Hi, my name is Kirsten Krueger and two years ago, I was in a car accident. I was stopped at a stop sign when the driver behind me slammed into my car. Due to my injuries, I had to spend a few days in the hospital and I was unable to work for two months. My medical care was expensive and without being able to work, I couldn't pay my bills. The car accident was stressful enough and then I had to worry about how I would pay my bills. After speaking with a car accident lawyer, it wasn't long before I was compensated for my medical bills and lost wages from work. I'm writing this blog to help others who have been a car accident and haven't received any compensation. As you read my posts, you'll learn how an attorney can help you if you're in a vehicle accident.
Workers' compensation laws forbid employers from retaliating against employees who file workers' compensation laws. Unfortunately, this hasn't stopped employers from taking retaliatory actions against employees. Below are some of the things you can use to prove that your employer has not observed the anti-retaliatory laws.
Application for Compensation
Federal and state laws protect workers and ensure they can work without fear of harassment from employers or colleagues. Employees have certain rights that their employers must respect. Thus, if an employer fires an employee for asserting their legal rights, then the employer may be liable for the employee's damages.
Workers' compensation is one of the protected rights of employees. Thus, when an employer retaliates against an employee for filing a workers' compensation claim, then the employee can seek compensation from the employer. The employee has to prove that they had applied, attempted to apply, or talked about applying for workers' compensation before the retaliation from the employer.
Connection to Claim
The employee also has to prove a connection between the retaliatory actions and the workers' compensation claim. Many people who sue for retaliatory actions face difficulties with this proof. An employer can easily argue that their actions were in response to the employee's actions at work, such as performance declines, or other issues not related to the specific employee.
Employees contemplating such claims should gather the evidence before making their applications. For example, other employees can testify on behalf of the injured employee, recordings of the employer can be used as evidence, and the impeccable workplace history of the employee can also be used to exclude other potential triggers for the employer's actions.
Threat or Actual Retaliation
Employers retaliate against employees in different ways. An employer can demote an employee, transfer them to a less desirable position, fire them, dock their pay, or deny them promotional opportunities. In each of those cases, the employee will need to prove how the employer's actions have affected their welfare.
However, an employer doesn't have to act on their retaliatory actions to face the consequences; even mere threats of retention counts. Consider a case where an employer overhears an employee contemplating to file a workers' compensation claim, and the employer threatens the employee with a demotion. That threat is enough to trigger a legal claim against the employer if the employee can prove it.
Hopefully, you won't face any retaliatory actions from your employer when you file your workers' compensation claim. If you do face such actions (or if you are unsure), consult a workers' compensation lawyer to help you with the necessary legal actions, or look up more information online from professional sources, like http://mcmullenochs.com.
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