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Canadian Journal of Public Health = Revue Canadienne de Santé Publique logoLink to Canadian Journal of Public Health = Revue Canadienne de Santé Publique
editorial
. 2010 Mar 1;101(Suppl 1):S16–S22. doi: 10.1007/BF03403841

Access to Workers’ Compensation Benefits and Other Legal Protections for Work-related Mental Health Problems: A Canadian Overview

Katherine Lippel 13,23,✉, Anette Sikka 13
PMCID: PMC6973687  PMID: 20629442

Abstract

This article reports on a study of the legal and policy framework governing access, in Canada, to workers’ compensation benefits for workers who are work disabled because of mental health problems attributed to stressful working conditions and events. It also provides a brief description of legislation regulating psychological harassment in Quebec and Saskatchewan.

Applying classic legal methodology, the article examines the legal situation in Canada, relying on federal and provincial legislation and case law. While many of the jurisdictions studied explicitly restrict compensability to the consequences of traumatic incidents, application of this legislation is very different from one province to the next. In some provinces, legal exclusions are applied emphatically, whereas in others the workers’ compensation appeal tribunals interpret the legislative exclusions much more narrowly, allowing for some access to compensation despite the legislative exclusions. Other provinces have no such exclusions and accept claims for both acute and chronic stress, although access to compensation remains more difficult for claimants with mental health problems than for those who are physically injured, regardless of where they live.

The article concludes by offering an analysis of the consequences of the current situation from a public policy and public health perspective, notably underlining the negative consequences, particularly for women, of current workers’ compensation policy in most Canadian provinces.

Key words: Workers’ compensation, psychosocial risk factors, mental health problems, psychological harassment, legislation

Footnotes

Acknowledgements: The authors acknowledge the support of the Global Health Research Initiative through its funding of the Teasdale-Corti project “Research, Policy and Practice With Regard to Work-Related Mental Health Problems in Chile: A Gender Perspective”.

Conflict of Interest: None to declare.

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