How Long Does a Worker Have to Report an Injury to WCB?
How you van protect yourself from reporting WCB claims late? Workplace accidents can be unexpected and stressful, but it’s important to know your rights and responsibilities when it comes to reporting an injury. One common question that arises is, “How long does a worker have to report an injury to Workers Compensation Board?” In this article, we will provide you with the essential information you need to understand the time frame and steps required to report an injury to the Workers Compensation Board effectively regardless of the province your business operates in.
Our comprehensive guide will help you navigate the process, ensuring that your rights are protected and that you receive the compensation you deserve. Don’t let the clock run out – read on to learn more.
It can be so frustrating. There you are sitting in your office working away when you receive a phone call. It’s a WCB Claims Manager and they tell you that a worker has reported an injury to WCB.
When you hear the name you realize this person hasn’t worked for you for 2 months!
You start to wonder: “How long does a worker have to report an injury to WCB?”
How Long Does a Worker Have to Report an Injury to the WCB?
How much time the worker has before reporting WCB claims depends on the province you’re in, and they are all different.
Below is a rough guidelines for how long a worker has to submit a WCB / WSIB / Worksafe claim. These are the individual provincial standards.
For a specific time limit, you may want to contact the Workers Comp in your province.
Listed by Province, The Time Limit for a Worker to Report a WCB Claim is:
- Newfoundland- 3 months
- PEI- 6 months
- Nova Scotia- 5 years
- New Brunswick- It’s not clearly defined, but appears to be prior to leaving employment with employer. (That’s scary)
- Quebec- 6 months (Depending on situation)
- Ontario- 6 months
- Manitoba- 1 month
- Saskatchewan- 6 months
- Alberta- 2 years
- BC- 1 year
- Yukon- 1 year North West Territories- As soon as reasonably practicable. No defined time.
What you don’t want to forget with the information above is it’s a guideline. This means that it is possible for a worker to report an injury outside of this timeline and still have a valid claim.
The WCB encourages a worker to report a WCB claim in these time frames. Preferably as close to the date of accident as possible. In fact, they don’t like making decisions on these kinds of claims either.
You might also want to familiarize yourself with what to know about your employees working out of province and how it impacts WCB.
However, a worker can appeal to WCB and have this window extended. This could mean your company would be liable for a claim outside this window.
This does not include an occupational disease claim.
How does WCB decide on a late claim?
The WCB will look at different information, and they call this information “evidence.” They then try to see how the evidence lines up with their policy.
If the evidence seems to be in the favor of the worker, then they will accept the claim. In the majority of cases you can also provide evidence to help support a denial of a WCB late reported claim.
Read Next: 7 Things to Consider Before You Contact Your Provincial WCB and Why It’s Important
How can you protect yourself from reporting WCB claims late?
Our members area offers a detailed explanation of this very issue. To get a specific step-by-step explanation go to our courses page and sign up.
What you want to find out are the details that the worker has given WCB about their injury. From there you can investigate the facts of the claim and see if there is any truth.
You may need to talk to a few people and co-workers about the alleged injury. You can also look up documentation to support your position.
If you had a good relationship with the worker, you can also call them and talk to them about the WCB claim.
What you want to do after gathering this information is present it to WCB. In many of these cases the claims are denied because the worker doesn’t have sufficient evidence. The better the evidence, the better the decision you’ll get.
The way to present your information is usually best via a letter you’ve written. You don’t want to just send in information and have a verbal conversation. This is because there could be more eyes looking at this claim.
With a letter it provides context to the evidence you’re presenting and there is a written record of your statement. This helps whoever will be looking at the claim know your position.
