Especially on the Internet, the voices about the unfairness of work are louder than the ones that express gratitude for employment income and the social relationships one builds while working; depending on your industry, these relationships can be with coworkers, customers, colleagues in your wider professional field, or the beneficiaries of your work, such as students if you work in a school. Even if your job causes you lots of worry and frustration, you are grateful to be healthy enough to work.
An injury can change all of that in an instant. Whether you recover quickly enough to return to work within the same pay period or you have to stay out of work for months, it is enough to mess with your finances, especially since so many people in the workforce today live on such a tight budget. Things are even worse when the injury is so severe that you can no longer do a job as physically demanding as the one you used to do before you got injured.
From a legal standpoint, the best place to get injured is at work, since legal protections are stronger for people who require treatment of work-related injuries than they are for people who get injured under other circumstances. Getting compensation for a work injury is supposed to be easy, but employers sometimes make it difficult. There is a difference, though, between the usual bureaucratic hurdles that come with workers’ compensation claims, on the one hand, and unlawful retaliation, on the other. The Boulder retaliation for filing a workers’ comp claim lawyers at HKM Employment Attorneys LLP can help you if your employer fired you or otherwise penalized you for filing a workers’ compensation claim.
How the Workers’ Comp System Works
When people get injured in accidents, they have the right to get compensation for their accident-related medical bills and other accident-related financial losses by filing a personal injury lawsuit against the party whose negligence caused the accident. Negligence in this context means failure to use reasonable caution. For example, if a dog bites you, you can sue the dog’s owner. In situations where accidents are common, the law often requires people to carry insurance to pay for accident-related damage. For example, all vehicle owners in Colorado must carry liability insurance to cover vehicle repairs and medical bills in an accident where the driver is at fault. Likewise, businesses must carry commercial liability insurance to cover premises liability claims, where a customer gets injured at a place of business, and physicians must carry risk management insurance to cover medical malpractice claims. In all of these cases, the burden of proof is on the claimant to prove negligence. Not everyone who gets into a car accident is at fault, and it is not always a case of medical malpractice when a patient gets sicker after visiting a doctor.
The Workers’ Compensation Act was enacted to protect workers and employers from the costs of litigating claims arising from workplace injuries. Under federal and state workers’ compensation laws, the employer assumes responsibility whenever an employee gets injured in the workplace or while on duty and performing work tasks. The employee must report the accident as soon as it happens, and the employer must pay for all treatment of the work-related injury. You can also file a workers’ comp claim if you receive a diagnosis for an occupational disease. What counts as an occupational disease depends on your occupation. For example, if your work involves occupational exposure to carcinogens, then certain types of cancer might count as occupational diseases, even though employers must minimize exposure as much as possible by providing protective equipment. Common infectious diseases like colds and influenza are not covered under workers’ comp, because they are so common and so contagious that it is almost impossible to prove that you got infected at work instead of anywhere else.
Filing a Workers’ Compensation Claim is a Protected Activity
Workers’ compensation claims are annoying for employees and employers. Unless the claim is for a minor injury that can be resolved in a few doctors’ office visits, a lot of hair-splitting goes on. Insurance companies are in the business of paying as little as they can on claims. The workers’ comp doctors who treat you are working for your employer, who pays for the insurance, not for you. Therefore, it can be hard to get all the treatment you need paid for. In the case of serious injuries, workers’ comp must also pay benefits to replace part of your income when you cannot work, or can only work at reduced capacity, because of your injuries. It must also pay to retrain you for another job if you cannot return to your old job after your injury.
If employers had their way, workers would not file workers’ comp claims at all. Despite this, filing a workers’ compensation claim is a legally protected activity, which means that it is illegal for your employer to retaliate against you for doing it. Other examples of protected activities include filing a discrimination complaint, requesting a FAMLI leave, or reporting workplace safety hazards to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). Retaliation occurs when an employer takes an adverse action against you, such as harassing you at work, negatively evaluating your job performance, denying you a promotion for which you are eligible, or terminating your employment, in response to you engaging in a protected activity.
Legal Remedies for Unfair Denial of Claims and Retaliation for Filing a Workers’ Compensation Claim
Denial of a workers’ compensation claim or only agreeing to pay some of the compensation you requested does not count as retaliation. There is a separate adjudication process for disputes arising from workers’ comp claims. You need an employer retaliation lawyer if your employer started mistreating you because of your workers’ compensation claim.
Contact HKM Employment Attorneys, LLP, About Employer Retaliation
The Boulder employment lawyers at HKM Employment Attorneys, LLP, can counsel you about employer retaliation for filing a workers’ comp claim. Call the employment lawyers at HKM Employment Attorneys LLP in Boulder, Colorado, to set up a consultation.
