Additional Protections for Injured Workers

Dealing with a work injury can be painful, burdensome, and challenging in its own right. When that experience is compounded by improper actions by your employer, it can be absolutely agonizing for both you and your family.

However, it is helpful to know that Minnesota workers do have legal protections against improper employer actions. Below are just of the few statutory and legal protections available to injured workers in Minnesota.

You're Protected! Know Your RIghts!

Minnesota protects injured employees explicitly in its Workers' Compensation Act, making it illegal for an employer to discharge or threaten to discharge an employee simply because that employee is seeking workers' compensation benefits. This protection is designed to prevent employers from terminating employees just because they have suffered a work injury or are making a workers' compensation claim.

Another statutory protection is the Minnesota Human Rights Act, which makes it illegal for employers, based upon disability, to refuse to hire, to discharge, or to discriminate against an employee with respect to hiring, tenure, compensation, terms, upgrading, conditions, facilities, or privileges of employment. Therefore, if an employee is determined to have a disability under this Act as a result of a work injury, he or she may be protected from adverse employer action under the Minnesota Human Rights Act. This means there are limitations on what employers can do to employees who have a disability as a result of a work injury.

Minnesota employees also have protections under federal statutes such as the Family and Medical Leave Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments Act of 2008.

Contact a Minnesota Workers' Compensation Lawyer for Help

Even though there are many layers of legal protections for injured workers, employers still sometimes act in a way that disregards these protections for injured workers. Sometimes employers will take such actions intentionally, but more often, employers just don't know that what they're doing is against the law. If you believe your employer has taken an improper action against you because of a work injury, or as a result of your work injury, it's essential that you seek the advice of an attorney to help you determine ways to respond. You don't have to face these agonizing situations alone. Contact us today to speak with an attorney from our firm.