Manitoba WCB Appeals and Deadlines
How appeals work on a WCB claim in Manitoba. Free. No email required. For anyone injured at work.
Manitoba sets no deadline for appealing a WCB decision, runs two levels of appeal and pays your wages to attend the second one. The clocks that catch people here are short ones buried inside the process, and most people never see them coming.
THE FOUR CLOCKS
Three of the four run out inside your first month, and the one everybody asks about, the appeal itself, has no time limit at all. Not drawn to scale.
Inside the first month Longer, but they start now
They do not all count from the same event, and one of them is not counting against you at all. The five business days runs backwards from a hearing date you will be given. The ten business days starts the moment your employer asks for your file, whether or not anyone tells you it has started. The thirty days runs from being served a decision about an administrative penalty, and it is the only appeal window in Manitoba with a number attached to it. The sixty days is the Review Office's own target for deciding, not a deadline for you. Everything below sets out what starts each one, and what to write down at the moment it matters.
How long do I have to appeal a WCB decision in Manitoba?
There is no time limit, with one exception. The Appeal Commission states plainly that apart from appeals of administrative penalties there are no time limits to file an appeal. The Government of Manitoba's own Worker Advisor Office says the same about WCB decisions generally.
The exception is the administrative penalty, and that one carries thirty days from being served the decision. It gets its own section below, because it is the only date on this page that can close on you.
Which does not make waiting free. The longer you leave it the harder it gets to find the evidence that would have supported you. Records get archived, clinics change hands, and the people who saw what happened stop remembering it clearly.
No deadline is not the same as no hurry.
So take the time you need to get well and to gather what you have. Take it knowing the door is not closing behind you.
Two separate bodies say the same thing, which is why this page says it without hedging. The Appeal Commission says it about appeals. The Government of Manitoba Worker Advisor Office says it about WCB decisions generally.
The absence of a general appeal deadline was confirmed against both of them directly rather than taken from a summary. A missing deadline is exactly the kind of thing a second hand source gets wrong, usually by assuming there must be one.
What is the thirty day rule for administrative penalties?
Thirty days from being served the decision. It is the single exception to everything above and the only appeal window in Manitoba with a number on it. The window sits in section 109.7(1.3) of The Workers Compensation Act.
The count runs from being served, not from the day you got round to opening it. If a decision about an administrative penalty reaches you, write the date it arrived on the front of the envelope and count from there rather than from memory.
Treat this one as firm. Everywhere else in Manitoba you can take the time you need. Here you cannot, and nothing in the sources checked for this page sets out a way to extend the thirty days.
If you are not sure whether the decision in front of you is an administrative penalty or an ordinary claim decision, that is a question for the Worker Advisor Office while the thirty days is still running, not after it.
It has been years since the decision. Is it too late to appeal?
No, and in Manitoba that answer does not come with conditions. Apart from appeals of administrative penalties there are no time limits to file an appeal. The Appeal Commission says so, the Worker Advisor Office says so, and it was confirmed against both directly.
What a long gap changes is not the deadline, it is the evidence. Records get archived, clinics change hands, and the people who saw what happened stop remembering it clearly. That is the real cost of waiting, and unlike a missed deadline it is a cost you can still do something about today.
Start with what you can still get hold of. Ask the WCB for your claim file, write out every decision you disagree with as a list, and gather whatever medical records still exist before another year passes over them.
Then read the section on free help in Manitoba further down this page. The Worker Advisor Office is independent of the WCB, costs nothing and exists for exactly this kind of question.
The exception, again, is the administrative penalty. If that is what you are holding and the thirty days has gone, none of this section applies to it.
What are the two levels of WCB appeal in Manitoba?
The Review Office, then the Appeal Commission. Before either of them, the WCB asks you to raise the issue with a representative and try to resolve it directly.
The Review Office is a formal level of appeal inside the WCB. It is staffed by senior WCB employees and is separate from the person who made the decision you are challenging, which is not the same thing as being outside the organization. It decides on the file rather than at a hearing, and aims to complete most decisions within sixty days of the reconsideration being listed.
The Appeal Commission sits outside the WCB entirely. Its commissioners are appointed by Order-in-Council and are not WCB employees. It is the final level, and in most cases it can only consider issues the Review Office has already decided.
| The step | Who deals with it | You have | Counting from |
|---|---|---|---|
| Raise it directly first | A representative at the WCB, before either level of appeal | No limit stated | Whenever the problem appears |
| Request reconsideration | The Review Office, senior WCB employees inside the WCB | No time limit | Not applicable |
| Appeal the Review Office decision | The Appeal Commission, outside the WCB entirely | No time limit | Not applicable |
| Appeal an administrative penalty | The one exception to all of the above | 30 days | Being served the decision |
Separate from the person who made the decision is not the same thing as being outside the organization.
In most cases the Appeal Commission can only consider issues the Review Office has already decided. There is no deadline in that sentence, which is why it is easy to read past, and it is the single most important sentence on this page.
The practical consequence is that a disagreement you leave out of your reconsideration request may have nowhere left to go. Write out every decision you disagree with as a list before you send the request, rather than dealing with the one that stings most and letting the rest go.
If your claim were decided tomorrow, what would your file say?
People who were genuinely hurt have lost benefits over a date nobody recorded, a body part left off the first form, or a call nobody wrote down. Caught early that is fixable. A year on it is an argument you have to win. The Manitoba Workplace Injury Companion Guide keeps every date on this page in one place, with the form that goes with each and room to write down what actually happened. $24.99, yours to keep.
How long does the Review Office take to decide?
It aims for sixty days. The Review Office aims to complete most decisions within sixty days of the reconsideration being listed. That is a target the WCB sets for itself, not a deadline that runs against you, and nothing you have to do expires while you wait for it.
Notice what the sixty days counts from. Not the day you posted your request and not the day it arrived. The reconsideration being listed. If you want to know where you stand inside the sixty days, the question to ask is when your reconsideration was listed.
The Review Office decides on the file rather than at a hearing, which changes what the wait is for. There is no appointment at which you get to explain yourself, so what you sent is what is being considered. If something important is missing, the time to notice is while the sixty days is still running.
Can I go back to the Review Office instead of appealing?
Yes, and it is worth knowing before you escalate. If you disagree with a Review Office decision and you have new information it has not seen, you can submit a fresh request for reconsideration with that information rather than going straight to the Appeal Commission.
Which means a specialist's report, a new diagnosis or a record of function you did not have before is more than supporting material.
It can reopen the door you thought you had gone through.
Reconsideration practice sits in Policy 20.10 Reconsiderations. When you ask for a second look, say plainly what is new, when you obtained it and why the Review Office has not seen it before. New information is the thing that makes the request a reconsideration rather than a repeat of the one already decided.
What do I need before an Appeal Commission hearing?
Five business days for anything not already on your file. The Commission works from your actual WCB claim file, so you do not need to copy anything that is already in it. Anything that is not has to reach them at least five business days before the hearing, and after that you need a Request to File Additional Evidence form.
Tell them in advance if anyone is coming with you. If you are bringing a witness, that needs a Witness List.
| What you are sending | When it has to reach the Commission | If you are later than that |
|---|---|---|
| Anything already on your claim file | No need to send it at all | Not applicable |
| Evidence that is not on the file | At least 5 business days before the hearing | A Request to File Additional Evidence form |
| A witness | In advance, on a Witness List | Not stated on this page |
| Someone accompanying you | Tell the Commission in advance | Not stated on this page |
Count back from the hearing date, not forward from today. Five business days is a working week, so for a Monday hearing the cut off lands on the Monday before it once the weekend is taken out, and a statutory holiday in between moves it earlier still.
Dates are only half of it. Knowing when something is due does not tell you that your employer cannot discourage you from filing or appealing, that the WCB owes you one free copy of your claim file or that whatever never reached that file is not in front of the panel deciding your appeal.
Recovering after a workplace injury in Manitoba covers the whole process and is free to read. Hurt in another province? Start from the guides by province and territory.
My employer wants to see my claim file. How long do I have to object?
Ten business days. If your employer requests access to your file on an appeal, that is the window you have to give consent or to put written objections in.
You can review the file content in person or request a copy at that time. Do that before you decide. Reading what is actually in the file is how you work out whether you have an objection worth making.
If the WCB authorizes access anyway, that decision can be appealed to the chief appeal commissioner. So the ten business days is not the last word on it, but it is the part that is yours.
This clock starts when your employer asks, not when you decide anything. It is already running before you have made a single choice about it, which is what makes it the easiest window on this page to lose.
Ten business days is two calendar weeks, less if a holiday falls inside them. If a letter about employer file access arrives, work out the last day the same afternoon and write it down where you will see it.
Do I get paid for the time off to attend the hearing?
Yes, and this stops people missing their own hearing. A worker who has to miss work to attend is reimbursed for actual wages lost, on verification. Reasonable expenses to get there are also reimbursable.
If health reasons mean you cannot travel alone, the cost of someone accompanying you can be covered as well. Ask about that when you are told your hearing date rather than after the hearing has happened.
Keep the receipts and the pay records. Actual wages lost, on verification, means the reimbursement is only as good as what you can show for it. The pay record for the shift you missed and the travel receipts, kept together, are the whole of what is being asked for.
I was hurt in a vehicle while working. Which deadlines apply?
Then the other Manitoba system applies too, and unlike this one it has hard deadlines. Sixty days for an internal review, ninety to appeal.
That is the part to act on first. The page you are reading is the one with no deadline on it. The other one is not, and it can run out while you are still working out whether you have a WCB claim at all.
Our Manitoba MPI page sets those out, along with your right to make MPI pay for the medical reports you need.
What changed in 2026, and did the deadlines change?
This page was checked in August 2026 against three sources. WCB Manitoba's Appealing a WCB decision page, the Appeal Commission of Manitoba's Before the appeal page, and the Government of Manitoba Worker Advisor Office. All three are listed in full at the bottom of this page.
The absence of a general appeal deadline was confirmed against the Appeal Commission and the Worker Advisor Office directly rather than taken from a summary. That check matters more in Manitoba than it would elsewhere, because a rule that consists of there being no rule is the kind of thing a second hand source quietly fills in.
The two rules with a legal home are the ones to check first if anything moves. The thirty day administrative penalty window sits in section 109.7(1.3) of The Workers Compensation Act. Reconsideration practice sits in Policy 20.10 Reconsiderations.
Where the letter in your hand says something different from this page, the letter and the Act govern. The sources are listed below, and if one of them has moved, write to us and we will correct it.
Do I need a lawyer or a representative to appeal?
Not to start one, and there is free help in Manitoba that most people never hear about. The Worker Advisor Office is a Government of Manitoba program, independent of the WCB, and worker advisors know the compensation system well. There is no charge.
Worker Advisor Office
204-945-5787
Toll free 1-800-282-8069 extension 5787
Watch the extension. Manitoba's free advocate for road accident claims, the Claimant Adviser Office, sits on the same toll free number at extension 7413. Same switchboard, different office, and they do not handle each other's cases.
Call before the forms, not after them. Both levels of appeal here decide on what is written down. The Review Office decides on the file, the Appeal Commission works from your actual claim file, and in most cases it can only consider issues the Review Office has already decided. Advice that arrives before your reconsideration request is worth more than the same advice after it.
Requesting reconsideration, going back to the Review Office with new information, objecting to employer file access and appealing to the Appeal Commission are all things you can do yourself. Whoever ends up helping you, the record they will work from is the one you kept while the clocks were running.
Last verified: August 2026
Checked against: WCB Manitoba, Appealing a WCB decision, The Appeal Commission of Manitoba, Before the appeal and the Government of Manitoba Worker Advisor Office. The administrative penalty window sits in section 109.7(1.3) of The Workers Compensation Act, and reconsideration practice sits in Policy 20.10 Reconsiderations.
The absence of a general appeal deadline was confirmed against the Appeal Commission and the Worker Advisor Office directly rather than taken from a summary.
Deadlines change. If you find something on this page that is out of date, write to Recovery@hurtsquare.ca and we will correct it publicly.
Keeping the record these deadlines depend on
The two useful things on this page both reward someone who has kept a file. New information can reopen a Review Office decision. Evidence gets you five business days before a hearing and no later. Having no deadline to appeal only helps the person who can still prove what happened.
Two things decide how an injury claim goes. What you wrote down and whether you did the right thing at the right time for where you live. The National Workplace Injury Recovery Guide handles the first, the daily record of symptoms, appointments, calls and costs that a claim is eventually judged on. The Manitoba Workplace Injury Companion Guide handles the second, the deadlines on this page and the forms, boards and appeal routes behind them. People who have only one tend to end up with a careful record aimed at the wrong process, or the right dates and nothing to put in front of them.
Your Recovery. Documented. Protected.
EVERYTHING ON THIS PAGE, AND WHAT COMES NEXT
The Manitoba Workplace Injury Companion Guide
This page tells you the dates. The guide walks you through them, and gives you somewhere to write down what happened on each one.
- All four clocks, with what starts each one
- The route in order, from your WCB representative to the Review Office to the Appeal Commission
- What has to reach your claim file, and by when, before a hearing
- How to object to employer file access, ask for reconsideration and prepare for the Commission
$24.99 · instant download · yours to keep
See the Manitoba Workplace Injury Companion GuideMost people take it with the National Workplace Injury Recovery Guide, which is the daily record the dates hang on.
Not ready for a guide? The checklist for the first week after a workplace injury is at hurtsquare.ca/7. It is free and asks nothing of you.
This page is general information for people in Manitoba. It is not legal or medical advice. Rules differ by province and change over time. Confirm anything specific to your situation with a representative, WCB Manitoba or the Worker Advisor Office.