“Got fired while being on workers comp.” That is close to a verbatim thread title, and it recurs constantly.
What usually follows is a wave of replies telling the poster they have an obvious lawsuit. Sometimes that is right. Often it is not, and the confident answers are mixing up at least four separate bodies of law that work very differently.
Let me untangle them, because the distinctions decide whether you have a claim.
What California Workers Are Asking on Reddit About Being Fired
- I got fired while on workers’ comp. Is that legal?
- Can they fire me for filing a claim?
- They offered me severance after I filed. Should I sign?
- Do my benefits stop now that I am terminated?
- Can I still get temporary disability if I no longer have a job?
- My employer says they eliminated my position. Is that just an excuse?
The Answer Nobody Wants: Being on Workers’ Comp Is Not Immunity
Filing a workers’ compensation claim does not make you unfireable. California is an at-will employment state, and an employer can generally terminate an at-will employee for any lawful reason, or for no reason at all.
What an employer may not do is terminate you because you filed a claim. The distinction is between the fact of your claim and the reason for the termination, and that distinction is the entire fight.
So a layoff that sweeps up an injured worker along with eleven other people is probably lawful. A termination two days after a claim is filed, of an employee with eight years of good reviews, on a pretext nobody can document, is a very different situation.
The Four Bodies of Law People Confuse
1. Labor Code Section 132a
This is the workers’ compensation anti-discrimination provision. It prohibits an employer from discharging, threatening to discharge, or discriminating against an employee because they filed or intend to file a workers’ compensation claim, or received an award.
A 132a petition is filed within the workers’ compensation case rather than in civil court. Remedies can include increased compensation, reinstatement, and lost wages, but the statutory increase is capped, and there are no pain and suffering or punitive damages of the kind available in civil litigation. There is also a filing deadline, generally one year, and it is easy to miss.
People often expect 132a to be a large payday. In practice its value is real but bounded, and proving discriminatory motive is genuinely difficult.
2. FEHA Disability Discrimination
The Fair Employment and Housing Act is a separate civil statute, and this is frequently where the greater exposure lies.
If your work injury left you with a disability, FEHA generally requires the employer to engage in a good faith interactive process and to provide reasonable accommodation unless doing so would cause undue hardship. Employers who terminate an injured worker without ever attempting that process create meaningful liability, and FEHA allows remedies that workers’ compensation does not, including emotional distress damages and attorney’s fees.
This is a civil case, handled by an employment attorney, not in the workers’ compensation forum. It has its own administrative prerequisites and deadlines.
3. Wrongful Termination in Violation of Public Policy
A common law civil claim, sometimes available where a termination violates a fundamental public policy. It also lives in civil court.
4. Ordinary Lawful Termination
Sometimes the reason is real. Businesses do close, positions do get eliminated, and performance problems do predate injuries. Not every termination of an injured worker is unlawful, and pretending otherwise sets people up for disappointment.
What Happens to Your Benefits After Termination
This is the practical question, and here the news is better than most people expect.
Your workers’ compensation claim survives your employment. The claim belongs to you, not to the job. Being fired does not end it, does not reduce your entitlement to medical treatment for the injury, and does not eliminate permanent disability.
Medical treatment continues. The carrier remains responsible for treating the industrial injury regardless of whether you still work there.
Permanent disability is unaffected by the termination itself.
Temporary disability is more complicated. TD replaces wages you cannot earn because of the injury. If you are totally temporarily disabled, meaning no physician has released you to any work, termination does not defeat TD. Where it gets contested is modified duty: if the employer was accommodating your restrictions and the job ends, the carrier may take a position about what you could have earned. This is worth advice rather than assumption.
Termination can increase the value of the case in one specific way. If your employer does not offer regular, modified, or alternative work after you become permanent and stationary, that can trigger the supplemental job displacement voucher, worth $6,000, which in turn opens the door to the $5,000 return-to-work supplement. Many adjusters never issue the voucher unless someone asks.
About That Severance Agreement
If you were terminated after filing a claim and are handed a severance agreement, slow down.
Severance agreements routinely include broad general releases. Depending on how they are drafted, signing can waive employment claims you did not know you had, including FEHA claims that may be worth considerably more than the severance. Settlement of a workers’ compensation claim itself generally requires approval by a workers’ compensation judge, which is a separate process, but the employment side of the release is where people get hurt.
Do not sign a severance agreement after a workplace injury without having someone read it. That is a short conversation that can prevent a large mistake.
Common Misconceptions
That being on workers’ comp makes termination illegal. It does not. The reason for the termination is what matters.
That getting fired ends your claim. It does not. The claim is yours.
That 132a is a big-money claim. Its remedies are capped and narrower than civil claims.
That workers’ compensation covers your wrongful termination case. Employment claims are separate, in a different forum, with different deadlines. You may need both a comp attorney and an employment attorney.
That an employer’s stated reason settles the question. Pretext can be challenged, though it takes evidence such as timing, treatment of comparable employees, and documentation.
What to Do If You Were Fired After an Injury
- Write down the timeline immediately. Injury date, claim date, restriction dates, every conversation, and the termination date. Timing is often the strongest evidence.
- Preserve documents. Reviews, emails, texts, the termination letter, and any accommodation discussions.
- Do not sign a severance agreement without having it reviewed.
- Keep treating. Your medical entitlement did not end.
- Apply for unemployment if you are released to work, and EDD disability if you are not.
- Ask specifically about the voucher once you are permanent and stationary.
- Get both questions evaluated, the comp claim and the potential employment claim. They are different cases and the employment deadlines can be shorter.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I be fired while on workers’ comp in California?
Yes. California is an at-will employment state and being on workers’ compensation does not by itself prevent termination. What is prohibited is terminating you because you filed a claim, which is a different question from whether you can be terminated at all.
What is Labor Code 132a?
It is California’s workers’ compensation anti-discrimination provision, prohibiting discharge or discrimination because an employee filed or intends to file a claim. It is pursued within the workers’ compensation case and its remedies, including increased compensation and reinstatement, are capped and narrower than civil remedies.
Do my workers’ comp benefits stop if I am fired?
No. The claim belongs to you, not the job. Medical treatment for the industrial injury and permanent disability continue. Temporary disability can become contested where modified duty was being provided before the termination.
Can I still get temporary disability after being terminated?
If no physician has released you to any work, termination generally does not defeat temporary disability. Disputes commonly arise where the employer had been accommodating restrictions and that accommodation ends.
Should I sign a severance agreement after filing a workers’ comp claim?
Not without review. Severance agreements often contain broad general releases that can waive employment claims, including disability discrimination claims that may be worth more than the severance offered.
Is being fired the same as wrongful termination?
No. Wrongful termination requires an unlawful reason. Layoffs, position eliminations, and documented performance issues can be lawful reasons even when the employee is injured.
Two Different Cases, Two Different Clocks
If you were fired after a work injury, you may have a workers’ compensation case and a separate employment case, with different forums and different deadlines. I handle the comp side and can tell you candidly whether the employment side is worth having reviewed. Contact my office for a free consultation.
Ryan D. Kayrell, PC represents injured workers throughout California from Irvine, Orange County. This firm handles workers’ compensation matters. This page is general information about California law, not legal advice for your situation, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Employment claims such as FEHA discrimination and wrongful termination are separate matters handled by employment counsel. Questions described here are paraphrased from public online discussions and do not reflect any client of this firm.