Transportation Issues and Termination

My workplace operates on the Occurence system for absences. Due to hospitalization, I am on a written warning. If I miss another day unscheduled, I will be terminated. My work changed the scheduling so that we are required to work one saturday a month, receiving another day off in it's place. I am reliant on public transportation, which does not run service to my workplace on weekends. I have asked co-workers and friends for assistance (none are available to assist), and I cannot afford a taxi.

Can my work legally fire me for forcing me to work on a day that they have been well informed of in advance that I cannot get transportation?

nayanagor:

Due to hospitalization, I am on a written warning.

If you are eligible for FMLA this may be a violation of federal law. If your employer has 50 or more employees in a 75 mile radius they are required to comply with FMLA.  You must have been employed there one year and worked 1240 hours to be eligible on your part. If this applies to you then you should not be penalized for being hospitalized as FMLA likely applies.

nayanagor:

Can my work legally fire me for forcing me to work on a day that they have been well informed of in advance that I cannot get transportation?

Yes.  Transportation is NEVER the employer's problem. 

However, if you get fired for transportation issues you should still be eligible for unemployment compensation.

If you are a no show due to transportation problem you can probably be fired  --now odds are in your favor to prevail to collect UC if the transportation problem is not of your making which it appears not to be....but thats slim fallback for losing ones job.....Even if you need to pay a co work for a ride or a taxi 1X a month it may be easier to eat those costs than to join the unemployment ranks....

Boss might make a discrete exception for public transportation but thats tricky lest everyone seek to invent a problem as to why they cannot work a weekend slot....

It may not be smart bottom line to fire you IF you prevail and collect UC  over no public transportation  but thats not an easy point to make with a boss who may want you gone --try but be careful with words ..

Yes, you can be fired for not coming to work (transpo issues aside); should qualify for unemployment.  If fired for this issue, naturally you'd want to be clear up front when applying for UC that you were let go for being unable to get to work due to lack of transpo options, public or private.  Don't leave it to applying online or phone filing if no room to explain, since you can deduce employer may contest state awarding you benefits.

"Due to hospitalization, I am on a written warning."

Unless FMLA applies (you and employer being subject/eligible and circumstances fitting -- mere "hospitalization" doesn't cover it because details matter), this wouldn't be relevant.