Report an injury or illness

Report your injury or illness

If you are injured or become ill at work

1. Get medical help

Get first aid right away

• If you need further treatment, go to a health professional. Your employer pays for your transportation on the day of injury

Report an employee's injury or illness

Businesses

• Provide first aid and keep accurate records of the treatment provided
• If your employee needs further treatment, you must either transport them to the health professional, or pay the cost of their transportation to the health professional on the day of injury.

• Tell your employer about any medical treatment you received as soon as possible and let them know about any additional information you received about your injury or illness.

• You must investigate and keep a detailed record of what happened, and the steps you take to correct the issue

Report your injury or illness if:

• you need treatment from a health professional (beyond first aid), or
• you aren’t able to go to work, or
• you are being paid less or receiving fewer hours of work

do not have to report your injury or illness to us if all three of the following apply:

• you only needed first aid, and
• you did not take any time off work, and
• your pay was not affected

If your dentures, glasses and/or artificial appliances are damaged in a workplace accident, you are eligible to claim benefits for repairing or replacing these devices even if you have no other injuries.

You must report a workplace injury or illness within three days of learning about it if your employee:

• needed treatment from a  health professional, or
• was absent from work, or
• earns less than regular pay  (e.g. working fewer hours or being paid less per hour).

You must provide a copy of the injury or illness report to your employee.

Even if your employee doesn’t need treatment from a health professional, you must report their injury or illness if they are doing modified work. This means any change in their regular job while recovering from an injury or illness for more than seven days (at regular pay). In this case, you must report on the eighth day of modified work.

The time limits listed below may be impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Please see the COVID-19 FAQs for updates about time limits and deadlines.

• You have six months from the date of injury or date of diagnosis to claim benefits by reporting your injury or illness to the WSIB.
• When in doubt, report. It's always better to report your injury or illness to the WSIB, even if you don't think you're covered.
• You should report your workplace injury or illness even if:
  • your supervisor or manager tells you not to report, or that you will lose your job if you report it
  • your employer tells you that your injury or illness is not covered by the WSIB
  • your employer tells you to use sick days to recover from a workplace injury or illness, rather than report it
• You have options for choosing a health professional

The time limits listed below may be impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Please see the COVID-19 FAQs for updates about time limits and deadlines.

• You must report a workplace injury within three days of learning about your employee’s workplace injury or illness

• You are responsible for reporting an injury or illness of anyone you employ in your business including family, seasonal or temporary employees, certain domestic employees, people doing construction work, students, apprentices and training participants

• You must report all cases of  needle stick injury, unless you have a surveillance protocol in place – that is a formal process to test and monitor a person exposed to an infectious disease

• If you are not sure whether the injury or illness is work-related, you should still report it to us. We make the decision whether an injury or illness is work-related or not
• It is against the law to discourage reporting of a workplace injury or illness. You could face a financial penalty as well as prosecution for not reporting, reporting late, not giving all the details requested, giving false or inaccurate details, or discouraging your employees from reporting