Quebec CNESST Claim Deadlines
The dates that govern a CNESST claim in Quebec. Free. No email required. For anyone injured at work.
Quebec runs several clocks at once. Some run from the day you were hurt. Some run from the day a decision reached you. One runs from the day you learned something. One runs against CNESST rather than against you.
THE TEN CLOCKS
Three of the ten run out inside your first month, and one of the ten is not yours at all, it runs against CNESST. Not drawn to scale.
Inside the first month Longer, but they start now
They do not all count from the same event. Two run from the injury or the death itself. One runs from the day something was medically established and made known to you. Four run from notification of a decision. One runs from the day you learned of a sanction. One runs from the day CNESST received a piece of paper from you. Everything below sets out what starts each clock, and what to write down at the moment it matters.
How long do I have to file a CNESST claim in Quebec?
Six months, but which six months depends on what happened to you. The Act sets three separate clocks and they do not start at the same moment.
Section 270 covers an accident that kept you off work for more than fourteen full days, or that left you with a permanent physical or psychological impairment, or that killed you, in which case your beneficiary files. Six months from the injury or the death.
Section 271 covers a lighter accident, one that did not stop you working beyond the day your injury appeared. It also covers you if no employer has to pay your salary for the first fourteen days, whatever the length of your incapacity. Six months from the injury.
Section 272 covers occupational disease, and it starts differently from the other two. The six months does not run from your diagnosis. It runs from the date it is medically established and brought to your knowledge that you have an occupational disease. CNESST treats that as two conditions together: a health professional has diagnosed the disease, and you have learned that it is probably related to your work.
| The section | What it covers | The six months runs from |
|---|---|---|
| Section 270 | An accident that kept you off work more than fourteen full days, or left a permanent physical or psychological impairment, or killed you | The injury, or the death |
| Section 271 | A lighter accident that did not stop you working beyond the day your injury appeared, or where no employer has to pay your salary for the first fourteen days | The injury |
| Section 272 | An occupational disease | The day it is medically established and brought to your knowledge that you have one |
| Sections 270 and 271 again | A relapse, recurrence or aggravation, even where the original injury was an occupational disease | The relapse, recurrence or aggravation |
Learning of the work connection is a date, and it is usually yours to establish. It can come from a medical opinion, a union or employer communication, published research, a prevention programme, or simply noticing similar cases among the people you work with.
CNESST's own worked example has a worker diagnosed in January 2022 who learns of the work connection four years later, in January 2026. The claim is on time until July 2026. Write down the week you made that connection, and what made you make it, because nobody else can date it for you.
A relapse, recurrence or aggravation goes back to sections 270 and 271, even where the original injury was an occupational disease, because you already knew you had one.
If you were off for fewer than fourteen full days and have nothing to claim, you do not have to complete the Réclamation du travailleur at all.
Death benefits carry an outer limit of their own. The right to death benefits ends seven years after the date of death.
My claim was denied. How long do I have to contest a CNESST decision?
Thirty days to ask CNESST for an administrative review, then sixty days to take the review decision to the Tribunal administratif du travail. Both count from notification, not from the date printed on the letter.
The two steps are separate and they are not interchangeable. The review is CNESST looking at its own decision again. The Tribunal is a different body, and the sixty days to reach it starts only once the review decision is notified to you.
| The step | Who deals with it | You have | Counting from |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ask for an administrative review | CNESST | 30 days | Notification of the decision |
| Contest the review decision | The Tribunal administratif du travail | 60 days | Notification of the review decision |
| Skip the review, in three medical opinion cases only | The Tribunal administratif du travail | 60 days | Notification of the original decision |
| Contest a section 32 complaint decision | The Tribunal administratif du travail, directly | 60 days | Notification of that decision |
| Contest a temporary assignment decision | A review first, then the Tribunal | 10 days, then 10 days again | Notification, under sections 37 to 37.3 of the Loi sur la santé et la sécurité du travail |
It is sixty days to the Tribunal, not forty five. The window to contest at the Tribunal administratif du travail was lengthened from forty five days to sixty on 6 April 2023. Sections 359 and 359.1 now both read sixty.
Forty five is the safer number to work to, since acting early costs nothing. If you have been told you are out of time at day fifty, check again.
The temporary assignment route is the shortest thing on this page. Ten days to ask for a review of the decision, and ten days again to take that decision to the Tribunal. It runs under sections 37 to 37.3 of the Loi sur la santé et la sécurité du travail rather than under the review route above, and it can be finished before most people have finished reading their first letter.
Your clock runs from notification rather than from the date printed on the decision.
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 Quebec 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.
When can I skip the review and go straight to the Tribunal?
In three cases, and the two routes carry different clocks. Section 360 lets you choose between asking for a review within thirty days and going straight to the Tribunal within sixty. Mixing the two costs you the shorter one.
The three cases are a decision following an opinion of the Bureau d'évaluation médicale on a subject in paragraphs 1 to 5 of the first paragraph of section 212, a decision following a special committee opinion on a pulmonary occupational disease under the second paragraph of section 230, and a decision following a report of the oncological occupational disease committee under the second paragraph of section 233.5.
Do not do both at once. Where a decision is under review and before the Tribunal at the same time, the Tribunal sends it back to CNESST to decide.
What can I not ask CNESST to review?
Medical questions that bind CNESST. Your diagnosis, the date or period of consolidation, the care or treatment prescribed, your permanent impairment and your functional limitations cannot be taken to administrative review. They go through the Bureau d'évaluation médicale first. CNESST is then bound by that opinion and issues a decision based on it.
A refusal to reconsider. If CNESST declines to reconsider a decision to correct an error, that refusal is final and cannot be reviewed. Temporary assignment information from your treating health professional, including temporary functional limitations, is also outside the review process.
This is the part that surprises people. A CNESST decision you disagree with may rest entirely on a medical opinion you cannot ask CNESST to look at again, because CNESST is bound by it.
What you can contest is the decision that follows the opinion, and in the three section 360 cases you can take that decision straight to the Tribunal within sixty days.
What if CNESST does not deal with my review request?
After ninety days you can go over their head. If CNESST has not disposed of your review request within ninety days of receiving it, you may contest at the Tribunal administratif du travail directly. Note that the ninety days runs from the day it reached them, not the day you sent it.
There is one variation. If you asked for time to make observations or to produce documents, the ninety days runs from that presentation or production instead. That variation applies only where you asked for the delay. It is not a general rule that the clock restarts every time you send something in.
One runs against CNESST rather than against you.
One trap worth knowing. If both you and your employer asked for a review of the same decision, and you want to use the ninety day route, check whether the other side intends to contest at the same time. The Tribunal has to send the matter back to CNESST for as long as a review is still running in the same file.
What if the decision has a plain error in it?
Ask for reconsideration under section 365. CNESST can reconsider its own decision to correct any error within ninety days of the date of that decision, provided no review decision has been issued and, in the section 360 cases, provided it has not been taken to the Tribunal. A miscalculation, a wrong date, a typing error or the wrong section of the Act applied all qualify.
There is a second limb for new facts. Where a decision was made before an essential fact was known, CNESST can reconsider within ninety days of learning that fact, on its own initiative or at your request. The clock starts when you are told the fact exists, not when you work out what it means for you.
Reconsideration is not a substitute for the thirty day review. It runs alongside it, and the thirty days keeps running while you wait.
What if my employer punishes me for claiming?
Thirty days, and the clock starts from when you found out. Section 32 covers dismissal, suspension, transfer, discriminatory or reprisal measures, any other sanction, and a refusal to put you back in a job contrary to a CNESST decision, where it happened because you were injured or because you exercised a right under the Act.
The complaint must be in writing and filed within thirty days of the day you learned of the act, sanction or measure, under section 253. Send a copy to your employer. If you are unionised you can grieve instead, though not both for the same thing.
Three more situations are covered. Your employer refusing to pay all or part of your first fourteen full days. Your employer underpaying you on a temporary assignment. Your employer paying you less than you would have had on your return to work. All three are section 32 complaints.
The six month presumption is the part worth knowing. If the sanction came within six months of your injury or of exercising a right under the Act, section 255 presumes it was imposed for that reason, and the burden shifts to your employer to prove another just and sufficient cause. While that presumption applies, CNESST can order your provisional reinstatement with pay until it disposes of the complaint.
If the complaint succeeds, CNESST can order reinstatement, cancellation of the sanction, and payment of the salary and benefits you lost, with interest running from the day you filed. Your employer has eight days from notification to comply. A section 32 decision goes directly to the Tribunal, within sixty days.
I was injured in a vehicle while working. Which tribunal do I contest at?
You choose, and the choice cannot be unmade. A decision issued jointly by CNESST and the Société de l'assurance automobile du Québec can be contested under this Act or under the Loi sur l'assurance automobile. That means the Tribunal administratif du travail or the Tribunal administratif du Québec.
Taking one route bars the other, and the decision that comes out binds both bodies. Sixty days either way. The same fork applies to a decision issued jointly by CNESST and the crime victims compensation scheme.
The road accident side has its own clocks, three years to claim and sixty days on every decision. Our Quebec SAAQ page sets those out.
Do my payments stop while I contest?
A CNESST decision takes effect immediately, even while you are contesting it. That is why benefits can stop before anyone has looked at your file a second time. It is not a mistake and it is not a sign your contestation has failed.
Two things are carved out. A decision awarding bodily injury compensation or a lump sum death benefit, and a decision about a temporary assignment, take effect only once they become final.
Can CNESST take back money it has already paid me?
Generally no. Where a benefit is later cancelled or reduced, whether on review or by the Tribunal, benefits already provided cannot be recovered.
The exceptions are narrow. Benefits obtained in bad faith, and salary paid as an indemnity under section 60. Short of that, money received in good faith stays with you.
It runs the other way too. Where a benefit you were refused is later granted, or increased, CNESST pays interest from the date of your claim.
How long is my job held for me after a workplace injury in Quebec?
One year or two, and the number turns on the establishment rather than the company. One year if the establishment where you worked counted twenty workers or fewer at the start of your continuous absence, two years if it counted more than twenty. A large employer with a small branch is a one year situation.
The clock runs from the beginning of your continuous absence, not from your injury. A collective agreement can give you longer, and where it does, the longer period is the one that counts.
What if I have already missed a CNESST deadline?
Ask anyway, because relief exists at every stage. The thirty day review deadline can be extended on proof of a reasonable ground. So can the six month claim deadline, and CNESST weighs three things when it looks at your explanation: whether your state of health left you able to act, how diligent you were once you could, and what interest you had in claiming at all.
Even a Tribunal decision is not always the end. It is final and without appeal, and everyone it covers has to comply. The Tribunal can still review or revoke its own decision on request in three situations: a new fact emerges that could have changed the outcome, a party could not be heard for reasons judged sufficient, or the decision carries a substantive or procedural defect.
Keep the envelope. Your clock runs from notification rather than from the date printed on the decision. If a decision reaches you well after the date it carries, that envelope is your evidence of when notification actually happened.
Make sure you get an acknowledgement of receipt. CNESST normally sends one after a review request, and usually encloses a copy of your file with it. If no acknowledgement arrives, chase it. Chasing it also fixes the date they received your request, which is what the ninety day clock runs from. That copy of your file is the thing you need in order to argue.
Dates are only half of it. Knowing when something is due does not tell you that a Bureau d'évaluation médicale opinion binds CNESST on your diagnosis and your limitations, that you cannot ask for a review of a medical question at all, or that switching from a review to the Tribunal requires a withdrawal first.
Recovering after a workplace injury in Quebec covers the whole process and is free to read. Hurt in another province? Start from the guides by province and territory.
Did the CNESST deadlines change in 2026?
The change worth knowing about is older than 2026 and it still catches people out. The window to contest at the Tribunal administratif du travail was lengthened from forty five days to sixty on 6 April 2023. Sections 359 and 359.1 now both read sixty. If you have been told you are out of time at day fifty, check again.
Work to forty five anyway. Acting early costs nothing, and the older number is still in circulation in enough places that arriving inside it removes the argument entirely.
This page was verified in August 2026 against the sources listed below. Where the letter in your hand says something different from this page, the letter and the Act govern, and if one of our sources has moved, write to us and we will correct it.
Last verified: August 2026
Checked against: CNESST policy 1.01 on filing a claim and its admissibility, CNESST policy 6.02 on review requests, specific recourses and contestation, CNESST policy 6.01 on reconsideration, the Tribunal administratif du travail on contesting a CNESST decision, and the Loi sur les accidents du travail et les maladies professionnelles.
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
Every clock on this page runs from notification rather than from the date printed on the letter, and one of them starts from something you sent rather than something you received.
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 Quebec 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 Quebec 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 ten clocks, with what starts each one
- The route in order, from the administrative review to the Tribunal administratif du travail
- What to write down the day each CNESST decision reaches you
- Section 32 complaints, reconsideration and the ninety day route past a silent review
$24.99 · instant download · yours to keep
See the Quebec 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 Quebec. It is not legal or medical advice. Rules differ by province and change over time. Confirm anything specific to your situation with a representative, the CNESST or the Tribunal administratif du travail.