“My Boss Doesn't Believe Me!” | Your Employer Says Your Injury Isn't Work-Related? Here Is What Happens Next

A worker in a high-visibility vest and wrist brace talks on his phone in the driver's seat of his pickup truck in a parking lot.

Being told your injury "didn't happen here" can feel like being called a liar. Your employer is allowed to disagree. But your employer does not decide your claim. The WSIB does.

Who decides if my injury is work-related?

The WSIB decides, based on the information it gathers from you, your employer and your health professionals. Your employer can raise concerns and give its side, and it can object to decisions it disagrees with, the same way you can. A disagreement from your employer is one piece of the file, not the answer.

Does my employer still have to report it?

Yes. Under the WSIB's Form 7 reference guide, an employer must report when it learns a worker needs health care, or is off work, earns less, or needs modified work at regular pay for more than seven calendar days. The report is due within three business days. The guide also says the employer must report even if the employee does not want a claim.

Employers who report late face a $250 penalty, and $1,000 if the report is more than 30 calendar days late.

Can I file the claim myself?

Yes, and you do not need to wait for your employer. Your side of the claim is the Worker's Report of Injury/Disease, called Form 6, which you can complete online. The WSIB's In case of injury poster sets the limit at six months from the date of injury or the date of diagnosis. Our article How to Fill Out WSIB Form 6 walks through it.

What evidence shows the injury happened at work?

  • Your account, written today. What you were doing, where, at what time, and what caused the injury. Details fade quickly.
  • Who saw it, or who you told first. Names and phone numbers.
  • Your first medical visit. Tell the clinician it happened at work, and how. Their notes are often the first record the WSIB reads.
  • Your schedule. Timesheets or shift records that place you at work at that time.
  • Messages. Any text or email where you reported the injury to a supervisor.
  • Photos. The spot where it happened, the equipment, and the injury itself.

Why use Hurt Square?

Because your employer gives its side, and your record gives yours. Hurt Square guides give you one place to keep it from the day you were hurt, so the WSIB reads your account in your own words.

  • The day it happened, written down. The National Workplace Injury Recovery Guide has structured space for the injury itself, who saw it, who you told first, your first medical visit and every conversation with your employer and the WSIB.
  • The Ontario rules, in plain words. The Ontario Workplace Injury Companion Guide explains Forms 6, 7 and 8, the six-month Form 6 deadline and how to object, through to the Appeals Tribunal.
  • Facts, not an argument. When two accounts differ, a dated record made at the time carries more weight than a memory pieced together months later.
  • Made for hard days. 123 pages and more than 1,200 fillable fields that work on your phone, tablet or computer, in plain language. When your union representative, worker adviser or lawyer asks for something, it is already there.

Both guides, $39 until 22 November. The National Workplace Injury Recovery Guide and the Ontario Workplace Injury Companion Guide, with the discount applied at checkout. Bought separately: $63.99.

Get both guides

What if I am being pressured not to claim?

Discouraging or preventing a worker from claiming benefits is an offence under section 155.1 of the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act. The WSIB publishes convictions, including fines of $8,000 and $12,500 against two Ontario businesses for claim suppression in 2025 and 2026.

If something like this is happening, write down what was said, by whom and when, and tell the WSIB at 1-800-387-0750.

What if the claim is denied anyway?

A denial can be challenged, usually within six months. Our article “WSIB Rejected My Claim!” | WSIB Denied Your Claim? Your Next Steps Before the Deadline sets out what to do first.

Who can help?

The Office of the Worker Adviser, if you are not in a union. It is an independent agency of the Ontario government, and its service to non-unionized injured workers is free. Its number for English service is 1-800-435-8980. If you are in a union, start with your union representative. A community legal clinic is another free route.

Read next

National Workplace Injury Recovery Guide

If your recovery were reviewed tomorrow, what would your record say?

The National Workplace Injury Recovery Guide is where your recovery gets documented, day by day. Symptoms, appointments, calls and costs, written while they are fresh. It works in every province and it stands on its own.

Both guides, $39 until 22 November. Add the Ontario Workplace Injury Companion Guide for the dates and rules that shape your recovery in Ontario, and the discount applies at checkout. Bought separately: $63.99.

Every figure in this article comes from a named source. How we check
Last verified: October 2026.
Workplace Claim Correspondence Tracker: Free Starter Edition

Keep every call, letter and decision together

Workplace Claim Correspondence Tracker: Free Starter Edition

A deadline board, call records, board decisions with the reason given, and proof of what you sent.

By entering your details, you agree to receive recovery tips and offers from Hurt Square. We use your first name and province to send you what applies where you live. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Free for your wallet: a printable card that tells you what to do first if you are hurt at work and what to write down.

Everything above is free.

If you want the whole system, it comes in two parts.

Two things decide how an injury claim goes.

What you wrote down. The National Recovery Guide is the daily record: symptoms, appointments, calls, costs, and what you can no longer do. It is the part a claim is eventually judged on.
Whether you did the right thing at the right time for where you live. Your Provincial Companion Guide carries your deadlines, your forms, your boards and your appeal routes. Ontario is not British Columbia. Generic advice sends people to the wrong form, and then to the wrong date.

Buy only the National Guide and you keep a perfect record, then miss a deadline nobody told you about.

Buy only your Provincial Guide and you know every date, with nothing written down to send.

You need both. That is why they are priced as a pair.

Bought separately: $63.99. Together: $39 until 22 November.

The discount applies automatically at checkout.

Get the Complete System for $39

Hurt in a vehicle instead? Start here. ·  Not sure which province edition you need? Find yours.

A fillable PDF that works on every device you own, for one payment.

Your Recovery. Documented. Protected.

You are not the only one

Somebody else has already had this exact week.

We closed comments on our articles, on purpose. A public comment box under a page about claims is a place where people give away details that can be used against them later, and we would rather not build that.

The Square is where that conversation belongs instead. Canadians hurt in an accident or on the job say what happened, read what happened to everyone else, and find out they were never the only one. Post under your name or not at all.

Say what happened, in The Square

Know someone going through this? Send them The Square.

Moderated, with house rules. Please leave out claim numbers, adjuster names and anything else that identifies your file. Something specific to your own claim is better sent to recovery@hurtsquare.ca.