Location: NY
My sister (52) was employed with NY State in a county job for about a year, and requested time off for a medically related breast reduction (severe back problems). Her boss ok’d everything with no problem at all. She’s a very reliable & well liked employee and really enjoyed the job, never had any thing negative in reviews, never called in sick etc
A few weeks after the surgery, there were major complications and she was hospitalized for almost two weeks with a very serious infection. She had to have two additional surgeries to address the infections. After being released from the hospital,she had to be connected to a wound vac (a medical device attached to you that continuously drains fluid from wounds and helps them heal). The complications extended her sick time an additional two months til she was cleared to go back to work from her surgeon & doctor. She communicated all of this to her boss.
On her first day back to work, she was written up for 5 bogus infractions (truly silly non-issues, and actually something she never even did). She didn’t agree or sign off on the unfounded write ups, but went back to business as usual. I personally knew that they were doing this to have something bad in her file to justify firing her, so I told her to document everything, especially prior communications with her boss, plus also proof if possible, for refuting the write-ups.
So of course two weeks later she was fired. It all seems terribly unfair, just wondering if there’s anything at all that can be done for wrongful termination, I’m assuming it would be especially hard because it was a state job. Also, is that even legal to fire someone because they were hospitalized and had a legitimate doctor’s recommendation to remain out of work til her wounds healed?