Burlington, Ia- An employee of the Shearer’s Foods plant in Burlington alleges that their spouse was fired due to a health condition.
According to the employee, Crystal Smith of Burlington, Shearer’s has a points system for on the job infractions, such as unscheduled absences from work. She stated that her husband suffers from a heart condition that caused him to miss several days of work.
When asked about the condition, Smith told KBUR “My Husband has what’s called the widow-maker, which means he has 3 blocked arteries and could have a fatal heart attack at any moment.”
While on the Job Monday, he suffered a heart attack and had to be transported to the hospital. Thus, due to acquiring a certain amount of points, he was fired from the plant.
Later, due to the fact that she was caring for her husband, as well as a condition of her own, Smith also acquired the same amount of points as her husband and was “suspended” form work. She stated that she “was waiting for a phone call from Shearer’s that said I was fired.”
Smith claims that other employees of the plant had a higher number of points, but were allowed to stay on the job, despite rules stated in the companies’ employee handbook.
The Human Resources Department at Shearer’s would not answer calls from KBUR.
Smith calls this point system “arbitrary” and “biased against those with medical conditions.”
