Skip to content
{notification.title}
{notification.description}

Re-employment obligations

The Workers Compensation Act (the Act) requires employers who have 25 or more full-time or regular part-time workers to re-employ injured workers who were in their employ for at least 12 continuous months prior to their injuries.

Re-employment is intended to return workers to their original positions in the workplace or ones that resemble, as closely as possible, the positions held at the time of their injuries.

Workers hired one year or more before their injuries are considered to be continuously employed for 12 continuous months unless the year was interrupted by a work stoppage intended to end the employment relationship. Continuous employment may include seasonal workers who may be laid off for a period of time when there is no work available, with the understanding that they will be called back to work when the work becomes available.

When injured workers are medically able to return to the essential duties of the jobs held at the time of their injuries, employers are obligated to re-employ the worker in the position the worker held on the day of the incident or offer to provide the worker with alternative employment comparable in nature and earnings to the worker’s employment on the day of the injury.

When injured workers are not able to return to their original jobs, but are able to perform modified or alternate duties, employers are obligated to offer their injured workers the first opportunity to accept safe and suitable work that becomes available. The employer must accommodate the work or the workplace to the needs of the worker to the extent that the accommodation does not cause the employer undue hardship. If the WCB determines employers have not met their re-employment obligations, an administrative penalty may be applied.

Injured workers must co-operate with the re-employment obligations by accepting safe and suitable work. If a worker refuses to reasonably participate in their recovery and return to work, employers are no longer bound by the obligation.

The re-employment obligation is time limited and ends at the earliest of three points:

  • the second anniversary of the date of injury 
  • six months after the worker is medically able to perform the pre-injury job or other suitable work 
  • the date the worker would have retired 

Employers who terminate re-employed injured workers within six months of the return to work are presumed to have breached the re-employment obligation. Employers may disprove the presumption by showing that the termination was not related to the injury.

The legislation recognizes that business decisions made in good faith that are not affected by workers being injured, such as layoffs, can impact workers’ employment status.

If the employers’ re-employment obligations provide injured workers with better re-employment terms than a collective agreement, this legislation prevails over the collective agreement.

The WCB will attempt to facilitate a successful resolution to any dispute.

The WCB will decide if injured workers are medically able to perform the tasks of the pre-injury job or safe and suitable modified or alternate duties. 

Related links