Case: Individual Employment Rights/Workers’ Compensation (W.D. Tenn.)

Federal immigration law doesn’t interfere with an undocumented worker’s state labor law protections, the Western District of Tennessee ruled on remand from the Sixth Circuit. An undocumented employee for a torque converter manufacturer wasn’t precluded from receiving back pay or other damages after he was fired in retaliation for pursuing a workers’ compensation claim after suffering an injury on the job, the court said. Specifically, it found that the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 doesn’t preempt Tennessee workers’ compensation laws for a retaliatory discharge claim. The case is Torres v. Precision Indus., Inc., 2020 BL 27854, W.D. Tenn., No. 1:16-cv-01319-STA, 1/27/20