unfair treatment

[jean333]

Hi I really need to give some advice to my older daughter and am hoping you can help. I have 2 daughters that work for 2 separate doctors offices. One has a wonderful office but my oldest had a terrible experience. It was like high school all over again. Unprofessional, gossipy, clicky but she stuck it out. Her doctor removed her from work for 2 weeks due to complications of her pregnancy and thats when things got really bad. My daughter had taken her vacation time prior to being removed and it was an approved vacation by her office manager. When she got her paycheck this week she saw they had not paid her. They claimed she had taken the vacation time without approval and therefore she was denied her vacation time. Well my daughter had e-mails at work that proved she was ok'd by the office manager so she went into the office to print them off and lo and behold they had gone into her e-mail and deleted everyone of them...But luckily there was a girl working that did not know what was going on and she had also had correspondence with the office manger stating my daughters vacation was approved...My daughter asked her to print the e-mail and she did but before my daughter got out of the office this worker was informed of the situation and she demanded the e-mail back from my daughter but my daughter just walked out...15 minutes later my daughter got a text message from this office worker stating if my daughter tried to use that e-mail they would say she stole it...this is the craziest thing I have ever heard and now there is no way my daughter can return to that job...and they are refusing to pay her...So my question is where should she report this? Thank-you.

[MAISY, RN-ER, BSN, RN]

I would first advise your daughter to sent the physician a registered letter advising the physician of the office staff's shenanigans what was said, and done.

I would also contact your state labor board and disability because lets face it...a pregnant woman is considered disabled and is covered. Also, if she is under physicians care...I would consider it workplace discrimination and a violation of her rights.

Which leads to, a call to a lawyer...perhaps the physician and his staff need to have that negative publicity foisted upon them. Someone has to take care of that office manager...if her boss won't, your daughter will have to! There is nothing quite like the threat of negative publicity to move things along!

JMO

Maisy

[BrokenRNheart]

The labor department takes care of not being paid. Contact your labor department and tell her to get another job. Best advice you could give her is to get out of the medical field. This is the first taste of what really goes on.

Good luck.

[clairebearrn]

First of all, I would recommend that she gets another job. She doesn't need to be dealing with this type of treatment!!! How horrible!!! What if she needs a day off to take care of her new baby---the probably won't give it to her! Second, contact your labor department and file a claim. Once she files a claim with the evidence, the state will contact the office regarding the situation and to stop a lawsuit or something, they will pay her the money they owe her. Good luck and congrats on the new baby! :) keep us posted! :)

[mesa1979, BSN, RN]

Has she spoken with the doctor? I would go in and speak with him/her and show the e-mail. If it gets worse from there, I would get an ATTORNEY!!!!!!

[BBFRN, BSN, PhD]

Ditto to all of the above, and tell her to keep that text message for evidence, too.

[BinkieRN, BSN, RN]

..this is the craziest thing I have ever heard and now there is no way my daughter can return to that job...and they are refusing to pay her...So my question is where should she report this? Thank-you.

My first choice would be to speak with the doctor directly, if no satisfaction call the labor board.

[RNsRWe, ASN, RN]

Hopefully by now your daughter has either contacted the physician in charge directly, or the Dept. of Labor. Or both.

If the physician who runs the office is not agreeable to her requests (or passes the buck back to office manager, very common) then the next step is quite easy: complaint filed with Dept. of Labor.

She certainly can use that email to make her claim, and I'd be willing to bet an attorney for DOL or any privately obtained one would laugh at the idea she "stole" it. How, exactly, did she do that? She asked a person who received/sent an email for a printed copy of that email. Request granted, email printed and handed to your daughter. She is not obligated to return the 'gift' on demand. Please.

Hopefully, too, she has no intentions of returning to this place. Let the DOL get ALL the time off due her: vacation, sick/disability, whatever. Anything and everything!

[justme1972]

Physician's offices are owned by the physicians.

Your daughter most likely knew who the full-partners of the group were that made the day-to-day decisions. Basically, whoever hired the office manager, would have been the person to go to.

As soon as she realized that the office manager was claiming that her daughter's vacation time had not been approved and got another email claiming so from a co-worker, she should have called one of these physicians and told them what was going on.

The physician could have further verified it, by calling whoever does the tech support for the office, and asking them to retrieve the deleted e-mails b/c nothing is truly deleted from a computer.

I guarantee, quite a different version of events was told to the physicians in the office and they probably think that your daughter simply abandoned her job.

Her daughter, instead of just not showing back up (b/c that is job abandonment, as even the office manager never told her she was fired or not to come back), she should have complained to her boss's boss.

I would normally say that you could easily report this situation for the pay issue to the state wage and hour division, but since she never returned after her vacation to work, they can legally claim her last day as the last day actually worked.

Otherwise, there was no legal wrongdoing.

I do not see this as a case of pregnancy discrimination. I think it was a mere coincidence.

You'll have a very difficult time trying to file a complaint with the EEOC when she has never reported it to the highest level that she can reasonably contact at that particular office.

An employer is required to cover pregnancy disability the same as any short-term disability illness. The vacation was not part of the physician's "write out", therefore, no subject to pay under disability.

She never returned to work and that was a choice she made instead of addressing the issue with the powers that be.

I'm not trying to be unsympathetic, it's just what is.

[Annisme]

Yes to all of the above...also, e-mails and other files that are "deleted" from a computer aren't really gone. There is all kinds of software available to recover those files, a subpoena will probably help them "find" them quickly.

Also, your daughter should apply for unemployment &/or disability (not sure what your state guidelines are). The employer may try to deny the benefit, but she can ask for a hearing...