I have been off on STD since April 2025 from my role of Director of Engineering at a US based company. My doctor submitted a return to work plan on July 17th that was gradual to ensure I could get adjusted back to my role. My company basically ignored communicating about this plan until well after it was supposed to start on Aug 5th. They communicated that because I am a people manager, they could not accommodate the return and would only pay me for the hours worked in the plan. They now say that if I have such a gradual return, they will need to find a "lesser" position than Director of Engineering until I am back to full time. Because they sat on this for almost a month, my STD will run out on Aug 24th. The plan was to coordinate this for the first few weeks to ensure I was properly compensated.

They have basically said they will only pay for the hours worked and take no accountability for leaving me to run out my STD without any feedback.

At this point I am planning to have my doctor adjust my return to work plan to be faster to try and get them to agree. It will be better for my health to get back as soon as possible. If they will not extend my benefits, I will just use my PTO to offset the financial hit.

I need to be back at work for my health and I can't afford to be out of work completely while I pursue some legal action.

What thy are trying to do seems to me like Constructive Dismissal? It certainly feels like a Human Rights violation at least.