My sister-in-law was called back to work after a 3 month lay off. She is working over 40 hours a week but the company is not providing her with the medical benefits that she had before the layoff, stating that she is a temporary employee. Can the company do this?

If she is a temporary employee now and temporary employees are not covered under the plan, yes.

If she is a temporary employee now and temporary employees are not covered under the plan, yes.

Thanks for the quick reply. When she was brought back there was no mention that she was brought back as a temporary employee. In addition, when the overtime schedule came out she was told she would be the first to schedule her hours because of her seniority. Only when she questioned the companies HR department about medical benefits was it mentioned that she was classified as a temporary.

Thanks again for your help!

It is the expected duration of her tenure with them that matters to a temporary status, not how many hours she works, her reliability, how much overtime she works or when she is scheduled.

However, wouldn't the status change mean that COBRA should have been offered?

They would have to have been offered at the time of the initial layoff.

It is the expected duration of her tenure with them that matters to a temporary status, not how many hours she works, her reliability, how much overtime she works or when she is scheduled.


I found out that they told her that she would receive her insurance benefits when she started back. Would this have any bearing or not since what verbal communications between the two and hard to prove.

The key isssue here is not what she was told at the time of the layoff, but what the health insurance plan document says.

It is quite, quite common for temporary employees to be excluded from health insurance, so we'll assume that to be the case. (It is SO common for temporary employees to be excluded from health insurance that it's not worth any other kind of assumption.)

If she is currently classified as a temporary employee, she is not entitled to health insurance benefits, regardless of what they may have said at the time of the layoff.

If she is not classified as a temporary employee (and whatever classification she does hold is eligible for health insurance) then she should be covered.

It really is that simple.