“A fighting force both consistent and compassionate on a scale’s a 5 all around.”
Rachael Hall
✦ Certified Specialist in Workers’ Compensation Law — Certified by the State Bar of California, Board of Legal Specialization ✦
Your employer cannot punish you for getting hurt. If they did, we’ll make them pay.
By Eman Yazdchi, Esq. · Certified Specialist in Workers' Compensation Law, State Bar of California Board of Legal Specialization
In California, a Burbank employer who fires, demotes, or otherwise retaliates against an injured worker for filing a workers' comp claim faces a §132a petition — reinstatement, lost wages, and a $10,000 increase in compensation. Yazdchi Law, a Certified Specialist in Workers' Compensation Law firm, handles these at the Van Nuys WCAB. Request a free case review.
Burbank's workforce mix puts retaliation pressure on workers who fall outside the formal staff rolls — day-rate stagehands, freelance grip and electric crew, scenic-construction trades, ramp-services contractors at Hollywood Burbank Airport, hospitality and food-service workers around the Empire Center, and the back-of-house crews on the Disney, Warner, and NBCUniversal lots. Many of these workers depend on a single production-call relationship; many are Spanish-speaking; some are undocumented. The risk that a workers' comp filing will end the call-list relationship is a real one.
California addresses that risk through California Labor Code §132a, which makes it unlawful for any employer to discharge, threaten to discharge, or in any manner discriminate against a worker who files or expresses an intent to file a workers' comp claim. The remedies are reinstatement, lost wages, a $10,000 increase in compensation, and costs up to $250. California Labor Code §244 adds a parallel protection: a Burbank employer may not threaten to use a worker's immigration status as retaliation for exercising labor rights — including the right to file a workers' comp claim.
Yazdchi Law's office at 1125 W Avenue M-14 in Palmdale sits about 35 miles north of Burbank via the 14 and 5 — no Burbank satellite office. Eman Yazdchi appears at the Van Nuys WCAB on Burbank §132a and §244 petitions regularly and is a Certified Specialist in Workers' Compensation Law, certified by the California Board of Legal Specialization, State Bar of California.
A Burbank workers' comp retaliation petition is built on three California Labor Code sections that do most of the work: California Labor Code §132a (the anti-retaliation remedy), California Labor Code §244 (the immigration-status protection), and California Labor Code §3351 (coverage regardless of immigration status). This page sits within our broader our California §132a practice practice. Statute deep-dive: California Labor Code §132a (anti-retaliation).
Under California Labor Code §132a, it is unlawful for a Burbank employer to discharge, threaten to discharge, or in any manner discriminate against a worker because the worker has filed or expressed an intent to file a workers' comp claim, has testified or expressed an intent to testify at a WCAB proceeding, or has received a workers' comp rating, award, or settlement. The remedies are: reinstatement to the prior position with back pay, an increase in the worker's compensation award of $10,000, costs of $250 in the worker's favor, and any other appropriate relief the Van Nuys WCAB orders. The burden is on the worker to show the adverse action was motivated by the workers' comp filing — typically through temporal proximity and a documented pretext.
Under California Labor Code §244, a Burbank employer — production company, set-construction shop, ramp-services contractor, hospitality operator — may not threaten to report or actually report a worker's immigration status to immigration authorities as retaliation for the worker's exercise of labor rights, including the right to file a workers' comp claim under California Labor Code §3600 and California Labor Code §3351. The threat itself, separate from any actual report, is the unlawful act. California Labor Code §244 runs alongside California Labor Code §132a, and the same Van Nuys WCAB hears the consolidated petition. The remedy is the same set of California Labor Code §132a damages plus any additional relief warranted.
A Burbank California Labor Code §132a case requires proof of three elements: (1) the worker filed or expressed an intent to file a workers' comp claim; (2) the employer took an adverse action — termination, demotion, schedule cut, denial of access to the call list, threat of discharge, threat of immigration consequence; (3) the adverse action was caused by the workers' comp filing. Temporal proximity is a strong evidentiary signal — an adverse action within days or weeks of the filing is hard for the employer to explain. Documented pretexts — a written warning that does not match a real performance issue, a sudden policy invocation — strengthen the case.
A Burbank California Labor Code §132a petition is filed at the Van Nuys district WCAB under the Board's rules of practice and consolidated with the underlying workers' comp case file. The petition states the facts, the adverse action, and the temporal connection to the workers' comp filing. The employer files an Answer; the parties conduct discovery (interrogatories, requests for production, depositions); the Van Nuys workers' comp judge hears the petition at trial. A finding for the Burbank worker results in reinstatement, back pay, the $10,000 increase in compensation, and costs.
Injured at work in Burbank? Call (661) 273-1780
Tap to call →Burbank California Labor Code §132a and California Labor Code §244 petitions are filed at the Van Nuys district office of the Workers' Compensation Appeals Board at 6150 Van Nuys Boulevard, Van Nuys. Yazdchi Law appears at the Van Nuys WCAB on Burbank retaliation petitions regularly, including those that involve production-set call-list exclusions, stagehand-subcontractor terminations, ramp-services schedule cuts, and immigration-status threats against undocumented set-construction workers. Related coverage: Burbank workers' comp settlements. See also: California restaurant-worker injury practice.
Under California Labor Code §3351, California workers' compensation coverage reaches every Burbank employee regardless of immigration status. Undocumented set-construction workers, ramp loaders, and back-of-house production crew have the same right to medical care under California Labor Code §4600, wage replacement under California Labor Code §4653, and permanent disability under California Labor Code §4660 as any other California worker. Under California Labor Code §244, the threat to report immigration status as retaliation is itself unlawful, and supports a California Labor Code §132a petition for the standard remedies plus additional relief. Related coverage: Burbank back-injury workers' comp claims.
Under California Labor Code §5811, an injured Burbank worker pursuing a California Labor Code §132a or California Labor Code §244 petition has the right to a qualified Spanish-language interpreter — at the employer's or insurer's expense — at every WCAB hearing, deposition, and medical-legal evaluation. Spanish is the predominant first language for a meaningful share of Burbank set-construction, ramp, and back-of-house workers. The right is mandatory, and improper denial of a qualified interpreter is a basis for continuance and, in serious cases, sanctions.
Last reviewed by Eman Yazdchi, Esq., May 2026.
Ready to discuss your case? Schedule a free consultation.
Schedule Free ConsultationRead more testimonials →“A fighting force both consistent and compassionate on a scale’s a 5 all around.”