Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation- Co-Worker Retaliation

If you get hurt at work, you often have a legal right to file for and obtain benefits through Workers’ Compensation.  However, some employers and coworkers want to literally add insult to injury, and you might end up being fired, facing other adverse employment actions, or simply being harassed by coworkers because of your claim.

Generally speaking, it is absolutely illegal for your employer to fire you or take other actions against you because you filed a Workers’ Comp claim.  They may be able to let you go or fire you for other legitimate reasons tied to your injury, but doing so might appear to be retaliation and can get them in trouble if they harm your rights.  However, there is less restriction on what coworkers and other employees can do and say – but if it rises to the level of your employer failing to prevent this kind of harassment, it might become their violation.

Call our Certified Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation Lawyers for help with a Workers’ Comp case by calling Cardamone Law at (267) 651-7945 today.

What is Retaliation in Employment and Workers’ Comp Law in Pennsylvania?

Retaliation, in the common sense of the word, is backlash – doing something bad to someone because of something they did to you.  In an employment sense, retaliation usually happens when the employee did something they were legally entitled to do, like report something bad that happened to them or file a Workers’ Comp claim after an injury.  If an employer retaliates against an employee for doing these kinds of things, it is usually illegal, giving the employee a cause of action to sue and get their job reinstated or seek damages for what happened.

When it comes to filing Workers’ Comp claims, retaliation usually comes as an attempt to punish the injured worker either for causing their injury in the first place or for costing the employer time and money to deal with the claim or pay for their injury.  In many senses, an employer should see injuries as an unfortunate inevitability and rely on their insurance to pay for everything.  There is no justification for an employer to get mad at an employee for being injured or for needing medical care and lost earnings covered – it’s just a part of doing business.

Retaliation actions usually come in the form of termination/firing or other “adverse employment actions.”  While firing someone for filing a Workers’ Comp claim would clearly be retaliation, many cases of retaliation have much lighter negative actions taken against the worker, such as reinstating them to a job of lower status, transferring them, demoting them, or otherwise doing something to humiliate or demean them in the workplace.

When is Retaliation from an Employer Illegal for Workers’ Comp Claims in Pennsylvania?

It can be difficult to draw a line between what is illegal retaliation and what is within an employer’s rights because work injuries often result in serious disabilities and situations that potentially make it impossible or impractical to keep an injured worker’s job open for them.  As such, there are many ways that an employer can legally fire someone after a work injury that might not qualify as retaliation, and it can often take advice and help from a Workers’ Compensation lawyer to identify retaliation.

Legal Firings

It is perfectly legal for an employer to let you go after a work injury if the injury stops you from being able to perform your job duties.  There may be laws like the federal Family Medical Leave Act that allow you to keep your job held open (without pay) for 12 weeks, but in most cases, there is nothing requiring an employer to keep your job open if your injury is going to keep you out of work for a long time.  They might need to fill the job and, by the time you are ready to return to work, there might not be enough work to hire you back.

Accommodations and Denied Accommodations

Additionally, if you are able to return to work at a limited capacity while receiving Workers’ Comp benefits, your current medical limitations might still prevent you from doing your old job at full capacity.  In this case, an employer might be able to offer modified job tasks or reduced hours.  If they simply cannot accommodate you, they may be permitted to let you go.

However, the line here is crossed if your employer can reasonably accommodate you and chooses not to.

Examples of Retaliation Upon Return/Rehiring

You may also be a victim of retaliation if they do give you your job back but complain that you’re costing them money or otherwise make you feel bad about taking your job back.

Retaliation can also happen if you are eventually rehired, but you are rehired to a lower position, transferred to a low-status location, made to travel much further to get to your new work site, or otherwise face negative outcomes such as pay cuts, title changes, bad hours, etc.

Retaliation by Coworkers in Pennsylvania Workers’ Comp Cases

Retaliation laws apply primarily to employers specifically, not the other people you work with.  A manager or direct supervisor is likely an extension of your “employer,” and so negative comments, lost projects, denied vacation, or other adverse employment actions from your direct supervisor would qualify as adverse actions from your employer.  However, what if it is just your coworkers, equals, and other department members making you feel bad for having a work injury?

In many cases, employers have policies against harassment and these kinds of actions and comments from coworkers.  If they fail to enforce these policies with regard to your harassment, that might itself constitute retaliation.  In other cases, the people you work with might be harassing you because of explicit or implicit instructions from superiors to make your job harder to punish you for your Workers’ Comp claim.  However, proving this kind of implicit instruction or conspiracy to any legal standard might be difficult without things like emails and records proving that your coworkers and employers were working together to harass you.

Even so, you might be able to make complaints to your employers or human resources about this harassment and, if they fail to investigate, it might become institutional harassment or retaliation.  Moreover, the looming threat of a retaliation lawsuit might encourage employers to crack down on this kind of coworker harassment.

Call Our Workers’ Compensation Lawyers in Pennsylvania Today

Call Cardamone Law at (267) 651-7945 for a free case assessment with our Allentown, PA Workers’ Compensation lawyers.