Employer May Not Impose Advance Notification Requirement On Employees Who Seek Medical Treatment After Workplace Injury In Illinois
The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois concluded that under Illinois law, an employer may not impose an advance notification requirement on employees who seek medical treatment following a workplace injury. In the case, the company policy required an employee involved in a workplace injury to first attempt to report the injury to management before seeking professional medical treatment. The failure to make such report was considered grounds for termination according to the policy. After an employee sustained a workplace injury, failed to report it until after seeking medical treatment, and was terminated, he brought suit alleging that this policy contravened Illinois’s Workers’ Compensation Act. The court agreed, concluding that “any prerequisite an employee must satisfy before seeking medical treatment ‘interferes’ with the employee’s right to seek and obtain medical treatment and therefore runs afoul of [the Act]” (emphasis in original). According to the court, employers cannot impose minor, or even de minimis burdens on an employee’s right to seek medical treatment.
