Can My Employer Fire Me for Filing a Workers’ Comp Claim?

No. California law makes it illegal for an employer to fire you, demote you, or discriminate against you in any way because you suffered a work injury or reported one. If your employer does it anyway, you may be entitled to additional benefits on top of your regular workers’ compensation claim. This article covers what that protection includes, the separate civil claim an employer can also face, and how often this actually happens. It does not cover terminations for reasons genuinely unrelated to your injury.

CAN YOUR EMPLOYER FIRE YOU FOR REPORTING A WORK INJURY?

When you are injured on the job, one of the first concerns you may have is whether your employer can fire you or take some other action against you because of the injury or because you reported it. It is one of the most common questions I hear, and it is often the reason people delay reporting an injury in the first place.

California law is clear on this. An employer who discriminates against an injured worker because of a work injury or an injury report is violating the law. That covers more than termination. Demotions, cuts in pay or hours, unfavorable shift changes, and being pushed out of assignments you used to handle can all count as discrimination if the injury is the reason behind them.

WHAT ARE YOU ENTITLED TO IF YOUR EMPLOYER DISCRIMINATES?

This is where the protection gets real. If an employer is found to have discriminated against you because of a work injury, you may be entitled to reinstatement to your job, back pay for the wages you lost, and additional compensation for the act of discrimination itself.

That is a powerful remedy, and it sits on top of the medical treatment and disability benefits your underlying claim already provides. The employer is required to comply with this law, and the penalty is designed to be significant enough that complying is cheaper than not.

CAN YOU ALSO SUE IN CIVIL COURT?

In some situations, yes. Beyond the remedies available inside the workers’ compensation system, an employer may also face a separate civil claim in California Superior Court for discriminating against you because of your work injury and resulting disability.

Those are two different tracks with different rules, and not every case supports both. The point worth knowing is that the workers’ compensation remedy is not always the only exposure an employer has when it retaliates against an injured worker.

DOES THIS ACTUALLY HAPPEN?

Most sophisticated employers would not be foolish enough to violate California law in this regard. They have human resources departments and employment counsel telling them exactly where the line is, and the majority of employers stay well behind it.

But it does happen. In my practice out of Santa Ana, the cases that come up tend to involve smaller operations without much HR guidance, or a supervisor acting on frustration rather than policy. When it does happen, the pattern is usually visible in the timing: the treatment changes shortly after the injury is reported, and nothing else about the job changed. Keeping your own written record of dates, conversations, and any documents you receive is the single most useful thing you can do while it is fresh.

I have spent over 30 years handling California workers’ compensation cases, and I have seen how much the fear of retaliation keeps injured workers from reporting legitimate injuries. If you are worried about what will happen at work after you file, or you believe something has already happened, that concern by itself is usually worth a phone call. This article is general information about California workers’ compensation and is not legal advice for any individual case.

Thomas F. Martin, PLC offers a free 30-minute case evaluation. Call (714) 547-5025.