A work injury isn’t ideal for both the injured party and the employer. As an individual, you’re in pain and you’re missing time away from work because of your injury, but from an employer’s perspective, they are now down an employee, they may have to increase staff or hire a part-time worker, and they may see their workers’ compensation insurance rates increase as a result of the claim against their policy.
Some employers handle these situations with grace and ensure the injured employee’s needs are taken care of, while other businesses may actually resent the injured employee because of the extra stress their injury has put on the business. In fact, sometimes these employers actually take retaliatory action against the injured employee because they are annoyed that they filed an injury claim. Not only is this harmful to the injured employee, but it’s actually illegal. That’s right, it is illegal for an employer to take retaliatory action against an employee because they suffered an injury and filed a claim.
Firing an employee is the most obvious form of retaliation, but since it’s illegal, many companies won’t be this brazen when taking discriminatory action against an injured employee. Below, we take a closer look at the many forms of retaliation after a workers’ compensation injury so that you can talk with a lawyer if you feel that your employer is taking illegal action against you.
Types Of Employee Retaliation
As we mentioned in the introduction, firing an employee isn’t the only type of retaliation that an employer can take against an employee after an injury claim is filed. Other forms of retaliation that are illegal include:
- Demotions
- Denying standard PTO or overtime requests
- Denying promotions
- Removing or denying benefits
- Failing to rehire (seasonal/temp positions)
- Reassignment
- Pay reduction
- Reduction in hours
- Significant change in hours/duties
While this isn’t a comprehensive list, know that these actions alone don’t prove your case. You’ll need to prove that these actions were taken because of your decision to file a claim. For example, if everyone had their hours reduced because of the pandemic, you’re not going to be able to win a claim that your hours reduction was due to employee retaliation.
Also, don’t expect your employer to just admit to this retaliation. They’ll likely do everything in their power to suggest that other factors led to their retaliatory action, which is why you’ll need an experienced workers’ compensation retaliation lawyer on your side to help prove your case. Oftentimes the court will side with the employer unless the retaliatory action is clear and obvious, so hire a lawyer who can ensure the court sees just how obvious the actions taken against you were. It’s going to be an uphill battle, and your employer will have lawyers on their side, so you need to counter with your own professional.
If you believe your employer retaliated against you because you filed an injury claim, you may have a secondary lawsuit on your hand. At Hey Workers, we’d be happy to handle both your initial injury claim and a retaliation suit should it come to this. Let us be your one stop shop for justice. For more information, or for help after your injury case, reach out to the team at Hey Workers today at (844) 439-9675.
