 2016 when my condition had gotten to the point my doctor placed me on short term disability through my employer. My leaves of absence where always approved by my supervisor and I never allowed it to affect the work flow in my office. We had great team work and communication.
During my std leave for surgery my the other surveyor did permits while I was out as planned. My boss and coworkers knew my condition and knew surgery would be unavoidable. So we made plans that the other surveyor would do my work untill I returned.
While out on std I kept my boss and hr informed of my progress. I ran out of fmla during my std leave and asked if my boss would be able to save my position. I was told yes. I had both hands operated on and returned at the end of may 2016. Upon my return if they had put an employee in my position they were not required to return me to that position since I didn't have fmla. I was never informed my position was filled even upon my return. I was lead to beleive I was returning to my position as described by my superintendent while on leave and when I returned.
My second week back they called us both into his office and informed me that my coworker will now be in charge of all duties and I will do misc back burner projects as when first hired. I expressed the fact I didn't agree with this decision and asked for an explanation. I was told no reason just shifting duties around. I asked if I hadn't of taken off for surgery would you have taken my duties from me still? I was told probably not. I wrote a letter of grievance after trying to convince my boss and superintendent that this was unfair treament. My coworker has less seniority over me and no experience as a surveyor.
I was told my coworker was allowed overtime to do my job. Because I missed work they my coworker had to work overtime to do my work. If he wasn't so under qualified OT wouldn't be needed. When I was doing all mentioned before and asked to make up time I was told no and that need to be able to do my job in the hours I was given and its not their problem if I can't do my job in that time.
I was told they have no complaints about my work and the only reason he gets my duties is cause I took off time to have surgery. I feel so betrayed, used, and discriminated against for my disability. My superintendent told me before that he does not hire women because they just bring dram to the workplace. That although he feels this way I proved myself when I took the 2 position and was pleased with my work. I worked so hard to break where I am. A woman in a man's field leading her office with grace and efficiency and just because my hands failed me I no longer get the opportunity to get a raise or even move up in positions. I was told recently that the economy is bad and there may be lay offs and since my coworker is doing everything it would be easy for the board to not see good reason to keep my position. He is only doing all the work because that is what they are delighting him to do. He gets help from my supervisor on completing his work cause he can't do it himself. Isn't this discrimination? No I still get the same pay. But now that under qualified coworker with less experience education and seniority will be up for a raise and viewed as important while I might be considered for lay off. What can I do from here? I already began couseling to help deal with my uncontrollable out Burts of crying and depression keeping me from being able to be at work at all. I do my best to stay professional and attend work but I am not always successful.
I believed my coworker sabotaged me by leading on that a job took a certain amount of excess time because he was doing all my work instead of admitting it took that long cause he didn't know how to do the work.there for my leave of absence caused my coworker to have to work extra hours when our dept is on a budget freeze. All to paint a picture to the board that their actions against me where justified by doing what's best for the parish. I can prove this through the paper trail of his work and any job we worked on together half my time spent answering his questions. I was scolded when I wrote a letter pointing out the fact a 10 hr day was spent doing nothing because he didn't know what to do when he was already working on it for 2 weeks before my boss told me to finish it. And I did so without said coworkers help and did it within in 3 hours. My boss made sure his equipment was working and not mine so that it was all shot on his equipment so that it would seem as though he did the job himself.

