Ok, here is the situation.

A guy almost 50 is a supervisor at a place that makes paper products. He gets into a non-life-threatening car accident and hurts his back pretty bad.

He has residual pain, now limiting his work ability. He is non-union. It is unclear if this back pain is lifetime, but so far, it's been months. He has worked for this place just shy of ten years.

Is he at risk of losing his job?

My guy and I had the biggest debate about this the other night. My standpoint is he will eventually lose his job if the pain continues to hamper his ability to lift.

Unfortunately, you may be correct, if they are unable to move him to a different dept where lifting isn't essential to the job.

If this is a non-job related injury, you may be right. Most states allow "at will" employment which means that employers can fire employees for almost any reason.

He might, prob. will and because he has no union and therefore no backing, it would be easier for the company to do so.

Cheaps wrote:

Unfortunately, you may be correct, if they are unable to move him to a different dept where lifting isn't essential to the job.

That's what I was thinking too.

I'm really glad you guys see what I was getting at. Not sure at all why my guy was really defending his stance on the fact that the guy will have job security after all this. It's too bad too because this particular family has been through some shit in the last five years and his wife is a notorious job hopper.