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✦ 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 Long Beach employer who fires, demotes, or otherwise punishes a worker for filing a workers' compensation claim violates Labor Code §132a, which provides reinstatement, lost wages, and a $10,000 increase in compensation. Yazdchi Law — a Certified Specialist workers' comp firm in Palmdale — prosecutes these at the LB WCAB.
LB retaliation cases cluster around the industries that drive the LB WCAB caseload. POLB Pier T, Pier J, and Middle Harbor terminal operators sometimes retaliate against longshoremen who file cumulative-trauma lumbar or rotator-cuff claims through dispatch denial or production-quota write-ups. The Tesoro and Phillips 66 Wilmington / Carson refinery belt sometimes terminates turnaround pipefitters and operators who report PSM-violation injuries. Long Beach Memorial Medical Center and St. Mary sometimes punish nurses who file patient-handling injury claims through scheduling, write-ups, or reassignment to harder lift-team rotations. Alameda Corridor ICTF port-trucking companies sometimes drop independent operators after a workers' comp claim. Boeing C-17 legacy and LB Airport aerospace shops sometimes punish CT claimants.
California Labor Code California Labor Code §132a prohibits each of these patterns. The statute bars discrimination against a worker who files or intends to file a workers' compensation claim. Remedies include reinstatement to the pre-discrimination position, payment of all lost wages and work benefits, an increase in compensation of $10,000, and costs and expenses up to $250. The companion section California Labor Code §244 bars an LB employer from threatening to use a worker's immigration status as retaliation — a critical protection for a significant share of the LB port-trucking, refinery turnaround labor-contractor, and hospitality workforce.
Yazdchi Law's office at 1125 W Avenue M-14 in Palmdale sits roughly 85 miles north of Long Beach via the 14 Freeway, I-5, and the 710, and the firm appears at the Long Beach district WCAB for Long Beach, Wilmington, San Pedro, Carson, Compton, Lakewood, Bellflower, Paramount, Lynwood, and South Gate cases. Eman Yazdchi is a Certified Specialist in Workers' Compensation Law, certified by the California Board of Legal Specialization, State Bar of California. The firm does not maintain an LB satellite. Eman Yazdchi appears at the LB district WCAB on §132a retaliation petitions.
An LB §132a retaliation claim runs on three California Labor Code sections: California Labor Code §132a (the anti-retaliation statute and remedies), California Labor Code §244 (the no-ICE-threat companion), and California Labor Code §5814 (the 25% penalty on unreasonably delayed benefits, often a parallel claim in §132a fact patterns). This page sits within our broader California §244 anti-ICE-retaliation protections practice. Statute deep-dive: California Labor Code §132a (anti-retaliation).
Under California Labor Code §132a, an LB employer may not discharge, threaten to discharge, or in any manner discriminate against a worker because the worker filed or intends to file a workers' compensation claim, received a rating or award, or testified in any workers' compensation proceeding. Typical LB §132a fact patterns: dispatch denial against a POLB longshoreman after a DWC-1 filing, demotion of a Wilmington refinery operator after a turnaround injury report, refusal to reinstate a Long Beach Memorial nurse after a patient-handling temporary disability period, punitive scheduling against an ICTF port-trucker after a claim. The statute reaches any "manner" of discrimination.
Under California Labor Code §132a, an LB worker who proves discrimination recovers four remedies. First, reinstatement to the pre-discrimination position. Second, payment of all lost wages and work benefits caused by the discrimination. Third, an increase in compensation of $10,000 — added to the underlying workers' comp award. Fourth, costs and expenses up to $250. The remedies are cumulative; the worker recovers all four on proof. The §132a petition is litigated at the LB district WCAB, separately from the underlying workers' comp claim though typically on a parallel calendar.
Under California Labor Code §244, an LB employer may not threaten to use a worker's immigration status as retaliation for exercising labor rights, including the right to file a workers' compensation claim under California Labor Code §3351. The protection applies regardless of the worker's actual immigration status. An LB port-trucking, refinery turnaround labor-contractor, hospitality, or warehouse employer who threatens to "call ICE" or "report your status" after a §132a petition violates §244 in addition to §132a. California Labor Code §3351 confirms California workers' compensation reaches every employee regardless of immigration status.
Under California Labor Code §5814, when an LB workers' comp insurer unreasonably delays or denies a benefit, a 25% penalty attaches to that delayed benefit. On a §132a retaliation file, the §5814 penalty is often a parallel claim — when the employer or insurer froze temporary disability under California Labor Code §4653 after the §132a-protected activity, or refused to authorize treatment under California Labor Code §4600. The §5814 penalty applies per benefit unreasonably delayed, and the §132a $10,000 increase applies on top.
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Tap to call →LB §132a retaliation petitions are heard at the Long Beach district office of the Workers' Compensation Appeals Board at 300 Oceangate, Suite 200, Long Beach, the district covering LB, Wilmington, San Pedro, Carson, Compton, Lakewood, Bellflower, Paramount, Lynwood, and South Gate. Yazdchi Law regularly appears at the LB WCAB on §132a petitions in POLB longshore, Wilmington / Carson refinery, healthcare, aerospace, ICTF port-trucker, and hospitality matters. Related coverage: Long Beach workers' comp settlements.
A successful LB §132a petition is built on temporal proximity between the DWC-1 filing (or other §132a-protected activity) and the adverse employment action, plus documentary evidence of the activity-action chain — text messages, supervisor emails, write-up sequences, dispatch records, scheduling sheets. Anti-retaliation cases are stronger when the worker's pre-injury performance record was strong and the post-injury "discipline" was pretextual. The California Division of Workers' Compensation publishes the §132a petition form online. Related coverage: Long Beach back-injury workers' comp claims.
An LB §132a petition is litigated at the WCAB, but a wrongful-termination-in-violation-of-public-policy civil claim may run in parallel in superior court for the same fact pattern. The civil claim reaches damages — emotional distress, punitive — outside the §132a $10,000 cap. The civil claim's exclusive-remedy bar under California Labor Code §3601 does not extinguish a public-policy wrongful-termination claim. LB retaliation files often run on both tracks.
Last reviewed by Eman Yazdchi, Esq., May 2026.
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