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Fund set up for man fired over sick days

John Hult
jhult@argusleader.com

A GoFundMe account has been started for a man fired for taking five sick days.

The story of Tom McLaughlin's troubles with packaging plant Bell, Inc. picked national attention over the weekend, when USA Today picked up the story I'd written on his plight.

McLaughlin had a life-threatening infection in his leg, and his doctor at the Mayo Clinic called his boss about it, but he was fired anyway.

Because he hadn't been on the job a year, he wasn't protected by the Family and Medical Leave Act for his sick days, which were spread out over two months.

A commenter on the national website asked about a GoFundMe account for McLaughlin's family on Saturday. One woman from Las Vegas called my desk line to ask about making a donation.

By Sunday, McLaughlin's daughter had set up an account.

On the page, she tells her father's story, talks about the financial struggles the family is facing as a result of Tom's termination, and asks people to keep a conversation going about protections in the workplace.

"Our family hopes that by sharing his story and by encouraging conversation, we might promote change to protect other hardworking individuals from the fear and repercussions of falling ill and having their world fall apart as a result," Vanessa Wilson wrote.

Part of that discussion is necessarily about South Dakota's status as a state that prohibits union membership as a condition of employment. There's a constitutional amendment banning the practice. People who like that call it "right to work," others call it "right to terminate."

The USA version of my story talked about this issue, pointing to South Dakota's low union membership: Only six percent of workers here are represented by unions and only five percent are members.

It's important to note here that the "right-to-work" issue doesn't connect to Tom McLaughlin's situation specifically. He was a salaried supervisor at Bell, so he would have been on the management side of union talks.

I talked with University of South Dakota law professor Pat Garry last week about employment at will rules, as non-management employees everywhere are impacted by them.

The contract for employment in such a state runs "day by day," he said.

"In its purest form, the contract is day by day," Garry said of such laws. "You can be fired for just about any reason. If you show up in yellow pants and your boss doesn't like yellow pants, you can be fired."

However, Garry noted, "the courts have watered that down quite a bit."

Employers can't fire you just because they don't like the color of your skin or the church you attend, for example. They can't fire you because you're a woman, because you're 40 or older or because you're disabled. Organizing or joining a union isn't an excuse for firing someone, either.

McLaughlin's case for discrimination, were he to make it, would turn on the same questions any such claim would: Was he treated differently specifically because he was hospitalized?

Was he treated differently than other employees who'd missed days for illness? What about the medical benefits McLaughlin had? If the company offers such benefits but fires someone for using them, is that the breach of the implied contract?

The real question, any time a someone gets fired and alleges discrimination, is this one:

"Do they fire everyone for this, or did they just fire this guy?" Garry said.

And then there are all the unknowns: Was there some conflict between the employer and the employee that pre-dates the decision to terminate? Was there something going on in the workplace we don't know about? Was the person tough to work with? Too hard on employers? Not getting the job done?

That's what investigators with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission or South Dakota Department of Labor have to find out.

Regardless of the legality of the decision, it's clear from the response to McLaughlin's story that the public is not impressed by Bell's decision to fire someone who's been hospitalized with a life-threatening condition.

For Tom McLaughlin, the concern from has been welcome, if a bit off-putting for a man with a blue-collar background.

"I think my husband is overwhelmed by the outpouring of generosity and concern for him," said his wife, Kristi McLaughlin. "He grew up in a rough sort of way, so I don't think he's used to seeing other people care on that level."

John Hult is the Reader's Watchdog for Argus Leader Media. You can call him at 605-331-2301 or 605-370-8617. You can tweet him @ArgusJHultor find him on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/ArgusReadersWatchdog.