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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 Van Nuys 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.
Van Nuys's workforce mix puts retaliation pressure on workers who fall outside the formal staff rolls — day-rate ramp loaders and fuelers at Van Nuys Airport, contract line-service workers, brewery temp-pool bottling-line workers, auto-shop mechanics and parts staff at the Van Nuys Boulevard dealer concentration, retail and food-service workers across Sherman Way, and the back-of-house housekeeping and food-service workforce at Kaiser Panorama City and Valley Presbyterian. Many of these workers depend on a single shift relationship; many are Spanish-speaking; some are undocumented. The risk that a workers' comp filing will end the shift 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 Van Nuys 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 45 miles north of Van Nuys via the 14 and 405 — no Van Nuys satellite office. Eman Yazdchi appears at the Van Nuys WCAB on §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 Van Nuys 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 Van Nuys 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 Van Nuys employer — ramp-services contractor, brewery temp pool, auto-shop operator, hospital food-service 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.
A Van Nuys 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 shift 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 strengthen the case.
A Van Nuys 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 Van Nuys worker results in reinstatement, back pay, the $10,000 increase in compensation, and costs.
Injured at work in Van Nuys? Call (661) 273-1780
Tap to call →Van Nuys 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 15400 Sherman Way, Suite 500, Van Nuys. Yazdchi Law appears at the Van Nuys WCAB on retaliation petitions regularly, including those that involve ramp-services schedule cuts, brewery temp-pool terminations, auto-shop schedule cuts, and immigration-status threats against undocumented retail and back-of-house hospital workers. Related coverage: Van Nuys workers' comp settlements.
Under California Labor Code §3351, California workers' compensation coverage reaches every Van Nuys employee regardless of immigration status. Undocumented ramp workers, brewery temp-pool workers, auto-shop mechanics, retail and food-service workers, and back-of-house hospital workers 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: Van Nuys back-injury workers' comp claims.
Under California Labor Code §5811, an injured Van Nuys 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 Van Nuys ramp, brewery, retail, 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.
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