The Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court confirms that retaliation for requesting workers' compensation benefits from an employer may support a wrongful discharge claim under Pennsylvania common law.

The Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court reversed a decision sustaining an employer's preliminary objections, holding that a cause of action exists under Pennsylvania common law for wrongful discharge of an employee who requests workers' compensation benefits from an employer (but who has not filed a formal claim petition with the Workers' Compensation Bureau).  The plaintiff alleged that she was terminated after she advised her employer of a work-related injury and the employer paid the claim (rather than her filing a claim petition with the Workers' Compensation Bureau).  Following her termination, the plaintiff filed her lawsuit, alleging that she was wrongfully discharged in violation of Pennsylvania common law.  The employer, however, argued that because the plaintiff never filed a claim petition, her claims failed as a matter of law.  The Commonwealth Court, however, determined that "a cause of action exists under Pennsylvania common law for wrongful discharge of an employee who files a claim for workers' compensation benefits with an employer but has not filed a claim petition with the Bureau."  In so holding, the court reasoned that rejecting claims for wrongful discharge where an employer voluntarily compensates a plaintiff for their workers' compensation injuries would undermine the Workers' Compensation Act if the employer could simply discharge those employees.  Although the holding provided by the court is broad, its reasoning left open the question as to whether an employee's report of an alleged injury would be a sufficiently "protected activity" to support a claim for wrongful discharge.  Considering that plaintiffs' attorneys rely primarily on these informal reports of an alleged injury to support such a claim, it is anticipated that the Pennsylvania courts will hold that such an allegation would be sufficient to get a lawsuit through the initial pleadings.

Case Law Alerts, 1st Quarter, January 2015