Kentucky law strictly prohibits firing an employee because they have sought workers’ compensation
Workers’ compensation aims to support injured or ill employees until they return to work or provide disability benefits if they are unable to return to work. But workers’ compensation law does not protect the injured or ill worker’s position from elimination.
An injured or ill employee who deserves workers’ compensation should never avoid filing for benefits for fear of losing their job. If you have been put out of work because of a job-related injury or illness in Kentucky, the experienced workers’ compensation lawyers of Morgan, Collins, Yeast & Salyer want to help you seek the benefits you deserve and counsel you about preserving your job if it is threatened.
Contact us today to set up your free consultation with a workers’ comp lawyer with the Kentucky Courage to stand up and fight for you.
What You Need to Know About Job Security While on Workers’ Comp
Employers are not responsible for keeping a job open for injured employees while they are out of work and receiving workers’ compensation or for providing the same job upon the employee’s return. Even when working under doctor’s restrictions for light duty, the employee’s job may be terminated.
However, the employer must have a legitimate reason for eliminating the workers’ comp recipient’s job or position, such as a reduction-in-force layoff or other business rationale. They cannot fire or lay off an employee simply because they sought workers’ compensation benefits. Kentucky law says, “No employee shall be harassed, coerced, discharged, or discriminated against in any manner whatsoever for filing and pursuing a lawful claim” under Kentucky Revised Statutes Chapter 342, which establishes and regulates the workers’ compensation program.
However, an injured employee’s disability may be a legitimate reason for letting them go without eliminating their job. If an employee requires reasonable accommodations to perform the essential functions of their job, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requires private employers with 15 or more employees to provide them. But if no reasonable accommodation can be made to allow the employee to perform the essential functions of their job correctly, the employer does not have to keep the employee on.
Essential functions are job duties that are fundamental to the position – the reason the job exists. The employer has the right to decide what a job’s duties are. Accommodations are considered “reasonable” if they do not create an undue hardship or a direct safety threat.
The principle is that businesses aren’t required to suffer financial harm to accommodate workers’ comp recipients. They don’t have to keep jobs open that they have legitimate reasons to eliminate, and they do not have to spend exorbitant amounts of money, jeopardize other workers, or change the nature of a job to accommodate a worker’s disability.
Can You Collect Workers’ Compensation After Being Let Go?
Workers’ compensation benefits are meant to support you until you have recovered or provide disability compensation if you are permanently disabled. Your benefits – payment of all medical bills and replacement of up to two-thirds of your lost wages – should continue regardless of your employment status.
If you are still under a doctor’s care and cannot work or can only work under restrictions, you should continue to receive workers’ compensation benefits after being fired.
Being terminated for disciplinary reasons is the exception to this. If you were fired for misconduct, your employer’s obligation to provide workers’ compensation benefits also terminates.
Feeling Unjustly Treated by Your Employer?
If you have been fired for seeking or obtaining workers’ compensation in Kentucky, you have the right to sue your former employer. In a successful suit, you may recover:
- Lost wages since being fired (back pay) and that you would have earned in the future (front pay)
- Compensation for emotional distress and mental anguish
- Compensation for damage to your reputation
- Attorney’s fees and costs
Kentucky law allows you to file a lawsuit if your employer harasses, coerces, discharges, or discriminates against you in any manner for having sought workers’ compensation benefits. These illegal actions might look like your employer:
- Pressuring you to return to work before you have fully recovered
- Threatening to eliminate your job
- Failing to provide reasonable accommodations needed to perform your job
- Segregating you from other employees upon your return to work
- Withholding appropriate pay raises or promotions
- Trying to turn other employees against you and creating an adverse work environment
- Engaging in, encouraging, or allowing abusive behavior, such as jokes and mocking, meant to demean you for being disabled
Contact a KY Workers’ Compensation Attorney About Mistreatment After a Claim
Some employers will unlawfully fire employees on workers’ compensation because they want to save money and think the injured workers will not know what they can do about it. But at Morgan, Collins, Yeast & Salyer, we’re ready to teach you about your rights as an injured worker and help you fight back against mistreatment from your employer.
We know it takes Kentucky Courage to take a stand against an employer intent on running you off or making your work life miserable after a workers’ compensation claim. We are prepared to stand up for you. Our workers’ compensation attorneys will fight to make sure you’re getting the workers’ comp benefits you deserve, and we’ll help you sue to seek compensation for any mistreatment or wrongful termination you have been subjected to. Remember, a lawsuit can demand your employer pay your attorneys’ fees, meaning the case could cost you nothing.
Contact us today for your free consultation with one of our workers’ compensation attorneys. We take cases from across Kentucky at offices in Lexington, Somerset, Manchester, North & South London, Hazard, Paducah, Paintsville, Prestonsburg, and Princeton.
