CLAIMANT WAS WRONGFULLY TERMINATED AFTER TELLING HIS BOSS HE WAS GOING TO FILE A WORKERS’ COMPENSATION CLAIM, A VIOLATION OF WORKERS’ COMPENSATION LAW SECTION 120 (THIRD DEPT).

The Third Department determined claimant was terminated because he told the executive manager he would be filing a workers’ compensation claim and taking time off after a slip and fall injury, a violation of Workers’ Compensation Law section 120:

“Workers’ Compensation Law § 120 prohibits an employer from discriminating against an employee who has filed or who has attempted to file a claim for workers’ compensation benefits by discharging him or her” … . In enacting this statute, “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'” … . “The burden of proving a retaliatory discharge in violation of the statute lies with the claimant, who must demonstrate a causal nexus between the claimant’s activities in obtaining compensation and the employer’s conduct against him or her” … . With regard to “questions of fact and factual inferences to be drawn therefrom, . . . a decision of the [B]oard is conclusive upon the courts if supported by substantial evidence” … . Matter of Markey v Autosaver Ford, 2020 NY Slip Op 01876, Third Dept 3-16-20