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Crohn's Harassment and Discrimination

I live in Canada and I've had Crohn's for 22 years and have battled through the pain, the resections and the ups and downs. My Crohn's was misunderstood by my employer. After working a lot of overtime (20-25) hours every week for over 3 years. Finally I couldn't take it anymore and told my employer that I could not continue to work OT on a consistent basis. Guess what? The boss got even more demanding, intimidating and harassing. I continued to work for fear of losing my job and the drug benefits that pay for my Humira. I developed an anxiety disorder that for me has been harder to manage than Crohn's. When my doctor put me on sick leave for 2 weeks related to anxiety (and its impact on my Crohn's) my employer continued to demand that I work, including OT. I am now on LTD. I've gone to HR and told them about the requirement to work while on medical leave. They are in denial or have assumed the role of bystanders. They even went as far as to withold the 2 week medical certificate from the LTD provider and alter other documents to show my first day of medical leave as the end of the initial two weeks I have referred to in this post. My employer contends that I "volunterred" to work while on medical leave even though the individual has a reputation for creating large power differentials between themself and others. This story is so unreal yet true (I have lots of proof). Has anybody ever experienced this kind of treatment from their employer? Without closure on this issue my anxiety will not go away and stress seems to impact the effectiveness of Humira. My employer knows they can out-lawyer me. What should i do? Any advice is really appreciated.
Humira, Methotrexate, Citalopram and Klonopin.
 
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PsychoJane

Moderator
All I can have is empathy for your cause. Crohn's sometimes brings unfair battles. I hope you will manage finding a solutions. Isn't there a Labour standards commission in your province where you could talk to an agent and express the situation. From what I read the measure are illegal and you could technically have them fighting for you rather than defending this case yourself?
 

Jennifer

Adminstrator
Staff member
Location
SLO
Where are you located exactly? That might help some people find answers for you. There have been other people on the forum who have had to fight battles with HR so maybe you could find some of those threads by using the search option on the forum. For now all I can really do is bump your thread in hopes that someone with information might come and reply.

Honestly I hope you find another job that isn't quite as demanding that also provides medical benefits. This all sounds very illegal.
 
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