Exempt – Health issues
Rob S
65 Posts
We have a sales person who is o.t. exempt, and is out and on the waiting list for a medical procedure. His doctor required that he be ready for this procedure within 4 hours of the phone call, so he was required to move. He has been away from work for over 4 months now. Even if he was still in the same town as our office, he would not be able to put much if any time in at work.
When he moved, our IT people set it up so he could get into our computer network over the internet to work there (mainly to check e-mail). He is of course not selling anything, and he is actually on the verge of loosing some big accounts because of lack of service.
Our sales people sign an agreement when they are hired (no-compete plus other stuff). This agreement says "If Employee by reason of physical or mental disability, shall for more than 120 days in the aggregate excluding infrequent and temporary absences due to ordinary transitory illness during any 365-day period be unable to perform the service required of Employee hereunder, the employment period may be terminable by either party" blah blah blah.
Today I had one of our board of directors ask me if he could be terminated according to our sales agreement. My answer was probably yes, but I wanted a good labor attorney to look at it before we terminate him.
The employee is now in California waiting for the procedure, and I have been told that it would be easier on him for the state to pay for the procedure than for him to pay his deductibles, out of network co-pays and other fees. (Just saying that bothers me – I am person that does not expect for the government to take care of every procedure for people at no cost). The same board member who talked to me feels that he will not go on Cobra, and that it will be no problem to let the state of California pay for it (this board member sells group health plans for a living and does know what she is talking about). His procedure has been hanging over our group plan for several years, and it has caused our rates to almost quadruple in the past 2 years (we have a little over a hundred employees on our plan).
I know that this could get real ugly, and I would really like some other people’s options on this.
This company has actually been very good to people who have had health problems and other issues, and I hate even having to think about terminating someone in this situation, but I also know that we could be setting a horrible precedent if we ignore our existing policies.
Rob
When he moved, our IT people set it up so he could get into our computer network over the internet to work there (mainly to check e-mail). He is of course not selling anything, and he is actually on the verge of loosing some big accounts because of lack of service.
Our sales people sign an agreement when they are hired (no-compete plus other stuff). This agreement says "If Employee by reason of physical or mental disability, shall for more than 120 days in the aggregate excluding infrequent and temporary absences due to ordinary transitory illness during any 365-day period be unable to perform the service required of Employee hereunder, the employment period may be terminable by either party" blah blah blah.
Today I had one of our board of directors ask me if he could be terminated according to our sales agreement. My answer was probably yes, but I wanted a good labor attorney to look at it before we terminate him.
The employee is now in California waiting for the procedure, and I have been told that it would be easier on him for the state to pay for the procedure than for him to pay his deductibles, out of network co-pays and other fees. (Just saying that bothers me – I am person that does not expect for the government to take care of every procedure for people at no cost). The same board member who talked to me feels that he will not go on Cobra, and that it will be no problem to let the state of California pay for it (this board member sells group health plans for a living and does know what she is talking about). His procedure has been hanging over our group plan for several years, and it has caused our rates to almost quadruple in the past 2 years (we have a little over a hundred employees on our plan).
I know that this could get real ugly, and I would really like some other people’s options on this.
This company has actually been very good to people who have had health problems and other issues, and I hate even having to think about terminating someone in this situation, but I also know that we could be setting a horrible precedent if we ignore our existing policies.
Rob
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