Identifying The Two Forms Of Employee Retaliation
Posted on: 5 February 2015
Workers compensation is an area of law that has its fair share of intricacies. While these issues were settled by the mutual agreement between workers and employers during the 1900s, certain employees are dealing with another kind of issue today: retaliation. If that's your case, then please keep on reading as this article helps you identify two forms of employee retaliation.
Employee retaliation cases are on the rise
In a 2013 article published on The Wall Street Journal, James Hagerty reported that the number of employee retaliation cases had doubled compared to a decade ago. Indeed, no less than 100 claims were filed by workers who had previously filed for work compensation benefits following a work-related injury.
What makes this statistic even more interesting is the fact that the federal government had announced that fewer work comp filings were submitted from 2003 to 2011. You'll agree that these conflicting statistics call for an investigation.
The two main forms of employee retaliation
These include:
- Direct retaliation
- Indirect retaliation
Direct retaliation occurs when your employer decides to sanction you after you've recently got injured. This may take the form of a demotion, wage cut, or discrimination. For example, if you were promised a job promotion before the injury occurred and were later told that the position was given to a colleague for no valid reason, then you know how your employer feels about your work-related injury.
Indirect retaliation is more difficult to spot because employers use clever strategies to disguise it. Consider a company that organizes a rewards program for its employees but sets work comp claims as one of the disqualifying rules from the program. In a subtle way, the employer will succeed in discouraging its workers to file for compensation benefits.
If you've recently got injured at work, and are hesitating to seek legal assistance, keep in mind that both the federal government and the law are on your side. In addition, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is putting pressure on the employers whose attitude has drastically changed towards the injured employees who received related claims. Indeed, the federal agency is encouraging you or any worker who has been injured at work to report the accident as soon as possible. This is because not all employers are interested in their workers' safety, and will thus be reluctant to do what's necessary to meet federal safety standards. Reporting is very important as it allows the OSHA to ensure that the accident won't happen again. Contact a professional like one from Ransom, Gilbertson, Martin & Ratliff, L.L.P for more information.
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