“I'm Not Ready to Go Back!” | Can You Refuse Modified Work on WSIB? What Happens If You Say No

A worker in a high-visibility vest with her arm in a sling talks with her supervisor across a break room table with a clipboard between them.

Being offered modified work when you are still in pain is stressful. Saying yes feels risky for your body. Saying no feels risky for your benefits. Here is how the rules actually work.

Do I have to co-operate with return to work?

Yes. Under the WSIB's policy on return to work co-operation obligations, workers are expected to:

  • make early contact with the injury employer and keep communicating
  • help the employer identify suitable work when asked
  • give the WSIB the information it needs about returning to work
  • take part in return to work assessments and plans

Your employer has co-operation obligations too, and can be penalized for not meeting them.

What if the job does not fit my restrictions?

Say so, and say why. The policy is clear that a disagreement about whether a job offer is suitable is not an act of non-co-operation. The WSIB helps the two sides reach agreement on whether the work fits.

The strongest way to raise it is in writing, to your employer and your case manager: list the duties, and point to the restriction each one goes beyond. Your restrictions usually come from your health professional, often on the Functional Abilities Form. Our article “My Doctor Has Paperwork to Fill Out!” | What Is the WSIB Functional Abilities Form? explains it.

What happens if the WSIB decides I am not co-operating?

There are steps first. The WSIB tells you what is expected and what the penalty could be, confirms you are still not co-operating, then sends written notice. The penalty starts 10 calendar days after the notice.

The first penalty cuts wage loss benefits by 50% for up to 14 days, or until you co-operate again. If it carries on past that, benefits can be reduced to your capable earnings or suspended.

How long do I have to object?

Thirty days, for decisions about return to work, work transition and re-employment, according to the WSIB's page on objecting to a decision. That is far shorter than the usual six months, so act quickly.

What should I record?

  • The offer, in writing. Duties, hours, location and start date.
  • Your current restrictions. The latest form or note from your health professional.
  • Each shift, if you try the work. What you did, for how long, and how your body responded that day and the next.
  • Every conversation. Date, name and what was agreed.

A record like this shows the difference between "won't" and "can't", which is the question everyone is really asking.

Why use Hurt Square?

Because a disagreement about modified work turns on your restrictions and on exactly what was offered, in writing. Hurt Square guides give you one place to keep it all.

  • The offer, your limits and the dates. The National Workplace Injury Recovery Guide has structured space for modified duties, your restrictions 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 and how to object, step by step through to the Appeals Tribunal.
  • Ready for the 30-day limit. Return to work decisions leave you far less time to object than most. With your record already together, those days go into your objection.
  • 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

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 Return to Work Tracker: Free Starter Edition

Keep a dated record of your return to work

Workplace Return to Work Tracker: Free Starter Edition

Your restrictions, every work offer, the agreed plan and each conversation about your job, written down with dates.

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.

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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.

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