Workplace Retaliation After Filing a Workers’ Compensation Claim

Getting hurt on the job is stressful enough without having to worry about your job security. Yet many injured workers in Colorado hesitate before filing a workers’ compensation claim because they fear their employer will punish them for it. Is that fear justified, and what protections actually exist?

What Retaliation Can Look Like

Retaliation rarely announces itself outright. An employer is unlikely to say they are punishing a worker for filing a claim. Instead, retaliation tends to show up in smaller, more deniable ways.

Common examples include a sudden drop in scheduled hours, a transfer to a less desirable shift or location, a demotion, an unexplained negative performance review, or increased scrutiny that did not exist before the injury. In more severe cases, it can mean outright termination shortly after a claim is filed. Timing often matters here. When adverse treatment follows closely on the heels of an injury report or claim, it can raise legitimate questions about motive.

Colorado Protects the Right to File a Claim

Colorado recognizes a public policy exception to at-will employment specifically for this situation. Colorado courts have held that discharging an employee for exercising rights under the Workers’ Compensation Act can support a wrongful discharge claim, since punishing a worker for pursuing benefits they are legally entitled to undermines the purpose of the workers’ compensation system itself. This principle was addressed in Lathrop v. Entenmann’s, Inc., 770 P.2d 1367 (Colo. App. 1989), where the court recognized a public-policy-based wrongful discharge claim tied to an employee’s exercise of workers’ compensation rights.

This does not mean an injured worker can never be disciplined or let go for unrelated reasons. Employers are still permitted to make legitimate business decisions. The distinction is whether the real motivation behind the adverse action was the employee’s protected activity, such as reporting an injury or filing a claim, rather than a genuine, independent reason.

Steps to Take If You Suspect Retaliation

If you believe your employer is retaliating against you, a few practical steps can help protect your position:

• Keep a written record of dates, conversations, and any changes to your job duties, schedule, or pay
• Save copies of performance reviews, emails, and disciplinary notices
• Note the timing between your injury report or claim and any adverse treatment
• Continue following your employer’s normal policies and procedures unless instructed otherwise by a professional

Documentation created close to the time events occur tends to carry more weight than recollections pieced together later.

Contact Us Today for Guidance

Retaliation claims can be difficult to untangle because employers rarely admit to their motives, and proving what really drove a decision often requires careful review of records, timelines, and workplace patterns. If you filed a workers’ compensation claim in Grand Junction, Montrose, or elsewhere in Mesa County, Colorado, and now believe your job has been affected because of it, our Grand Junction workers’ compensation attorneys at Killian, Davis & Richter, P.C. are ready to look into what happened. We take the time to understand the full picture before recommending next steps, and we would welcome the opportunity to discuss your situation. Call us at 970-241-0707 to set up a consultation.