According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were 2.5 million recorded nonfatal injuries and illnesses in the private industry in 2024. These injuries and illnesses can lead to several challenges in a worker’s life.
Labor laws protect workers and provide them with certain assistance, especially when they are injured at work. According to Palm Springs workers’ compensation lawyer Juan Manuel Armenta, you can be eligible to receive workers’ compensation benefits after suffering from the incidents.
An employer cannot fire someone specifically when they filed a workers’ compensation claim. Firing an injured employee without doing the accommodation process required under federal disability law may violate the Americans with Disabilities Act. If an employer times discipline, layoffs, or termination to make it look unrelated to the injury, then he or she may face legal sanctions for a retaliatory discharge.
Figuring out which legal frameworks apply and what each requires often helps an injured worker decide whether the termination was lawful or something they can challenge.
Workers’ Compensation Retaliation: The Core Protection
Every state has a workers’ compensation law with a built-in anti-retaliation clause. This brings up the question, “Can you be fired if you have a work-related injury or illness?”
In practice, employers are not allowed to discharge an employee, demote them, threaten them, or impose some other type of penalty after they have filed a workers’ compensation claim. Reporting a work injury or exercising any right under the workers’ comp system are also protected actions that cannot be grounds for termination. These safeguards are mandatory and cannot be waived.
When it comes to the specific criteria for retaliation, the definition may vary between states. In most cases, the occurrence of such a claim would imply several key aspects. The first aspect is that the worker undertook some sort of protected activity (e.g., filed a lawsuit or reported a work-related illness). The employer then became aware of this activity and took measures to terminate the employee. Most people overlook the timing of the incident, which more often than not is an important factor. If the firing happens days or weeks after the workers’ comp claim is put in, and there is no earlier trail of performance troubles, that timing can be circumstantially in line with retaliation.
California law provides an evidentiary shortcut. if an employee is fired within 90 days of filing a workers’ compensation claim, there is a strong indication of retaliation. The employer will be asked to provide evidence for any termination being imposed on genuine grounds. In places where no such affirmation of the law is present, the employee bears the burden of establishing causation.
At-Will Employment and Its Limits
Most American workers are employed on an at-will basis, allowing any party (employer or employee) to terminate their professional relationship at will without providing any specific excuse. This arrangement often makes both employers and employees think the employer has this unlimited termination power, but that belief is not right. At-will employment does have long-standing exceptions that overrule it, and retaliation tied to workers’ compensation is one of the most frequent examples.
The public policy exception to at-will employment shows up across virtually every state. It stops employers from firing someone for causes that violate clearly established public policy, including state workers’ compensation statutes. Even where a state lacks a specific anti-retaliation statute, courts have still recognized that letting an employee go for using workers’ comp rights runs against public policy. This legal precedent can support a wrongful termination claim in tort. An employer cannot hide behind at-will status as a shield against liability for retaliatory discharge.
What at-will employment does allow is termination for legitimate, non-retaliatory reasons even when the worker has a pending workers’ comp claim. Lawful reasons for termination include a companywide layoff that eliminates the employee’s position, a preexisting documented performance record, or a genuine business restructuring. When assessing whether a worker’s termination is valid, one must consider whether the termination would have still occurred even if the employee had never been injured.
The ADA and the Employer’s Duty to Accommodate
When an on-the-job accident or illness leads to a permanent impairment, the Americans with Disabilities Act gives rise to further responsibilities on the part of an employer. The Act applies to entities employing more than 15 people. The ADA doesn’t cover all work injuries and only applies to those that result in a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits a major life activity. A broken finger that heals in weeks probably does not qualify for ADA. Not being able to stand, lift, or walk after an injury to the spinal cord may most likely make an individual eligible.
When the ADA is in effect, it means that the employer should be willing to work closely with the employee to identify possible accommodations that will help the employee perform his or her work duties.
Accommodations could be in the form of altering shift commitments or reassignment to less straining jobs. If possible, a change of work space with assistive equipment and work-from-home arrangements should be offered. In some cases, moving the individual based on the skills and qualifications to other relevant jobs may be necessary.
The ADA does not require an employer to make an entirely new job, eliminate necessary job functions, or retain a worker who is unable to perform the work even with any appropriate modifications. Under the undue hardship doctrine, an employer is entitled to deny an accommodation if it would cause an excessive burden.
The employer has to actually review the accommodation request and make a real effort to land on a workable answer before ending employment. If the employer fails to engage in the process or pretends to be engaged without genuinely considering alternatives, that can constitute a violation on its own.
An injured worker fired without the employer discussing accommodation options should ask whether the ADA was relevant and if the failure to accommodate constituted a violation, separate from any workers’ comp retaliation claim.
Workers’ Comp Benefits Continue After Termination
An important fact many injured workers do not know is that losing your job does not automatically stop your workers’ compensation benefits. Once a workers’ comp claim is in place, benefits are tied to the injury and the worker’s limits, not to the job contract. If you are still getting medical treatment, or you are still partially disabled or fully disabled when the termination happens, benefits usually continue.
What changes is the wage replacement calculation. Workers’ comp temporary disability benefits are figured as a percentage of your pre-injury average weekly wage. If you are terminated and you would have kept earning wages but for the injury, that calculation can shift depending on the state. The workers’ comp insurer can’t just slash benefits on its own following the firing of the employee involved. Any adjustment to ongoing benefits has to go through the state workers’ comp board.
How to Identify Whether a Termination Was Retaliatory
Employers rarely admit that the termination order they have issued resulted from an employee filing a workers’ comp claim. Retaliatory terminations often get covered up as performance-related terminations, job role eliminations, or attendance-based discharges. To figure out the real basis of a firing incident, pay attention to what was happening around the time of the termination.
Some signs that the termination may be retaliatory include this: the termination happens soon after the injury report or claim filing, and there were no earlier documented performance issues. If an employee had previously received positive reviews before the injury and coworkers in similar roles were not terminated, then it can be another sign of unlawful firing. An individual should investigate more If the reason given for termination doesn’t match the employee’s actual work history, the termination came with odd pressure to resign, drop the claim, or sign releases, and supervisors made remarks about the injury, the time away, or the price of the claim.
Documentation matters a lot. An employee who maintains copies of performance reviews, emails from supervisors, and records of chats with HR ends up building an evidentiary trail that an attorney can serve to challenge the stated rationale for a termination. The time to start making that record is before the termination happens, not afterward.
Remedies Available for Wrongful Termination After a Work Injury
A successful wrongful termination case tied to workers’ comp retaliation can result in reinstatement to the same earlier role, along with back pay for lost wages starting from the termination date. There can also be compensation for future earnings that are gone if reinstatement is not workable and, in a few jurisdictions, additional damages for emotional distress. Some state laws even discuss attorney’s fees and costs, so the employee might be able to file a retaliation matter without paying legal fees out of pocket if they win.
Federal disability discrimination claims under the ADA are handled by the EEOC. Meanwhile, state-level retaliation claims are handled by workers’ compensation agencies or the state labor department. Keep in mind that the exact deadlines and paperwork steps vary a lot by jurisdiction.
The deadline to file a retaliation or wrongful termination claim is not the same as the deadline for a workers’ comp claim. These are separate legal actions with their own statutes of limitations, usually somewhere between one and three years depending on the state and the legal theory. If an employee waits too long, they can end up losing the underlying comp claim and also any retaliation claim at the same time.
The Questions to Ask After a Post-Injury Termination
When someone gets terminated after a work injury, three questions tend to determine whether the termination was lawful. First, was the termination causally tied to the injury report or to the workers’ comp claim itself? Also check if the injury is the primary cause of a restrictive condition under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and if the employer fulfilled the objective of facilitating the accommodation process. Was the reason given for the termination correct, or was it just a convenient excuse used to justify retaliation?
An employee who can answer any of those questions in a way that makes illegal behavior seem likely could have a potential claim. Preserving the evidence, acting within the deadlines that apply, and talking to an employment attorney who handles retaliation in workers’ comp cases are the practical moves that end up determining what can actually be done about it. The U.S. Department of Labor’s Workers’ Compensation Programs and the EEOC guidance on disability discrimination also provide additional background on the federal frameworks that may come into play.
