WSIAT Decision Broadens Workplace Stress Claims

On April 29, 2014, the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act Tribunal ("WSIAT") issued a decision regarding a worker's entitlement to benefits for chronic mental stress under the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act ("the Act"). In its decision, the WSIAT determined that the provisions in the Act which limit a worker's entitlement to coverage to stress that "...arises from an acute reaction to a sudden and unexpected event" violate the equality guarantee in s. 15 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The WSIAT found that the infringement was not "saved" by s. 1 of the Charter, and that consequently, both the legislative provisions and the WSIB policy implementing them were unconstitutional.