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Updated Feb 7, 2025
A Detroit mom is fighting back after alleging she was fired from her bank job where she worked for 30 years because she took legal medical leave to care for her cancer-stricken daughter.
Terri Estepp’s daughter, Samantha, passed away at the age of 31 — just days after her mom was fired, according to local Michigan station 13 On Your Side.
Estepp, 51, had used up her vacation days caring for her daughter, who had been diagnosed with triple-negative breast cancer in 2023. She also used some time off through the bank’s Caretaker Time Off program, according to Local 4.
But as Samantha’s prognosis worsened, Estepp used four of the 12 weeks available to her under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), a federal law that’s meant to protect your job during unpaid medical leave.
Estepp stated that she returned to work after four weeks, but when she found out her daughter’s condition was quickly declining, she asked for additional medical leave (she still had eight weeks available under FMLA).
“I told my employer I needed to go back to my kid,” Estepp told 13 On Your Side. “She needed me, and they showed up that day and they fired me.”
Estepp is now suing her former employer, Huntington Bank, alleging she was wrongfully denied her FMLA benefits through the termination of her employment.
In a statement to Local 4, Huntington Bank said...
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