This article is a few years old, but it provides great insight into the ins and outs of workers’ compensation retaliation cases. In particular, the article really highlights a couple important issues. First, even if a workers’ compensation claim is denied, an employer cannot discriminate against an employee for invoking or utilizing the workers’ compensation system. Second, the cases often highlight the unfair actions of management. Where discharge or demotion occurs shortly after the complained-of conduct, an employee’s ability to demonstrate the wrongful conduct is enhanced. As the article explains:
The main reason is that it is easier to prove retaliation than discrimination. Managers look at the fact that the employee was fired only days or weeks after filing a workers’ compensation claim or an EEO charge. Retaliation cases are easy to prove when this short window of timing occurs between the two events. There is no such shortcut of proof in discrimination cases. Juries seem more inclined to believe that someone would retaliate than discriminate based on race, sex or other protected minority-status factors.
