He was cleared to return. A press brake role was open. Nobody told him
A Wisconsin employer told an injured welder he was being laid off because work had slowed down. His position had already been filled.
The Wisconsin Court of Appeals on October 6 affirmed that Bartelt Custom Automotive unreasonably refused to rehire the worker after a compensable workplace injury, breaching Wis. Stat. section 102.35(3).
The worker injured his left hand on the job in January 2017 at the Milwaukee metal fabrication shop. He was cleared to return without restrictions by late February.
When he showed up ready to work, the company's president said things had gone quiet. They hadn't - Bartelt had hired another welder about a week before. A press brake operator role was open too. Nobody mentioned it.
That mattered. The president had originally recruited the worker for the press brake role after seeing it on his resume. He turned it down - he preferred welding - but told Bartelt he was capable of running the machine. He testified he would have taken any job for financial reasons.
Instead, he was shown the door. He found work elsewhere at lower pay, left after a week when the role was not temporary-to-permanent as advertised, then landed another press brake gig at even less.
The core legal question: what does an injured worker need to prove before the burden shifts to the employer?
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