My question involves labor and employment law for the state of: Texas/Michigan.

I apologize in advance for the length of this post, but I want to be as specific as possible.

I worked for a company overseas for two years. Although they are overseas, they are a U.S. based company and must follow all federal and state labor laws. I live in Michigan and the company's U.S. location and training facilities are in Texas.

Back in August of 2009, I went on my regularly scheduled RnR back to Michigan. While home, I contracted pnemonia and was unable to return to work on my regularly scheduled date. I properly contacted everyone i needed to regarding my situation. I contacted all Supervisors on my work site and in my department as well as the company medical department located in Texas. I was approved for a medical leave of absense. The way it works in my company, you are approved for 20 day blocks of time. If you cannot be cleared in the first 20 days, you need to be approved for more. This works by communication between the medical department and your doctor. Because I worked overseas, it is a more complicated process to be approved medically for full return to work. After about 14 days, I knew I would not be fully approved withing my original 20 day block, and contacted the medical department in Houston regarding more medical leave. During the entire medical leave, I stayed in constant contact with my department regarding my situation through email. Because the work location is overseas, all communication is done through email because of the time difference. I received an email confirmation from the medical department clearing me for an additional 20 days of medical leave. This came a couple days before the initial leave was to expire. The day after I received confirmation, I was actually given full medical clearance to return to work by my doctor. I sent all the proper documentation to the medical department in Texas as well as my supervisors to let them know I was cleared by my doctors and was now just waiting for the medical department in Texas to clear me and complete all required paperwork.

The next day, I received an email from the medical department asking for some more information from my doctors, which included further blood pressure readings that needed to be performed on separate days to show a few days of readings. I was able to get that information and sent it to them a few days later. That was the last time I heard from the medical department and my company for almost four months.

A couple of days after sending the medical department the information, I emailed them regarding my status, because I had heard nothing. With every email to the medical department, I included my supervisors to keep them informed of the situation. I asked about my return status and my medical clearance. I heard nothing back, so for the next several months I continued to send emails to my supervisors and the medical department regarding my medical return as well as my job status, since my second medical leave of absence expired while waiting for the information from Texas. I did on two occasions get responses from supervisors. Once from a direct supervisor from my work location advising me to contact his boss and the head of the HR department. The second response was from the supervisors boss I emailed telling me that I needed to contact another medical person from Texas regarding my return. Other than that, I never got one response regarding my status.

In December, I finally got my direct supervisor to email me back. He informed me that I had been terminated several months ago. He told me that it was the responsibility of the HR department to have informed me of this and apologized for me not being informed. I asked him if he could have someone in HR contact me about my termination. I also asked to be contacted regarding all of my personal property left behind in my living quarters. I worked for the company for two years and had aquired quite a bit of property while in country. Because I lived there most of the year and only returned to the states for a few weeks every four months, I kept almost all of my personal belongings in country with me. I had several thousands of dollars of property accumulated. This included all clothing, bedding, storage, electronic devices (TV, laptop, external harddrives, etc), books, as well as all my personal documents collected over that time (check stubs, copies of time sheets, tax documents, etc). I wanted to be contacted so that I may have all of my property returned. I never heard back from anyone. After a few more emails and about another month, I finally got a response from the head of HR that I was told to contact months ago. He told me to contact two other members of HR from my location about my termination and property.

I contacted these two individuals. One of them got back with me. He informed me that I had been terminated because I did not return from medical leave. He said my initial 20 days had expired and because I was not approved for more, I was bascally fired for non return. I forwarded him the email I had recieved months ago with the second term of medical leave approval. He had given me the date of my termination and the approval had been emailed to me before that date, which means it was approved and shouldve been documented by the company before my initial mloa expired. I asked him about my property and having it returned. I was told that becuase HR hadnt heard from me in 30 days after my termination date, that my living quarters had been emptied and all items discarded.

During the months I was trying to contact someone about my status, I had a brother who worked for the same company, but in a different location. He left to come home for good in November. Before he left, he had asked an HR rep from his location about my situation. He was told that I needed to keep doing what I was doing and because he is in a different location, there wasnt anything he could do. My brother asked him about my property and he was told the company cannot empty my living quarters w/out my knowledge and consent. The HR department is reponsible for contacting anyone who is terminated while they are not in country and informing them of their termination as well as making arrangements to either send their property to them or dispose of it w/ owners consent. I was told by the HR rep that because I had not contacted them after 30 days, that my property had been disposed of. I asked for a list of every item that was removed (something that is required any time HR department must clean out a room, whether mailing it to an individual or disposing of it) as well as the date my room was cleaned out.

I have five months of emails showing that I made several attempts to contact my supervisors and the company about my status. I also have emails backing up that I followed all company procedures. For a time, I was using my company email account to correspond, but it was shut down and I lost those messages. I have all information from the second mloa approval up to the current emails between myself and the HR department. Each email shows the date it was sent and everyone it was sent to. I also have all response emails I recieved.

Is there anything I can do? Do I have any grounds for compensation for my property? Was I unfairly terminated for what would amount to a lack of communication between departments through no fault of my own? Please can someone help me? I have been trying to get legal representation to help me but have not had any luck getting someone willing to help. Am I wasting my time with this? If I do have any rights, what are they and what type of attorney should I be looking for. Part of my problem aquiring legal counsel is that there are not many employee rights lawyers in my area and I have been trying to find someone using the internet. Also, what should I expect the costs to be to get representation? Is it worth the hassle? I cant afford to pay alot for a lawyer, but based on the principle of the matter would pay what I had. Please if anyone has any info, could you let me know.