Most WSIB claims are lost on deadlines and paperwork, not on the injury. A return to work decision can be objected to for only 30 days, and many people find that out after the 30 days have passed.
Workers' compensation in Ontario is governed by the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act, 1997. If you were hurt at work and the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board has denied your claim, cut off your benefits, or decided you can go back to a job you cannot do, I act for injured workers through the objection process at the WSIB and on appeal to the Workplace Safety and Insurance Appeals Tribunal (WSIAT).
The Deadlines That Decide Most Files
- Six months to file the claim. Section 22 requires a claim within six months of the accident, or for an occupational disease, within six months of learning you have it. The Board can extend this where it considers it just, but you should not plan on that.
- 30 days to object to a return to work decision. Under section 120, decisions about return to work, re-employment and work transition (the Act calls it labour market re-entry) carry a 30-day objection period. Every other decision carries six months.
- Six months to appeal to WSIAT. Under section 125, an appeal from the Board's final decision must be filed within six months, unless the tribunal allows more time.
- Three months to elect, if someone outside the system caused the injury. Where you could also sue, section 30 requires you to choose between WSIB benefits and a lawsuit within three months of the accident, though the Board can extend that where it considers it just. More on this below.
Your employer has its own obligation: under section 21 it must report an injury that needs health care or costs you wages within three days of learning of it, and give you a copy of the report.
What the Benefits Actually Are
- Loss of earnings. 85% of the difference between your net average earnings before the injury and what you earn, or are found able to earn, in suitable available work afterwards (section 43). Earnings above an annual ceiling are not counted, and the ceiling is fixed by the year you were injured: for 2026 injuries it is $121,700, and for an earlier injury it is that year's ceiling, indexed each January since. Payments generally run until the loss ends or you turn 65, or for two years if you were 63 or older when injured.
- Non-economic loss. A separate award where the injury leaves a permanent impairment, calculated from the percentage of impairment the Board assigns and your age at the time of injury (section 46). The percentage is often where the disagreement is.
- Health care. Treatment, medication and devices related to the injury.
A worked example. Say your net average earnings before the injury were $1,000 a week, meaning take-home pay after income tax, CPP and EI. The Board decides you can earn $600 a week net in suitable work. The difference is $400, and 85% of it is $340 a week. If the Board had found you able to earn $800 instead, the benefit would fall to $170. The same injury, half the benefit, decided entirely by the "able to earn" finding, which is why that finding is so often worth objecting to. (The Act sets minimum amounts that protect lower earners.)
One rule worth knowing early: under section 44, the Board generally cannot review your loss of earnings payments more than 72 months after the injury, subject to listed exceptions. Decisions made in the first few years have a long tail.
Why Claims Get Denied or Cut Off
- Work-relatedness. The injury must arise out of and in the course of employment. Gradual-onset injuries, pre-existing conditions and incidents without a witness are where the Board most often says no.
- Medical evidence that answers the wrong question. A doctor's note saying you are injured is not the same as an opinion that work caused or significantly contributed to the injury.
- Return to work findings. The Board decides you can do modified or suitable work, and your benefits are reduced to match what it says you could be earning, whether or not that job exists for you.
- Non-co-operation. Benefits can be reduced or suspended under section 43 if the Board finds you are not co-operating in health care or in your return to work.
- Mental stress. Since January 1, 2018 the Act covers chronic as well as traumatic mental stress, but section 13(5) excludes stress caused by the employer's ordinary employment decisions, such as discipline, changes to your work, or termination. Where that line falls is frequently the whole case.
How the Objection and Appeal Process Works
First, ask the decision-maker to reconsider, with whatever new information you have. Next, file an Intent to Object form before the deadline in your decision letter. You then receive your claim file, which should be read closely for gaps before you return the Appeal readiness form. The objection then goes to an Appeals Resolution Officer, who decides it on a written review or after an oral hearing. That decision is the Board's final word. If it goes against you, the appeal is to WSIAT, an independent tribunal outside the WSIB and the final level of appeal in the compensation system.
The single most useful thing at the start is usually not an argument. It is the right medical evidence, aimed at the question the Board actually decided against you.
Your Employer's Obligations to You
- Claim suppression is prohibited. Section 22.1 forbids an employer from discouraging a claim or pressuring you to withdraw one, including by threatening dismissal or discipline. Since 2025, section 22.2 also prohibits an employer from making false or misleading statements to the Board about a claim.
- You cannot sign your benefits away. Under section 16, an agreement between you and your employer to give up WSIB benefits is void.
- Re-employment. Under section 41, an employer that regularly employs 20 or more workers must offer to re-employ a worker who had at least one year of continuous service, and must accommodate to the point of undue hardship. The obligation lasts until the earliest of two years after the injury, one year after you are fit for your pre-injury job, or age 65. If you are re-employed and then let go within six months, the employer is presumed to have breached the obligation, but you should ask the Board to decide within three months of the termination; after that it is not required to consider the request (sections 41(10) and (12)). Construction has separate rules.
Hurt at Work by Someone Else: WSIB or a Lawsuit?
Under section 28, a worker of a Schedule 1 employer generally cannot sue their own employer, any other Schedule 1 employer, or a worker employed by one, for a workplace injury. WSIB benefits replace that lawsuit. But not everyone who injures you is protected. If you were driving for work and were hit by a member of the public, or were hurt on a private homeowner's property while working there, you may have both a WSIB claim and a right to sue.
In that situation section 30 requires you to elect one or the other within three months of the accident and notify the Board. The Board can extend the three months where it considers it just. If you make no election, you are deemed, absent evidence to the contrary, to have elected not to receive WSIB benefits. Electing to sue does not always mean giving up benefits entirely: if the judgment is less than the benefits would have cost, you can claim benefits for the difference, and the same applies to a settlement only if the Board approved it before it was made (section 30(14)). Whether you have a right to sue at all can be decided by WSIAT on an application under section 31, which an auto insurer can also bring; that decision is final and cannot be reviewed in court. These questions come up most often after car accidents, and the choice affects everything downstream, so it should be made deliberately and not by default.
Fees are discussed at the outset and set out in writing; see fees.
Related reading: WSIB claim denied? How objections and appeals work. Related work: employment law, where an injury is followed by a termination, and civil litigation.
