COVID-19 – Update – COVID-19-Related-Claims Under WSIB

On March 23, 2020, the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board ("WSIB") released an "Adjudicative approach document" outlining how COVID-19 related-claims made to the WSIB will be treated. Workers may receive WSIB benefits for COVID-19 "arising out of and in the course of the worker's employment". In other words, the worker has to show that his or her illness is work-related.  Cases will be adjudicated on a case-by-case basis.

The WSIB will consider the following factors to determine whether a worker's employment made a significant contribution to the worker's illness:

• Whether the nature of the worker's employment created a risk of contracting the disease to which the public at large is not normally exposed; and