One of the areas that you may be concerned about when it comes to worker’s compensation injury is whether or not you can lose your job for filing a worker’s compensation claim. According to Disability Secrets, it is actually against the law for an employer to discharge you because you have filed a worker’s compensation case. That was actually not always clear until a few years ago, when a case was decided. In that case, they did determine that you cannot be discharged simply for filing a worker’s compensation claim.
But that is not the end of the question. The question is whether your job will be there for you when you have suffered a work injury. Unfortunately, the answer is not always yes. When you are hurt at work, you have certain rights. Under federal law, the Family Medical Leave Act applies to any employer that has 50 or more employees and two employees who have worked at least one year for that employer.
If you meet those criteria, then your employer has to keep your job or a substantially similar job available to you for 12 weeks. During that time, they have to continue to pay for your health insurance to the same extent they were paying for your health insurance prior to your work injury. If you can return to work, they have to let you come back after 12 weeks, though the only assurance that you have that your job will continue to be available is if you have contractual rights. This can happen if you signed an employment contract that delineates explicitly what your rights are when you get injuries at work or if you have a union contract.
