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California Court of Appeal Reaffirms Right of Undocumented Workers To Obtain Workers' Comp Benefits - Even If They Obtained Work Fraudulently

This week, a California Court of Appeal issued an important ruling reaffirming the rights of undocumented workers to obtain workers compensation benefits for on the job injuries.

In Farmers' Brothers Coffee v. Workers Compensation Appeals Board, the Court rejected the employers' several legal arguments as to why the workers' compensation claim of Rafael Ruiz should be barred. It was undisputed that Mr. Ruiz was not authorized to work in the United States when he obtained the job.

Farmers' first argued that Labor Code Sections 1171.5 and 3351, which expressly extend the protection of the Workers Compensation Act (the "Act") to undocumented aliens, is preempted by the federal Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1968 (IRCA). IRCA prohibits the employment of individuals who are not authorized to work in the United States. IRCA "preempt[s] any State or local law imposing civil or criminal sanctions (other than through licensing and similar laws) upon those who employ, or recruit or refer for a fee for employment, unauthorized aliens." (8 U.S.C. § 1324a(h)(2).) The Court of Appeal rejected this contention, finding no explicit contradiction between the Workers Compensation Act (which protects those who perform work) and IRCA (which regulates who an Employer can employ). The Act specifically addressed the non-availability of back pay to any worker who could not be rehired due to federal law (i.e., lack of authorization to work under IRCA).

Farmers' Brothers also claimed that Ruiz was not an "employee" as defined by the Act, because Ruiz had committed a fraud in order to obtain his employment. In particular, Farmers' asserted that Ruiz used a fraudulent Social Security Number and Green Card to obtain work from Farmers. The Court was unimpressed with this argument as well, finding that the clear language of the Act demonstrated that it applied to all workers whether they were employed "whether lawfully or unlawfully employed."

Finally, Farmers' Brothers argued that Ruiz' particular workers compensation claim must be barred by fraud, because he used a fraudulent Social Security Number on the claim form. Farmers' claimed that this violated Insurance Code, § 1871.4, which makes it a criminal offense to make a knowingly false or fraudulent material representation for the purpose of obtaining workers' compensation benefits.

The Court was not persuaded by this argument either, finding that:

A claimant who has been convicted of a violation of section 1871.4 is barred from receiving or retaining any compensation obtained as a direct result of the fraudulent misrepresentation. (Citations omitted.) There is no evidence of a conviction in this record. Further, Ruiz was not required to be a lawfully documented alien to be an employee entitled to workers' compensation benefits. (See § § 3351, 3357.) It was employment, not the compensable injury, that Ruiz obtained as a direct result of the use of fraudulent documents. (Emphasis added.)