Employers: Don’t Fire Injured Workers
We recently obtained a recovery for an injured worker whom we alleged was fired solely because of the injured worker’s filing of a workers’ compensation claim. It wasn’t a king’s ransom and it wasn’t nothing. Confidentiality provisions prevent us from saying anything further. And even though it might have been a fraction of the recovery of many of the substantial workers’ comp cases we do, the claim was nevertheless incredibly important. It was taking a stand.
MD Labor and Employment 9-1105 says that:
(a) An employer may not discharge a covered employee from employment solely because the covered employee files a claim for compensation under this title.
(b) A person who violates this section is guilty of a misdemeanor and on conviction is subject to a fine not exceeding $500 or imprisonment not exceeding 1 year or both.
As you can see, it’s a law with a criminal penalty. Violation of a statute can be evidence of negligence.
This is a bad law for injured workers. “Sole cause” is a tough thing to prove. Ideally, this will get changed at some point to better protect injured workers.
At Warnken, LLC, if our client is fired and we believe that the sole cause is filing a comp claim, even if there is another made up reason, we will pursue it. We will not let that go. We will protect our clients.