You got hurt at work, you filed a workers' compensation claim, and now the job is gone. Maybe you were let go a week after you reported the injury. Were they allowed to do that?
You can be fired, but not for the claim itself. Firing you, threatening you or leaning on you because you claimed benefits is called retaliation, and Florida bans it outright. Any other reason your employer has is still theirs to use. Florida is an at-will state, which means either side can end a job at almost any time without giving a reason.
Both of those are true at once, which is why being fired while on workers' comp feels like a trick. By the end you will know what happens to your benefits, how a legal firing differs from retaliation, where a retaliation case goes, and how long you have to bring one. I am Mark Hirsch, and I handle Florida workers' compensation claims.
Key Takeaways
- Being fired does not end your workers' comp benefits, because your medical care and your wage checks are tied to the injury rather than to the job.
- A retaliation case over a firing is a lawsuit in circuit court, so the state judge who handles your workers' comp benefits cannot rule on it.
- Florida gives you four years to sue over a retaliatory firing, while a disability discrimination complaint can expire in a year or less, so check the shortest deadline first.
- Florida Statute 440.205 reaches more than a firing, because cut hours, threats and pressure to drop a workers' comp claim are banned by the same sentence.
Can you get fired while on workers' comp in Florida?
Here is the short answer. Your employer can let you go while your workers' comp claim is open, but not because you made the claim.
- Florida Statute 440.205 says no employer shall discharge, threaten to discharge, intimidate, or coerce any worker over a valid claim for compensation.
- The ban covers an attempt to claim, so you are protected from the day you ask for benefits, not from the day a form is filed.
- It also covers pressure that stops short of a firing, such as cut hours, a threat, or being told to keep the injury off the books.
- No part of Florida's workers' comp law makes your employer keep your job open while you heal.
Where that comes from: Florida Statute 440.205.
So your employer cannot use the claim against you, and also does not owe you the job. Almost every argument over a firing is about which of those two was really going on.
What happens to your workers' comp benefits after you are fired
They keep running, because your benefits are tied to the injury and not to your job.
Your medical care stays open. Florida Statute 440.13(2)(a) makes the employer furnish the treatment your recovery needs, for as long as the recovery needs it. Nothing in it turns on whether you still work there.
Your wage checks have a separate rule. Temporary total disability is the benefit for weeks you are out completely. If you cannot work at all, it pays 66.67 percent of your average weekly wage for as long as that disability lasts. Your average weekly wage is what you averaged per week before the accident. That rule sits in Florida Statute 440.15(2)(a), which pays by the week of disability.
Here is the part that surprises people. Temporary partial disability, the benefit that tops up a smaller paycheck, is still payable after a firing. Florida Statute 440.15(4)(d) pays a worker who cannot go back inside their written restrictions and earns nothing, so losing a light duty job can make your comp check bigger. The state measures your lost pay from zero earnings instead of from the lighter wage, and the arithmetic is in our guide to workers' comp light duty pay.
One exception reaches your money, and it is misconduct. Florida Statute 440.15(4)(e) says partial checks are not payable when the post-injury job fires you for your own misconduct. If your checks stop after a firing for any other reason, read what to do when workers' comp is not paying.
How to tell a legal firing from retaliation
Three things have to connect, and the third one decides the case. The state appeal courts test a Florida workers' comp retaliation claim in that order, in cases such as Andrews v. Direct Mail Express in 2009. You did something the law protects, something bad happened to you at work, and the bad thing happened because of the first.
The first two parts of a retaliation case are usually easy to show. You claimed benefits, or asked about claiming them, and then you were fired, demoted or had your hours cut. Being fired after a workers' comp claim is not proof on its own.
The third part, your employer's stated reason, is the whole fight. Your employer will give a reason with nothing to do with the injury: a layoff, a policy you broke, attendance, performance, a location that closed. Any of those can be a legal reason to let somebody go. So the case turns on whether the stated reason was the real one.
What I look at first is the calendar, then the file. How many days passed between the claim and the firing, and whether the write-ups in your file all start after the injury.
Where a retaliation case goes, and how long you have
Not to the judge who handles your benefits. A firing case is an ordinary lawsuit filed in circuit court, which is the trial court in your county, and a jury can hear it. A judge of compensation claims, the state judge who decides workers' comp disputes, can order benefits paid and nothing more, so that judge cannot give you your job back.
| What you are claiming | Where it goes |
|---|---|
| Fired over a workers' comp claim | Circuit court, in your county |
| Workers' comp benefits you are owed | Judge of compensation claims |
| Disability discrimination under Florida law | Florida Commission on Human Relations |
| Disability discrimination under federal law | The federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission |
| Your job held while you are out hurt | Your employer, under the Family and Medical Leave Act |
The four years comes from the deadline Florida sets for suing on a liability a statute creates, in Florida Statute 95.11(3)(e). The Florida Supreme Court applied that four-year window to a firing claim under 440.205 in Hullinger v. Ryder Truck Rental in 1989. The 365-day state deadline comes from Florida Statute 760.11(1). The federal deadline is normally 180 days. It stretches to 300 days where a state agency bans the same thing, which Florida's does. That comes from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). It is the federal agency that takes job discrimination charges.
That last row has its own conditions. The Family and Medical Leave Act holds your job for up to 12 unpaid workweeks, and only if you have worked there a year, put in 1,250 hours, and your worksite has 50 employees within 75 miles.
The order of those deadlines is what catches people, because a comp case runs for months while the discrimination clocks keep running the whole time.
3 things to do in the week after you are fired
- Ask for the reason in writing. Email the person who told you and ask them to confirm the reason and the date. An employer who will not put one on paper has to pick a reason later, and a late reason is easier to take apart.
- Write out both dates and everything between them. The day you reported the injury, the day you were fired, and every warning or meeting in between. Do it now, while you still remember who was in the room.
- Save the paper before your access is cut off. Texts, emails, write-ups, pay stubs and every copy of your DWC-25, which is the form your doctor fills in at each visit with your work restrictions on it.
What we do when you are fired after a work injury
- We tell the carrier your claim is live. Then we press for the treatment and the weekly checks to keep coming, so a firing does not quietly become a stopped benefit.
- We check whether the partial check should have gone up when the job ended, which is the payment most often missed after a firing.
- Send us the dates and the paperwork. We will tell you which deadlines are already running, and when a claim belongs in front of a jury instead of a judge of compensation claims.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I collect unemployment after being fired while on workers' comp?
Only if you can work. Florida reemployment assistance asks you to be able to work and available for work, and to contact five employers for every week you claim, under Florida Statute 443.091(1)(d). Somebody their doctor has out of work entirely does not meet that. Somebody with restrictions who could do a lighter job often does.
I found another job. Do my comp checks stop?
Your comp checks follow your earnings, not your employer. Florida works out a partial check each week against what you actually earn, so wages from a new job lower the check rather than ending the claim. Report the new work in writing as soon as it starts, because unreported earnings are what gets benefits suspended.
Can they fire me for turning down light duty?
They can fire you for it, because turning down work your doctor cleared is a reason that has nothing to do with the claim. It carries a benefit penalty as well: compensation can stop while the refusal lasts unless a judge finds it justified. Take any mismatch to your doctor rather than refusing on the floor. Our guide to light duty offers walks through that test.
Fired After a Work Injury? Get the Benefits Question Answered First.
If you were let go while your claim was open, the first job is keeping your treatment and your checks running. The second is whether the firing was legal. Our Florida workers' compensation attorneys can read your records and your dates and tell you where you stand. Contact Templer & Hirsch for a free consultation.
This article is general information about Florida law, not legal advice about your claim. Deadlines and benefit amounts turn on your own facts and your date of accident.