You got injured on the job, and you know you need to file a workers’ compensation claim. It’s the only way that you’re going to be able to pay your bills, especially your medical bills, while you recover. After all, your employer has workers’ comp insurance for this very purpose, and you simply want to use it.
However, you’re worried that your boss is not going to be happy with you for filing the claim. They may already be frustrated that you got injured in the first place because it impacts the workforce that is available to them. If you do file the claim, are they going to hold it against you and retaliate in some way?
Retaliation is illegal
As a general rule, retaliating against an employer for filing a workers’ comp claim is illegal. This is because workers have a right to compensation, and they are simply exercising their legal rights. Any time that they do this, employers have to allow them to do it without obstruction. This means that they cannot retaliate or threaten to do so in order to influence the employee’s behavior.
Retaliation may mean being terminated, but it could take out a lot of other forms, as well. For instance, some people have reported being reassigned to a new job that they didn’t want as much, rather than being allowed to keep the job that they had. Others have seen their pay or their hours cut. Still others have started to get negative performance reviews, even though their performance had been exemplary up to that point.
These are just a few examples of ways that employers will retaliate against workers, and your boss may even think that it’s justified. But don’t forget that this is a violation of your rights and you can take legal action if this retaliation occurs throughout the entire workers’ compensation process. That’s why it’s so important that you understand all of your legal rights.
