“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 filed a workers' compensation claim because you were hurt on the job. It was your legal right. Your employer responded by firing you, cutting your hours, demoting you, or making your work life miserable. This is retaliation, and California law prohibits it unequivocally. Labor Code section 132a makes it illegal for any employer to discharge, threaten, or discriminate against a worker for filing or intending to file a workers' comp claim. In Van Nuys, where small businesses, auto shops, and local operations may feel the financial sting of a workers' comp claim more acutely than a large corporation, retaliation is a persistent problem. Yazdchi Law P.C. fights retaliation claims at the Van Nuys WCAB District Office, holding employers accountable when they punish workers for exercising their rights.
Retaliation is not always as obvious as a pink slip the day after you file a claim. Employers have become more sophisticated in disguising discriminatory actions, but experienced attorneys recognize the patterns.
The most blatant form. You report an injury, file a claim, and shortly afterward you are fired. The employer may cite a pretextual reason — "reorganization," "performance issues," "position eliminated" — but the timing tells the real story. When a worker who had no documented performance problems suddenly faces termination after filing a workers' comp claim, the inference of retaliation is strong.
Instead of firing you outright, the employer reduces your hours, moves you from profitable shifts to slow ones, or eliminates your overtime. In Van Nuys's service industry — restaurants along Sherman Way, retail shops, auto service operations — where a significant portion of income depends on shift assignments and tips, this kind of retaliation can cut your earnings dramatically without the employer having to formally terminate you.
Your supervisor makes comments about your injury, questions whether you are really hurt, or suggests you are taking advantage of the system. Coworkers are encouraged to view you as a burden. You are excluded from team activities, singled out for minor rule violations, or given the worst tasks available. The goal is to make you so uncomfortable that you quit — a constructive termination that the employer hopes will avoid legal liability.
Your doctor clears you to return to work with restrictions — no heavy lifting, limited standing, modified duties. Your employer claims there is no work available within those restrictions, even when similar accommodations have been made for other workers or when the restrictions could easily be accommodated with minor adjustments. This forces you onto continued temporary disability and signals to the workforce that filing a claim leads to marginalization.
In Van Nuys's auto repair community along Van Nuys Boulevard, where shop owners know each other and mechanics move between shops based on reputation and referral, an employer who spreads word that a worker filed a claim can effectively end that worker's local career. Similarly, aviation maintenance workers at Van Nuys Airport may find themselves unhirable at other FBOs after filing a claim if word travels through the small community of airport employers.
A successful retaliation claim requires demonstrating three elements:
The timing between your claim and the adverse action is often the strongest evidence of causation. An employer who fires a worker within days or weeks of a workers' comp filing faces a powerful inference of retaliation. But temporal proximity alone may not be enough — your attorney should also develop evidence of the employer's stated reasons for the action and demonstrate that those reasons are pretextual.
Documentary evidence is critical. Save emails, text messages, performance reviews, schedule records, and any written communications that show the timeline and the employer's shifting justifications. If coworkers witnessed retaliatory statements or actions, their testimony can be valuable.
A successful LC section 132a petition entitles you to:
In addition, section 132a makes retaliation a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of up to $10,000 and imprisonment in county jail for up to one year. While criminal prosecution is rare, the existence of criminal penalties underscores how seriously California law treats workers' comp retaliation.
These remedies are in addition to your underlying workers' comp benefits — the retaliation claim is a separate proceeding that generates separate compensation.
Attorney Eman Yazdchi is a Board Certified Specialist in Workers' Compensation Law, with specific experience litigating LC section 132a retaliation claims. Proving retaliation requires a different evidentiary approach than a standard workers' comp case — it demands employment records, timeline analysis, witness development, and the ability to expose pretextual justifications through cross-examination. Board-certified specialization ensures this work is done at the highest level.
Retaliation claims in Van Nuys are heard at the WCAB District Office in the community, the same courthouse where Yazdchi Law appears regularly on all types of workers' comp matters. Our familiarity with the judges, staff, and defense attorneys at this office means we can anticipate how retaliation cases are evaluated and present our evidence accordingly. The Van Nuys WCAB is our territory, and we use that to our clients' advantage.
Injured at work in Van Nuys? Call (661) 273-1780
Tap to call →If your Van Nuys employer has punished you in any way for filing a workers' comp claim, you have legal recourse that goes beyond your injury benefits. Contact Yazdchi Law P.C. for a free consultation. We will evaluate the evidence, assess the strength of your retaliation claim, and pursue every remedy available under LC section 132a. You had the right to file your claim. Now exercise your right to fight back against retaliation.
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