COURT TO HEAR CASES ON FIRINGS AFTER DISABILITY : WORKERS CLAIM DISCRIMINATION.

Byline: Daily News Staff and Wire

The state Supreme Court will decide whether workers who are injured on the job and are fired when they try to return to work can sue for discrimination.

Two state appeals courts have issued conflicting rulings. One, involving a former Moorpark secretary, said an employer who refuses to provide reasonable accommodations to a worker returning from disability can be sued for damages. The other, in Los Angeles, said an employee who was injured at the workplace can claim only workers' compensation benefits, generally much less than court damages.

The state's high court agreed Tuesday to review both rulings.

In most cases, claims for on-the-job injuries in California must be filed in workers' compensation, a no-fault system that specifies benefits for each type of injury and level of disability.

However, state law allows conventional damage suits against employers for some types of discrimination claims. The question in the current cases is whether the exceptions include discrimination against the disabled, a law that was broadened by the Legislature in 1993.

In one case, Therese Dillon, who worked as a secretary for the Moorpark Public Works Department, said she was fired in 1994 when she tried to return to work after a knee injury. Dillon hurt her knee on the stairs when returning from lunch, City Manager Steve Kueny said Wednesday.

She sued for reinstatement and damages, claiming the city had refused to take reasonable steps to accommodate her injury and let her work. The city said she was no longer able to do her job.

Ventura County Superior Court Judge Joe Hadden refused to dismiss the suit and was upheld by a Ventura-based panel of the 2nd District Court of Appeal. In a 3-0 ruling, Justice Arthur Gilbert said the 1993 amendments to state law made it clear that disability discrimination suits could proceed even if they stemmed from workplace injuries.

Kueny said during his 12 years working for the city of Moorpark, Dillon is the only city employee who has ever filed a disability discrimination claim.

Dillon could not be reached Wednesday for comment.

A Los Angeles-based panel of the same court reached a contrary conclusion in the case of David Cammack, a customer service representative for GTE who underwent surgery for carpal tunnel syndrome. He said the company refused to provide accommodations for his disability when he tried to return to work in 1993, and instead terminated him later that year.

In a 3-0 decision, Justice Paul Turner said the 1993 changes to state law had not repealed the older state law requiring claims over workplace injuries to be filed in the workers' compensation system.