“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
You reported your injury — a back injury from lifting on a construction site along Avenue P, a shoulder tear from warehouse work you commute to in Palmdale, or a knee injury from concrete finishing on a residential project near 170th Street East. You filed your DWC-1 claim form. And then your employer fired you, stopped dispatching you to jobs, cut your hours to nothing, or made conditions so unbearable you had no choice but to quit. This is workers' compensation retaliation, and it is illegal under California Labor Code §132a.
Retaliation hits Lake Los Angeles workers harder than most communities because of the employment dynamics in this underserved area. Many Lake LA workers are hired through temp agencies and staffing companies that dispatch them to construction sites, warehouses, and trade jobs across the Antelope Valley. When a temp worker files a workers' comp claim, the staffing agency's easiest move is to simply stop calling with assignments — a quiet form of termination that leaves no paper trail. Small construction contractors fire injured laborers and hire replacements the next day. Employers of all sizes count on Lake LA workers being too isolated, too economically vulnerable, or too unaware of their rights to fight back. They are wrong.
Attorney Eman Yazdchi is board-certified in workers' compensation law and handles LC §132a retaliation claims for Lake LA workers from our Palmdale office, 25 miles west. The penalties for employer retaliation are severe — reinstatement to your job, full back pay for the period you were wrongfully terminated, and a mandatory penalty increase of $10,000 or more added to your workers' comp award. If the retaliation was egregious, you may also file a separate civil wrongful termination lawsuit for emotional distress and punitive damages.
Labor Code §132a is California's primary weapon against employer retaliation in the workers' compensation context. The statute's policy declaration is unambiguous: "It is the declared policy of this state that there should not be discrimination against workers who are injured in the course and scope of their employment." Every employer operating in California — from multinational staffing agencies to one-truck construction outfits — is bound by this law.
Retaliation is any adverse employment action taken because you filed or indicated an intent to file a workers' comp claim. It does not need to be outright termination. We have successfully prosecuted all of the following for Lake LA workers:
To prevail on an LC §132a claim, we must establish:
Staffing agencies that serve the Lake LA workforce use a particularly insidious form of retaliation: they simply stop calling. There is no termination letter, no formal firing — your phone just stops ringing with job assignments. Meanwhile, the agency continues dispatching other workers to the same host companies. This is textbook retaliation under LC §132a. We prove it through dispatch records showing your assignment history before and after the claim, testimony from co-workers who continued receiving jobs, and evidence that the agency had available assignments matching your qualifications that were given to others.
If we establish retaliation, the WCAB can order:
Beyond the WCAB, you may file a separate civil wrongful termination lawsuit in Los Angeles County Superior Court. Civil claims allow recovery of emotional distress damages, punitive damages, and full lost earnings — remedies not available through the workers' comp system alone. We evaluate every Lake LA retaliation case for both LC §132a and civil remedies, pursuing both when the facts support it.
Injured at work in Lake Los Angeles? Call (661) 273-1780
Tap to call →LC §132a retaliation claims for Lake LA workers are filed and litigated at the Van Nuys WCAB. Civil wrongful termination claims are filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court. Our firm handles both proceedings and coordinates the legal strategy between them to maximize total recovery.
Retaliation claims under LC §132a must be filed at the WCAB within one year of the discriminatory act. Civil wrongful termination claims have a two-year statute of limitations. Do not wait — evidence disappears and witnesses forget. Contact our Palmdale office at (661) 273-1780 the moment retaliation occurs. Lake LA workers should not have to suffer in silence.
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