argument

[Guest shogun64]

my place of employment is about to go under, and me and my boss got into a argument where he cut my pay in abou half. my question is can he cancel my health insurance and nobody elses just because he got mad?

[leevena]

It's possible. Employers need to treat "classes" of employees the same, and cannot discriminate towards an individual within the class. I say possible because of your statement that he cut your pay in half. Did he cut your pay in half by reducing your hourly rate/salary, or did he reduce your hours? If your hours were reduced, perhaps you do not meet the requirements for hours worked to receive health insurance.

[GBurns]

I assume that you will soon be looking for other employment.

I would contact the EEOC and state labor division and see if your facts and circumstances fit any of the requirements of being retaliation. There are actions than can be pursued if what he did was prohibited retaliation or otherwise.

Check the EEOC website before you call so that you have some familiarity with the concepts etc. Although you have not been terminated also do a Google search on terms such as "retaliatory firing" "retaliatory termination" and "retaliation employee" etc

[Lori Friedman]

The EEOC enforces the federal civil rights laws. Unless Shogun64 has reason to believe that he/she has suffered job discrimination related to age, disablity, gender, nationality/ethnicity, or religion, the EEOC would have no jurisdiction in the incident. Shogun64 says that his/her boss "got mad" after an argument with him/her, which doesn't suggest a civil rights violation.

[GBurns]

What was the argument about? Why could it not be a civil rights issue? What happens if it was about dangerous working conditions, wages or customer abuse of employees or a myriad of other issues?

In any case, What falls under federal civil rights and who makes that determination?

[Don Levit]

Folks:

What about a possible violation of the employer blocking his COBRA rights?

Don Levit

[Guest shogun64]

thanks for the help. my employer has a history of being a abusive boss. i once quit because he liked to cuss at me and he fought it but i won anyway.the argument started when he kept saying i should be able to see thruu 2 inches steel just because i was the operator, crazy huh? it ended up i went from 13 dollars a hour to 8 dollars a hour. plus demoted to bottom level. now im worried he might cancel my health insurance out of spite also. ive already had insurance there for the last 4 years. so you know, ive got about 14 years working there, i was there before he showed up. i am in the process of looking for a knew job, but i need the insurance till then. since my pay is cut to stackman, if he tells me to operate the machine that i was being payed 13 dollars a hour for, can he fire me for refusing to do a higher paying job since he cut my pay? also, does he have to give me written notice before he does?

[leevena]

Folks:

What about a possible violation of the employer blocking his COBRA rights?

Don Levit

What possible violation? How is the employer blocking his COBRA rights? So far all we know is that the employer cut his pay in half. There is a concern that he might cancel his health insurance, but as of now it is not been canceled.

[Mary C]

The statement was made the company is going under. If the company neglected to pay the premium to the health insurer, all employees could be without coverage. I would be more concerned about this scenario. Unless he is an owner or keeper of the purse strings, I don't think he would be able to cancel your health care coverage without canceling anyone elses.

[jmor99]

I have seen employers go bankrupt, and the bankruptcy court required the carrier to keep the insurance in force for up to 3 months even tho there was no money to pay the carrier!