Loyalty Deserves Loyalty

You've given loyal service to the company. You gave your time, your sweat, and sometimes your health. You've been injured on the job. Now, when you need your job and your health insurance most, your employer decides it no longer needs you. 

If you have been fired in response to a workplace injury or in response to your making a claim for workers' compensation benefits, your termination may have been illegal.

Texas law protects Texas workers who have filed or tried to file a workers’ compensation claim from retaliation by employers. Section 451.001 of the Texas Labor Code provides that “A person may not discharge or in any other manner discriminate against an employee because the employee has:

  1. filed a workers’ compensation claim in good faith;

  2. hired a workers’ compensation lawyer to represent the employee in a claim;

  3. instituted or caused to be instituted in good faith a proceeding under [the Texas Workers' Compensation Act]; or

  4. testified or is about to testify in a proceeding under [the Texas Workers' Compensation Act].”

An employee who can prove that he/she has been discriminated against for his/her involvement in a workers’ compensation claim may be entitled to (1) reinstatement in their former position; (2) monetary damages for lost wages, past and future; (3) monetary damages for mental anguish, inconvenience, etc.; and (4) punitive damages.