I am a diabetic 17 year old in Colorado who has been working at Taco Bell for over 2 and a half years.
Last Saturday, I threw up. Afterwards, I told the manager on duty, word for word, “Hey, so yeah. I ended up throwing up. Should I go home?” She told me “Yeah, whatever, just go, just leave.” I said, “Are you sure? I can stay if you want, I need the hours.” and she replied with “Yeah, just go, just go.”
We will call this manager “D”.
I know my rights. Normally I would just say “I threw up, I am going home.” and that would be the end of it.
At this location, you have to be demanding with managers otherwise they will totally violate you and make you feel worthless, useless, and like you have to do everything they say even if its not moral or even illegal.
However, I was in Germany from July 3rd to the 24th, I need to make some money. I didn't feel sick to the point of not working, I would have been completely fine with being careful about what I touch and working the rest of the shift.
The next day, I heard from a coworker, which I will call “A”, that D told her I was finding excuses to go home and leave them with less workers. D told A I had a smirk on my face and said “I threw up, I should go home.” and nothing else. This was not true. I felt bad, I was working with people who I respect (Until now I even respected D) and I didn't want them to leave them short staffed and stressed out.
Later that day, D arrived at the store, I said “So, what happened yesterday?”. Now this part isn't word for word, but she said something along the lines of “You wanted to leave because you are selfish and I am writing you up.”
This pissed me off, a LOT. I did not want to go home in the first place. I told her that it is illegal to stay at work after throwing up, writing me up would more likely get HER in trouble. There is a board in the office that clearly states employees rights, and on top of that, with me being diabetic, there are a million more laws to protect me.
So. What I want to do? Find a new job and quit. But before that, I want to positively change the working environment of that store. Possibly have a conversation with cooperate. There are 3 things I think I can use to help my case.
Mainly, I need help finding the specific law that states you can not work for 24 or 48 hours when you throw up.
I have two documents for my diabetes, one being a 504 plan, but that doesn't really say anything about me being sick other than “Extra time on assignments/make up work for excused absences due to diabetes – 1 day additional after Superintendent Policy”.
Another document that I am still in the process of finding which are more of Doctor's orders.
It would also help a lot if I could find laws to specifically state diabetic laws, from the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Finding these laws would be a great help to me. And any advice would be greatly appreciated.
I know that all of this sounds kind of revenge-y, I could just quit. But I have seen multiple of my coworkers mistreated in several ways and it would leave a bad taste in my mouth if I leave and just know that this will still happen to several people for years. I want to do whatever I can. Of course not everyone working at Taco Bell has diabetes, but they still have sick laws for regular people. ADA laws will just help my case and hopefully make a good outcome from this.