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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 San Bernardino 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 San Bernardino WCAB.
San Bernardino retaliation cases cluster around the industries that drive the Inland Empire caseload. Stater Bros distribution and 215-corridor warehouse employers sometimes fire long-tenure workers who file cumulative-trauma claims after years of repetitive picking and forklift work. BNSF intermodal operations build attendance and productivity-quota systems that punish workers who report injuries. Arrowhead Regional Medical Center, St. Bernardine, and Loma Linda sometimes retaliate against nurses who file patient-handling injury claims through scheduling, write-ups, or reassignment to harder posts. Cal State San Bernardino public-employer carriers sometimes refuse to accommodate facilities workers' medical restrictions after they return from temporary disability.
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 San Bernardino employer from threatening to use a worker's immigration status as retaliation for exercising labor rights — a critical protection for a significant share of the warehouse, intermodal, and hospitality workforce.
Yazdchi Law's office at 1125 W Avenue M-14, Suite A in Palmdale sits about 95 miles northwest of San Bernardino. The firm does not maintain a San Bernardino satellite. Eman Yazdchi appears at the San Bernardino district WCAB at 464 West 4th Street 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 San Bernardino §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 our California §132a practice practice. Statute deep-dive: California Labor Code §132a (anti-retaliation).
Under California Labor Code §132a, a San Bernardino 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 San Bernardino §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 nurse or warehouse worker who reported an injury. The statute reaches any "manner" of discrimination.
Under California Labor Code §132a, a San Bernardino 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 San Bernardino district WCAB, separately from the underlying workers' comp claim though typically on a parallel calendar.
Under California Labor Code §244, a San Bernardino 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 San Bernardino Stater Bros warehouse, BNSF intermodal, food-processing, or hospitality 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 San Bernardino 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 →San Bernardino §132a retaliation petitions are heard at the San Bernardino district WCAB at 464 West 4th Street, covering the entire county. Yazdchi Law appears regularly on §132a petitions in Stater Bros warehouse, BNSF intermodal, Arrowhead Regional and St. Bernardine nursing, Cal State San Bernardino campus, and 215-corridor trucking matters. Related coverage: San Bernardino workers' comp settlements.
A successful San Bernardino §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: San Bernardino back-injury workers' comp claims.
A San Bernardino §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. San Bernardino retaliation files often run on both tracks.
Last reviewed by Eman Yazdchi, Esq., May 2026.
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