“Eman really knows his stuff and we were very pleased with our end result.”
Myretta & Thomas Knorr
✦ Board-Certified Specialist in Workers’ Compensation Law — State Bar of California ✦
Your employer cannot punish you for getting hurt. If they did, we’ll make them pay.
By Eman Yazdchi, Esq. · Certified Specialist in Workers' Compensation Law
In most California communities, a worker who faces retaliation for filing a workers' compensation claim has options. They can find another employer, another industry, another path forward. In Boron, those options barely exist. The Rio Tinto Borax Mine is not just the largest employer in this Kern County community of 2,000 — it is, for practical purposes, the only employer of any scale. When a mine worker files a workers' comp claim and the employer responds with termination, demotion, reduced hours, or hostile treatment, the consequences are existential. Retaliation in a company town strikes harder than anywhere else, and that is precisely why the legal protections against it must be aggressively enforced.
Labor Code section 132a makes it a misdemeanor for any employer to discriminate against an employee because the employee has filed or intends to file a workers' compensation claim, has received a workers' compensation award, or has testified in another employee's workers' compensation proceeding. The statute provides for reinstatement, back pay, increased compensation of up to $10,000, and costs and expenses including attorney fees.
In theory, section 132a applies equally everywhere in California. In practice, the dynamics of retaliation in Boron are fundamentally different from what a worker in Los Angeles or Sacramento experiences. In a single-industry town where the mine employs a large portion of the working population, retaliation often operates through subtler channels than outright termination.
A mine worker who files a claim may find that shift assignments change — moved from a preferred day shift to a rotation that disrupts family life. Opportunities for overtime, which mining workers rely on for a significant portion of their income, may dry up. Supervisors may become suddenly critical of work performance that was never questioned before the claim was filed. The worker may be passed over for advancement while less experienced colleagues move up. In the close-knit environment of a mining operation, word gets around quickly, and the injured worker can find themselves isolated.
These forms of retaliation are harder to prove than a termination letter that says "you're fired because you filed a claim," but they are no less prohibited by law. Labor Code section 132a protects against any adverse action motivated by the exercise of workers' compensation rights.
A section 132a claim is heard by the Workers' Compensation Appeals Board — in Boron's case, the Bakersfield WCAB. The injured worker must demonstrate that they engaged in protected activity (filing a claim, testifying, receiving an award), that the employer took adverse action, and that there is a connection between the protected activity and the adverse action.
Timing is often the most telling evidence. If a worker who had satisfactory performance reviews for ten years at the mine suddenly receives disciplinary write-ups two weeks after filing a workers' comp claim, the inference of retaliatory motive is strong. Similarly, if an employee returns from medical leave for a mining injury only to find that their position has been eliminated or their duties have been substantially changed, the temporal proximity between the claim and the adverse action supports a retaliation finding.
Documentation is critical. Workers who suspect retaliation should keep a written record of every adverse change in their working conditions after filing a claim — shift changes, denied overtime, disciplinary actions, hostile comments from supervisors, changes in job duties. Emails, text messages, and witness statements from coworkers who observed the changed treatment all contribute to building a provable case.
The employer bears the burden of proving a legitimate, non-retaliatory reason for the adverse action once the employee establishes a prima facie case. In practice, this means the employer must produce documentation showing that the termination, demotion, or adverse action was based on legitimate business reasons unrelated to the workers' compensation claim. An experienced attorney knows how to test the credibility of these justifications through discovery and cross-examination.
What makes retaliation cases in Boron so consequential is the absence of alternatives. A mine worker retaliated against by Rio Tinto or one of its contractors cannot simply drive across town to another mining operation, another manufacturing plant, or another large employer. Boron does not have those options. The nearest substantial employment market is Palmdale, 60 miles to the south, or Bakersfield, even farther. Losing your position at the mine in Boron is not just losing a job — it can mean uprooting your family, selling your home in a market with few buyers, and rebuilding your life in a new community.
This economic reality gives employers enormous leverage, and it is precisely the leverage that section 132a is designed to counterbalance. The statute exists because the legislature recognized that without strong anti-retaliation protections, workers would be too afraid to exercise their legal right to workers' compensation benefits. In a company town, that fear is amplified tenfold.
Yazdchi Law P.C. takes retaliation cases seriously because we understand what is at stake for Boron mine workers. We pursue section 132a claims at the Bakersfield WCAB alongside the underlying workers' compensation claim, seeking reinstatement, back pay, the statutory penalty of up to $10,000 in increased compensation, and full costs and attorney fees. When an employer in a company town retaliates against an injured worker for exercising a legal right, the response must be forceful.
Injured at work in Boron? Call (661) 273-1780
Tap to call →Retaliation claims under section 132a involve distinct legal standards, burdens of proof, and remedies that differ from the underlying workers' compensation claim. Attorney Eman Yazdchi is Board-Certified in Workers' Compensation by the California State Bar — a credential held by fewer than 1% of California attorneys. This certification reflects expertise not only in disability and medical treatment issues but also in the anti-discrimination provisions of the Labor Code. For a Boron mine worker facing retaliation from the community's dominant employer, having a Board-Certified specialist advocate for your rights provides both legal strength and a measure of protection against further adverse action.
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