Ex-employee sues UPS Fired for tending sick son?

[LARA CERRI Times]
Members of the Calhoun family, clockwise from top left, wife Angela, husband Michael, and Elizabeth, 15, Christopher, 10, and Daniel, 3, pray before lunch last week. Calhoun says he was fired for missing too much work caring for an ill Daniel.

Ex-employee sues UPS
Fired for tending sick son?
Michael Calhoun, a 40-year-old father of five, says that UPS, a company he'd worked at for three years, fired him in the fall when he missed too much time from work to care for his sick sons. UPS disputes Calhoun's claims.

ST. PETERSBURG

Days after his youngest son survived a heart transplant, Michael Calhoun made sure he was the first one to cradle the boy in his arms.

It was May 2008, and after four months of waiting, doctors had finally found a new heart for 1-year-old Daniel, who along with his two other brothers suffers from a rare heart-related disease called Barth syndrome.

But his son's surgery wasn't the only thing on Calhoun's mind. Amid a year that involved moving across the country, finding new schools and dealing with three chronically ill children, Calhoun had another worry.

Things weren't going so well at work.

Calhoun, a 40-year-old father of five, says that UPS, a company he'd worked at for three years, fired him in the fall when he missed too much time from work to care for his sick sons.

He filed a civil lawsuit last month in Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Court, claiming that the company violated his rights under the Family Medical Leave Act and committed disability discrimination.

"There was a change in their attitude toward me when I started taking off time under FMLA," Calhoun said. "We never thought in a million years that I'd be fired."

UPS disputes Calhoun's claims.
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Exemployee sues UPS