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Any NJ HR out there?
I will try to make this story as brief as possible. I worked for a small private company, about 45 employees, as an accounting manager. In February, when I was 21 weeks pregnant, I was put on bedrest. At the time my boss was supportive, I asked about going on STD and he said "Don't worry about it". At first I would talk to him regularly, then it stopped. Since he is a strange person, I thought nothing of it. After every doctors appointment, I would send an email with an update, never a response. Come April 15th, I was allowed to go back to work part time, I called to tell him, followed up with an email, nothing. That happened a few more times before I had my baby on 6/3. Two weeks PP, I called to say I could come back on July 27th (voicemail again), followed up with another email....again, no response. Finally, my other boss called me 8 weeks PP and told me that I was being laid off because my position was being outsourced. The entire time I was on bedrest they paid me my full salary, which I thought was amazing of them, but now know that it made their laying me off PP look legal on paper.
I am not looking for a lawsuit, I am just curious why things were handled how they were. Why did they pay me my full salary opposed to putting me on STD? If I was on STD, would they not have been allowed to lay me off? Why did they wait until exactly 8 weeks PP?
This was the family company of someone I considered a pretty good friend. I am not sure what happened between my being on bed rest and now, but to kick me while I am down I received no severence package, they will not tell me my termination date so that I can file for unemployment, nor will they tell me how long I have benefits for.
Re: Any NJ HR out there?
Not NJ, but, depending on what is going on with your company and your role, they may be perfectly able to outsource your role and lay you off while you are out. But, minimally, New Jersey is an employment-at-will state, and they could terminate you at any time for any reason.
They can not lay you off BECAUSE you are on maternity leave, but they can do things to your role which can impact your employment, for sure.
Your suspicion regarding the notion that they paid you full salary to avoid the appearance on paper is really thinking the worst of people who may very well have thought they were doing you a favor by not making you track your time or anything else like that. And at 45 employees in the company, they wouldn't be covered under FMLA, so you wouldn't even have had that protection.
The concept of 'looking legal on paper' is kind of irrelevant. You were cleared to come back to work on July 27th. You don't have a job to come back to. Nothing seems illegal or inappropriate, just unfortunate.
I'm sorry you got laid off and that you don't have severance, and that they haven't been communicating about the other questions you really do need answers on. Good luck!