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How Your Employer May Retaliate When You File A Workers' Compensation Claim

11 December 2014 by Daryl Young

Employers are not supposed to retaliate against you for filing workers' compensation claims. Unfortunately, these claims cost employers money, and your employer may retaliate in anticipation of future savings. Here are some common forms of retaliation:

Failure To Promote

By failing to promote you, your employer is probably hoping that you will read the signs on the wall and leave of your own volition. You should suspect this if the employer promotes another colleague who is obviously less qualified than you.

Since these cases are difficult to prove, your best course of action is to shift the burden of proof to Fair Employment Housing Act, FEHA. You do this by demonstrating that:

• You belong to a protected class, for example, a minority race
• You were not promoted
• A colleague of the same (or lesser) qualification, but different race, was promoted
• There is a strong connection between your class and why you were not promoted

Unreasonable Increase in Job Duties

Another way in which your employer may retaliate against you is by increasing your job duties unreasonably. This is more likely to be the case with jobs that do not have overtime pay. In such a case, the employer may want you to accomplish more tasks within the same work day or work hours per week. You should be especially suspicious if you are the only one who has been subjected to such demands.

Unwarranted Disciplinary Action

At times, your employer may start disciplining you for things that he or she would normally let pass with verbal warnings. For example, he or she may suspend you, reassign you to a hostile environment or deny you telecommunication privileges. Of course, these disciplinary actions may only be considered discriminatory if other colleagues who have engaged in comparable actions do not face the same consequences.

Retaliation Against Colleague Testifying In Your Case

Sometimes, you may not suffer the retaliation directly, but rather through a colleague who is testifying in support of your claim. Maybe the colleague is a close friend whom you work with at the same station, and he or she is helping with the investigations because he or she understands the circumstances of your injury. An employer may retaliate by threatening to cut his or her hours, fire him or transfer him to another town – all in an effort to wear you down.

If you believe that your employer is retaliating against you, then the best thing to do is to consult a workers' compensation attorney. It may be that your employer is genuine in his or her actions. Your lawyer will review your case and advise you on the way forward. For more information, contact a law firm such as Moretti, Perlow & Bonin Law Offices.

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