There’s a part in the Alabama Workers’ Compensation Act that offers an exception to the “at-will” principle. The Act states that:
No employee should be fired by an employer solely because the employee has initiated or maintained any legal action against the employer to get workers’ compensation benefits or solely because the employer has filed a written notice of violation of safety standards.
The key phrase is ‘solely’ which is the language courts concentrate on when ruling Workers’ Comp retaliation cases. To put it differently, the retaliation claim may not survive if there’s another reason for terminating an employee.