One of the biggest concerns that employees have when they are contemplating filing a Worker’s Compensation injury case is whether or not they will lose their job or what negative consequences they will have from their employer if they pursue a Worker’s Compensation matter.
That question is rather complicated one because Illinois is an at will work state which means that you can be fired for any reason; whether your employer doesn’t like what you are wearing or that you have green hair, you can be fired. However
you cannot be fired for filing a workers compensation case
or even telling your employer that you want to pursue a workers compensation case and employers are generally aware of that.
In fact they understand that there can be far more serious consequences for firing somebody as a result of Worker’s Compensation than just simply dealing with the workers compensation matter; that’s called retaliatory discharge and they understand that there can be far more expensive consequences to a retaliatory discharge matter than the small Worker’s Compensation injury; the back strain or the twisted knee. So for the most part you will not be fired as a result of Worker’s Compensation.
However there is no guarantee in workers compensation that your job will be protected and your employer can fill your position if they need to. But if you are under work restrictions or off work or you have restrictions from performing certain duties and your employer cannot provide those accommodations either because your position has been filled or they don’t have the work available for you, you are still entitled to protection and benefits under workers compensation.
What I often tell people is that it is far more frequent that the employee decides to leave that job either because they realize that it is too physically taxing or that if they return to the job they will continue to have health problems and they chose to leave that position versus in a consequences from the employers.
Employers are often far more accommodating to an employee and will go out of their way not to take action against that employee, at least until well after any kind of Worker’s Compensation case is done and once that Worker’s Compensation case is done you are about to just being an at will employee and if you do a good job there should be no reason why they should let you go.
So thank you for watching this. Again my name is Carolina Schottland with Zanck, Coen, Wright and Saladin and if you would like to contact me directly the office phone number is 815-459-8800. Also feel free to email me. I am excellent by email and hope to respond to all questions within a timely manner. My email address is [email protected]. I have been an attorney for over 12 years and really enjoy practicing workers compensation law and really look forward to helping out with your case.