Staff’ compensation claims have climbed in the course of the pandemic: Employment lawyer

Tanzola hopes many of these innovations will persist after the pandemic, especially the electronic document system. “As long as there is shelter for those who don’t, for whatever reason [or can’t use] Access to digital documents is very useful for the PDF system. “

Aside from the changes related to COVID-19, Tanzola says another evolution in handling WSIB claims is recognizing chronic mental stress as a reason for compensation.

Since the 1990s, the WSIB has recognized that traumatic stress in connection with a specific work event is an injury eligible for compensation. More recently, the WSIB has recognized that chronic psychological stress over a longer period of time is a claim that can be compensated if the chronic psychological stress is related to the work place and is a predominant factor in a recognized clinical diagnosis.

A personality conflict with management or employees is unlikely to be seen as compensable, says Tanzola. “It’s really reserved for situations like workplace bullying or harassment that you wouldn’t reasonably expect in the workplace,” she says, and would not be compensable if the stress came from the nature of the work item itself.

When dealing with clients of the management / employer, Tanzola reminds them that they can “never forget” their human rights obligations. You are required by law to try to find reasonable accommodation to assist an employee return to work. And both employers and employees