If you suffered from an injury at work, it is likely that you had to take unpaid leave in order to recover. While workers’ compensation insurance can go a long way toward helping you to recoup the wages that you lost as well as reimburse medical premiums that you needed to pay, there are some additional protections that you are entitled to as a worker who was injured on the job.
Many workers unfortunately suffer consequences after taking time off to recover from an injury. Because of the time spent away from the workplace, some employers decide unlawfully to retaliate against their injured workers when they return to work. This might be through demotion, a decrease in the wages or the responsibilities that the worker receives or they might decide to retaliate by terminating the worker’s employment completely.
Although this behavior might sound alarming, it is important to note that any retaliation fueled by a worker’s job-related injury is completely unacceptable. If an employee has a reason to believe that he or she is being retaliated against because of his or her injury at work, it is vital that action is taken to draw attention to this type of unlawful behavior.
That said, while retaliation is unlawful, it is still possible for an employee to lawfully terminate the employment of an injured worker after he or she returns to work. However, the injury can never be the reason behind the firing.
If you have recently returned to work after a job-related injury, you should take action if you have been subject to any adverse treatment.