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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 Pasadena 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 firm, prosecutes these petitions at the Pomona WCAB. Request a free case review.
Pasadena retaliation cases cluster around the industries that drive the eastern San Gabriel Valley caseload. Huntington Hospital, Kaiser Permanente Pasadena, USC Verdugo Hills, and Methodist Hospital of Southern California sometimes retaliate against nurses who file patient-handling injury claims under California Labor Code §6403.5 through scheduling, write-ups, or reassignment to harder posts. Caltech and JPL files sometimes surface adverse-action patterns against technical staff after a workstation cumulative-trauma claim. Old Pasadena and South Lake Avenue hospitality employers sometimes terminate back-of-house and event-staff workers who report injuries. Pasadena City College, Art Center, and Fuller Theological Seminary public-employer files sometimes carry retaliation against facilities, food-service, and groundskeeping staff. East Pasadena light-industrial employers sometimes punish workers who report cumulative-trauma carpal tunnel or lumbar claims through quota-driven attendance discipline.
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 a Pasadena employer from threatening to use a worker's immigration status as retaliation for exercising labor rights — a critical protection for the share of the Pasadena hospitality, food-service, and historic-restoration construction workforce that is Spanish-speaking and sometimes undocumented.
Yazdchi Law's office at 1125 W Avenue M-14, Suite A in Palmdale sits about 50 miles north of Pasadena via the 14 and the 210. The firm does not maintain a Pasadena satellite. Eman Yazdchi appears at the Pomona district WCAB on §132a retaliation petitions and is a Certified Specialist in Workers' Compensation Law, certified by the California Board of Legal Specialization, State Bar of California.
A Pasadena §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-immigration-status-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 our California §132a practice practice. Statute deep-dive: California Labor Code §132a (anti-retaliation).
Under California Labor Code §132a, a Pasadena 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 Pasadena §132a fact patterns include termination shortly after a DWC-1 filing, demotion or unfavorable reassignment after a return-to-work request, refusal to reinstate after a temporary disability period, and punitive scheduling against a Huntington or Kaiser nurse who reported a patient-handling injury. The statute reaches any "manner" of discrimination.
Under California Labor Code §132a, a Pasadena 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 Pomona district WCAB, separately from the underlying workers' comp claim though typically on a parallel calendar.
Under California Labor Code §244, a Pasadena 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. A Pasadena hospitality, food-service, or historic-restoration construction employer who threatens to "call ICE" or "report your status" after a worker files a §132a petition violates §244 in addition to §132a. California Labor Code §3351 confirms that California workers' compensation reaches every employee regardless of immigration status.
Under California Labor Code §5814, when a Pasadena 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 →Pasadena §132a retaliation petitions are heard at the Pomona district office of the Workers' Compensation Appeals Board, the district covering eastern LA County including Pasadena, Arcadia, Sierra Madre, Monrovia, Altadena, South Pasadena, and San Marino. Some Pasadena ZIPs route to the LA district office at 320 W 4th Street. Yazdchi Law regularly appears at the Pomona WCAB on §132a petitions in hospital, scientific-technical, hospitality, higher-ed, restoration-construction, and East Pasadena light-industrial matters. Related coverage: Pasadena workers' comp settlements. See also: California hospitality / restaurant injury guide.
A successful Pasadena §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, attendance 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: Pasadena back-injury workers' comp claims.
A Pasadena §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. Pasadena retaliation files often run on both tracks, particularly on hospital-staff and historic-restoration construction matters.
Last reviewed by Eman Yazdchi, Esq., May 2026.
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