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He needs to quickly and immediately, as soon as he receives this termination notice from the employer, get up from his sick bed and file for unemployment benefits. He will not be able to draw right now, of course, because he has not been released by his doctor to return to work, but the claim will set up, based upon his last five quarters of wages, which will be quite a bit more than if he waits to file for unemployment until he is released by his doctors, which may be sometime out in the future when he will have lost quarters of wages. This claim will stay there and will be good anytime from the date of filing for one year.

This happens, frequently. I am sad to say it used to happen more and quicker, until thank God, FMLA was passed into law. But yes, they may legally fire him. And he cannot draw unemployment insurance benefits until he is fully released by his doctor to return to work. At that time, even though they have technically fired him now, he should notify his old employer that he has been released and is ready to come back to work. If they at that time say No, you were fired back in October, we do not have any work for you, then he will be able to begin drawing his claim if it has not been more than a year from the date of filing of this claim. If it has been, there will be very little chance of him having another claim, but he should definitely re file for benefits.

I hope to goodness he gets released quickly and has good results. It does happen, but being let go in this way, there's nothing illegal about the employer doing it. Sad but true. Good people have very bad things happen to them sometimes, and it's legal in this country and with our labor laws.



I appreciate the input. One more question, I think his short term disability is also ending with the company. Where should he apply for short term benefits until he get the release from the doctor to be able to claim unemployment? because it can be a couple of months before he is done with therapy. We have workers compensation run by the state, is that where he should apply for it? Thanks