When a Florida employee experiences an injury on the job, he or she has the right to purse benefits through a workers' compensation claim. Most employers are required to carry this type of insurance, and injured or sick workers can seek coverage of lost wages, medical bills and other needs in the event of a workplace accident. Unfortunately, some employers do not want workers to file a claim unless the injury is severe or disabling, and injured employees may experience retaliation.
Workplace retaliation claims are increasing
When a Florida employee experiences unfair treatment in the workplace or witnesses some kind of illegal activity, the employee has the right to speak out about it. However, it can be intimidating to do these things, and the employee may experience workplace retaliation as a result. This can happen in cases involving whistleblowing, reporting dangerous workplace conditions or even filing a worker's compensation claim.
Injured workers can pursue compensation without penalty
Workers in Florida who are penalized for engaging in a protected activity could be victims of employer retaliation. Retaliation can happen after an individual files a workers' compensation claim, and there are many different forms of retaliation. For example, a person could be fired or demoted for filing a workers' compensation claim or asking about filing a claim. Other forms of retaliation include a pay cut or negative information added to an employee file.
Dealing with retaliation on the job
Employers in Florida and throughout the country are generally not allowed to retaliate against workers who assert their legal rights in the workplace. However, it is still possible for a worker to be terminated, demoted or otherwise treated differently after engaging in a protected act. There are several different steps that workers can take if they believe that they have been treated in an unfair manner. The first step is to speak directly with the party acting in a potentially retaliatory manner.
What to know about workplace retaliation
Employees in Florida are allowed to make complaints about harassment in the workplace. In response, employers are not allowed to retaliate or take any steps that could be seen as retaliation. For example, if a manager moves an employee to a different office after making a complaint, that could be seen as retaliation. This is true because the person reporting the transgression was negatively impacted as opposed to the alleged perpetrator.
OCS improves response to federal workers' retaliation complaints
In the past, federal employees in Florida could expect the Office of Special Counsel to side with federal agency supervisors when workers filed complaints about mistreatment or blew the whistle about misconduct. Starting in 2017, however, the agency reformed its attitude toward employee complaints. It issued a record-setting 323 rulings in favor of employees. This represented a 16 percent increase in employees winning cases over the previous year.
Man claims Tesla fired him for reporting auto parts theft
Florida residents may be interested to learn that a former employee for Tesla recently filed a wrongful termination lawsuit against the automaker. The former employee reportedly worked at the company as the Operations Associate Manager until he was terminated in October 2017.
Why workers often do not report harassment
Many employees in Florida who face harassment at work might not report that harassment. According to a study by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in 2016, the reason that around 90 percent of workers who are harassed do not report it is for fear they will not be believed, nothing will be done, or they will face retaliation.
Despite decline, harassment and retaliation cases increase
The number of Florida residents filing claims with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission was down in fiscal year 2017 as compared to previous years. Sunshine State filings tracked national numbers that have been trending downwards since 2010 despite a slight bump last year from 2015 numbers. Fiscal year 2017, which ended in September, saw just 84,254 EEOC filings nationwide. In 2010, there were 99,922 filings. The EEOC is responsible for enforcing and administering federal civil rights laws in the majority of employment settings.
Asbestos removal whistleblower awarded damages, back pay
Employees in Florida and throughout the country are supposed to be protected from retaliation if they report their companies for dangerous practices. However, one man was fired from his job and sued for defamation after he reported his company for improper asbestos removal at a high school in New York.
