A decision by the California Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board (WCAB) denying an employee’s claim of disability discrimination under Labor Code Section 132a did not prevent the employee from going forward with her claims of disability bias and failure to provide reasonable accommodation under the Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA), a California appeals court ruled.
Labor Code Section 132a proscribes a relatively narrow range of discriminatory conduct by employers, intended to protect employees who are injured on the job and who file for workers’ compensation benefits. FEHA, the court explained, targets a much broader range of discriminatory conduct and imposes affirmative duties on employers as to disabled employees.
