The termination call often comes while you are still in treatment. The fear that follows is predictable: there goes the claim, the checks, everything. But that is not how the law works.
The workers' compensation claim is yours, not your employer's. A firing does not end it. Medical care continues, and weekly checks continue while you remain disabled from work. And if the firing happened because you filed the claim, New York law gives you a separate remedy against the employer.
If you're the spouse reading this because your partner won't, here is the short version. The paycheck fear is real, but dropping the claim to keep the peace at work protects nothing. The claim is what stands between the injury and the mortgage.
Your comp benefits do not depend on staying employed
Workers' compensation is insurance, not a favor from the boss. Once the claim is established, the carrier owes benefits based on your injury and disability status. Those obligations run under the Workers' Compensation Law and survive a termination.
Medical treatment for the work injury continues, paid by the comp carrier, job or no job. Weekly lost-wage benefits continue as long as a doctor documents a disability from work. The Board sets the maximum weekly rate each year. It sits above $1,100 for recent injury dates. The rate is two-thirds of your average weekly wage, adjusted for your degree of disability.
There's a practical change after a firing that works in your favor. If your doctor clears you for light duty and the employer no longer offers it, your benefits picture can improve. A worker released to restricted work with no job to return to is often entitled to continued payments. This is where a lawyer who reads the medical record carefully earns the fee.
The steps that protect a claim after a job-site injury also protect it after a termination. Treat, document, and keep every appointment. We walk through those in detail in our guide to protecting a New York job-site injury claim.
When the firing itself is illegal: WCL § 120
New York is an at-will employment state. An employer can generally let a worker go for business reasons, injured or not. What an employer cannot do is fire you, or discriminate against you, for filing or pursuing a comp claim. That is Workers' Compensation Law § 120.
A § 120 claim is filed with the Workers' Compensation Board. The deadline is short: two years from the retaliatory act. If the Board finds retaliation, remedies can include reinstatement, back wages, and penalties against the employer.
Timing is usually the heart of these cases. Picture a worker with a clean record terminated three weeks after filing a C-3. Compare him to one laid off with his whole crew when a project ends. Those are very different files. Keep the paper: the injury report, the claim forms, any texts or emails about your status, and the termination notice. Write down dates while they are fresh. Retaliation cases are won on documents, not memory.
The union package is exactly why you don't walk away
For a union member, the job is never just the hourly rate. It is pension credits, annuity contributions, family medical, vacation fund. An injury that ends a career, or a firing that interrupts it, hits all of it.
So the comp claim, and any related case, has to be built around the lifetime picture, not a wage stub. A benefit rate calculated correctly matters. So does a recovery that accounts for pension credits you will not accrue if you cannot return to the trade. A member a few years short of full credits has the most at stake. That math belongs in the first conversation.
Talk to your business agent or shop steward too. A collective bargaining agreement may give you recall rights, grievance procedures, or protections an at-will worker lacks. Those run alongside the comp claim. They do not replace it.
The case the firing cannot touch: the third-party claim
Comp is the exclusive remedy against your employer under Workers' Compensation Law § 11. You cannot sue your boss for the injury, fired or not. But many job-site injuries involve a party who is not your employer: the owner, the general contractor, another subcontractor.
On construction sites, Labor Law § 240(1) puts absolute liability on owners and general contractors for elevation-related injuries. Labor Law § 241(6) covers Industrial Code violations. These cases run against the owner or GC, not your employer. A termination has no effect on them. If anything, losing the job raises the stakes. Lost future earnings and lost benefits become part of what the case must recover.
The deadline for most of these claims is three years from the injury under CPLR § 214. If a public entity is involved, a notice of claim may be due within 90 days. Whether a third-party case exists alongside your comp claim is one of the first questions to answer. We explain how the two fit together in Can I Sue Beyond Workers' Comp?
What to do in the first two weeks after a termination
First, keep treating. A gap in medical care is the fastest way to hand the carrier an argument that you recovered. Second, tell your doctor about the termination at the next visit so your work status reflects the new reality. Third, apply for the benefits you are entitled to. Unemployment and comp can interact, and the right answer turns on your disability classification. Get advice before assuming you must choose.
Fourth, gather the paper: claim forms, pay stubs, the termination letter, union fund statements. Fifth, if you believe the firing was about the claim, remember the two-year clock on WCL § 120. Act well before it runs.
For spouses: these five steps are things you can do with him, or in some cases for him. Collecting documents, calendaring appointments, and sitting in on a consultation commit him to nothing. They keep options open while he decides.
How Schwartzapfel Holbrook handles comp claims after a termination
When a client is fired during a comp claim, we review the whole file at once: the benefit rate and disability classification, whether the termination supports a § 120 retaliation claim, what the collective bargaining agreement provides, and whether a third-party case against an owner or general contractor exists. For a trade worker, that review includes pension and annuity losses, not just weekly wages.
Schwartzapfel Holbrook takes on a limited number of serious injury and workers' compensation matters across New York City, Nassau County, and Suffolk County. We build each case as if it will be tried. That preparation is what moves carriers to evaluate a claim honestly. A firing changes the pressure on a family. It does not change the rights the law already gave you.
