Texas: Court Agrees That Worker Was Fired For Refusing Drug Test, Not Contemplating Workers’ Comp Claim

A Texas appellate court affirmed summary judgment in favor of a former employer in a retaliatory discharge case filed against it by a worker who was terminated when he refused to take a drug test following a collision between the worker’s truck and another driven by a co-worker.  The worker contended that the employer was “on notice” that he had been injured and that its decision to terminate him was based on the likelihood that he would file a workers’ compensation claim. The court held that the worker did not produce evidence showing that at the time he was fired, the employer had knowledge that he was injured or would be filing for workers' compensation, and it was undisputed that the worker did not take a drug test after the accident.  The court said that on the record, there was no evidence that, but for the worker's seeking workers' compensation benefits, he would not have been fired, an element necessary to support an allegation of retaliatory conduct under Tex. Lab. Code § 451.001.

Thomas A. Robinson, J.D., the Feature National Columnist for the LexisNexis Workers’ Compensation eNewsletter, is a leading commentator and expert on the law of workers’ compensation.

LexisNexis Online Subscribers: Citations below link to Lexis Advance. Bracketed citations link to lexis.com.

See Valdez v. Recon Servs., Inc., 2014 Tex. App. LEXIS 9172 (Aug. 20, 2014) [2014 Tex. App. LEXIS 9172 (Aug. 20, 2014)]

See generally Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, § 104.07 [104.07]

Source: Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, the nation’s leading authority on workers’ compensation law.

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