“Very thankful for everything they did for us. Always responsive, reassured us every step of the way and obtained a great result.”
Miguel Orellana
✦ 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
Canyon Country employers are not always happy when workers file workers' comp claims. The small construction companies along Soledad Canyon Road, the warehouse operations on Sierra Highway, the auto body shops and manufacturing plants that make up the SCV's industrial zone -- many of these businesses run on tight margins and view workers' comp claims as a direct threat to their bottom line. So they push back. They fire the injured worker. They cut hours. They reassign them to worse jobs. They tell coworkers the injured worker is faking it. Under California Labor Code Section 132a, every one of these actions is illegal. If your Canyon Country employer retaliated against you for filing a workers' comp claim, you have legal rights that a board-certified specialist can enforce.
Retaliation in Canyon Country's industrial workplaces takes both obvious and subtle forms. The obvious version is termination. A warehouse worker on Sierra Highway files a claim for a back injury from repetitive lifting and gets fired two weeks later. A framer on a Soledad Canyon Road construction crew reports a shoulder injury and is told not to come back Monday. A mechanic files for carpal tunnel and finds his shifts reduced to the point where quitting is the only option.
The subtle forms are just as damaging and sometimes harder to prove. An injured construction worker returns to light duty and is assigned to clean portable toilets instead of performing meaningful work within their restrictions. A warehouse supervisor starts writing up an injured employee for minor infractions that were never enforced before the claim was filed. A manufacturing worker returns from medical leave and finds their position has been given to someone else, with only undesirable shifts available.
Canyon Country's workforce is particularly vulnerable to retaliation because of the power dynamics in small industrial businesses. A framer who works for a five-person construction outfit knows that filing a claim may end his relationship with the only employer in his trade network who consistently offers work. A mechanic at a small auto shop knows the owner personally and fears that a claim will destroy the working relationship. Spanish-speaking workers may fear that retaliation will extend beyond the current job -- that word will spread and other employers in the Canyon Country industrial community will not hire them.
These fears are understandable but they should not prevent you from exercising your legal rights. Labor Code Section 132a exists specifically to protect workers in this position.
Section 132a is one of the strongest worker protection provisions in California labor law. It prohibits any employer from discharging, threatening to discharge, or discriminating against any employee because the employee filed or intended to file a workers' comp claim, received or was eligible to receive workers' comp benefits, or testified or intended to testify in another employee's workers' comp proceeding.
The remedies under 132a are substantial. A worker who proves retaliation is entitled to reinstatement to their former position, reimbursement for lost wages and benefits from the date of the retaliatory action, a penalty of up to $10,000 payable to the employee, and costs and expenses incurred in bringing the 132a claim. These remedies are in addition to the underlying workers' comp benefits for the industrial injury.
The 132a claim is filed at the Workers' Compensation Appeals Board -- for Canyon Country cases, that means the Van Nuys WCAB -- and is heard by a workers' comp judge. The burden of proof requires the injured worker to show that the retaliatory action was motivated by the workers' comp claim. Direct evidence of retaliation, such as statements by the employer connecting the termination to the claim, is the strongest evidence. But circumstantial evidence also supports 132a claims: the timing between the claim filing and the adverse action, inconsistent treatment compared to employees who did not file claims, and pretextual reasons given for the termination.
Construction. Canyon Country's construction industry operates through informal hiring networks. Framers, laborers, and trade workers often move between small contractors based on relationships and availability. When a worker files a claim, the employer may not formally terminate them -- instead, they simply stop calling the worker for jobs. This constructive termination is still actionable under 132a, but it requires documentation and legal strategy to prove.
Warehousing. Warehouse employers along Sierra Highway may retaliate by assigning injured workers to the most physically demanding tasks upon their return, knowing the worker cannot perform them under their medical restrictions. When the worker fails to perform, the employer terminates them for cause. This is a classic pretext termination and is exactly the type of conduct 132a prohibits.
Auto shops and manufacturing. Small auto shops in Canyon Country may retaliate by reducing hours, changing compensation structures, or creating a hostile work environment that forces the injured worker to quit. Constructive termination -- making conditions so intolerable that a reasonable person would resign -- is treated as a discharge under 132a.
Yazdchi Law treats retaliation claims with the same seriousness as the underlying injury claim. The firm begins by documenting the timeline: when the injury occurred, when the claim was filed, what the employer knew, and when the adverse action took place. Close temporal proximity between a claim filing and an adverse employment action is strong circumstantial evidence of retaliation.
The firm gathers employment records, communications between the worker and employer, witness statements from coworkers, and any documentation of the employer's stated reason for the adverse action. If the employer claims the termination was for poor performance, Yazdchi Law examines whether the worker received performance criticism before the claim was filed. If the employer claims a layoff, the firm investigates whether other workers without claims were also laid off.
For Canyon Country's Spanish-speaking workforce, the firm ensures that all communications, declarations, and testimony are accurately translated and that the worker's account of the retaliation is fully and precisely presented to the workers' comp judge at the Van Nuys WCAB.
Injured at work in Canyon Country? Call (661) 273-1780
Tap to call →Retaliation claims require a lawyer who understands both the substantive law of workers' compensation and the procedural requirements of 132a litigation. Eman Yazdchi is a Board-Certified Workers' Compensation Specialist -- fewer than 1% of California attorneys hold this credential. The firm handles retaliation claims at the Van Nuys WCAB for Canyon Country workers and has the litigation experience to hold employers accountable when they punish workers for exercising their legal rights.
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