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WA state employment law, employee's rights to get accumulated sick leave transferred to new company via merger

I am in Washington State. The company I work for was bought out by another company. This new company did not transfer over any of my 300 hours of accumulated sick time. Under this new company, I went to see a doctor; after which, the doctor wrote a note for me to take 3 days off from work - during treatment. My employer says I have no sick time and that I have to take my vacation time instead. I've been seriously considering quitting this company. Since I have medical coverage through my employer, and I am still undergoing treatment, would it be my responsibility to continue paying for my doctor visits, if I do quit my job? Or would the company still pay since treatment began under their policy while I was still employed?

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Attorney answers (1)

Reputation Level 7
Generally, an employee that has employer sponsored medical coverage should not expect coverage to continue after employment with that employer ends. The exception to this is that the employee is laid off and some form of severance agreement is signed with the employer that states that the employer will pay to extend medical coverage for the employee for some additional period of time. However, under this latter circumstance, employer's typically agree to pay an employee's COBRA coverage so the additional time the employee is covered is subtracted out of the 18 months of COBRA coverage that employees are entitled to after their positions end.

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