Harmful Horseplay

A company is not liable for firing an employee who filed a workplace injury claim in the midst of an internal investigation. The investigation proved that the employee had embezzled money so he was fired. The employee sued claiming that he was fired for making a workers’ compensation claim. The court ruled that even if the employee’s injury claim was valid, the company had a legitimate reason for the termination and was not liable for wrongful termination.

A federal appeals court has upheld the conviction of an employee who lied on his background screening form when applying for a job with the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). The court found that the employee broke the law when he failed to disclose that he had collected workers’ compensation payments for a back injury sustained while working for a previous employer. Because of the disability claim, the employee was supposedly barred from lifting heavy items or standing for long periods of time, both requirements of the TSA job for which he applied.