Employer Policy Re: Firing of Employees Injured in Preventable Accidents Was Discriminatory
The Third Department determined a policy which required probationary employees injured in a preventable accident to be fired, but did not require the firing of uninjured probationary employees who were observed working unsafely, improperly served to dissuade injured employees from seeking Workers’ Compensation:
Workers’ Compensation Law § 120 prohibits an employer from discriminating against an employee because that employee either claimed or attempted to claim workers’ compensation benefits…. In enacting Workers’ Compensation Law § 120, the Legislature intended “to insure that a claimant [could] exercise his [or her] rights under the [Workers’] Compensation Law . . . without fear that doing so [might] endanger the continuity of [his or her] employment… .
…[T]he policy …has a discernible impact upon probationary employees who are injured in work-related accidents, i.e., employees who potentially could seek workers’ compensation benefits. The policy effectively categorizes probationary employees into two groups: those who violate safety rules but are not injured, and those who violate safety rules and are injured – with only the latter group automatically forfeiting their right to work for the employer…. Such a policy dissuades those probationary employees who are injured in the course of their employment and wish to remain employed from reporting their injury and pursuing workers’ compensation benefits, which, in turn, runs counter to the Legislature’s intended purpose of insuring that employees can exercise their rights under the compensation statutes “without fear that doing so may endanger the continuity of [their] employment”… . Matter of Rodriguez v C& S Wholesale Grocers, Inc, 516124, 3rd Dept 7-3-13