Being hurt at work carries a worry that other injuries do not. Your health, your job and your income all end up in the same conversation, and it starts immediately.
Do four things after a workplace injury in Ontario. Get medical care and tell the provider plainly that the injury happened at work. Tell your employer, who then has three business days to file a Form 7 with the WSIB. File your own Form 6, which you have six months from the date of injury to do. Start a dated record the same day. Reporting late is the most common way a straightforward claim turns into a contested one.
A Form 6 is the Worker's Report of Injury or Disease, your own account of what happened. A Form 7 is the Employer's Report. The two are read side by side, and the gap between them is where most disputes begin.
Why tell your doctor it is a work injury?
Your first step is care. Get first aid. If the injury needs it, go to a doctor, an urgent care clinic or the emergency room.
When you see a health care provider, say plainly that the injury happened at work. This is not a small detail. It changes how the visit is documented and how the care is funded, because health care costs for a work injury are covered by the WSIB rather than by your provincial health insurance plan. That only holds if the injury is identified as work-related from the beginning.
You have the right to choose your own doctor. Your employer cannot direct you to a particular physician or clinic. The WSIB can require you to attend an examination it arranges, and that is an assessment rather than treatment, so your ongoing care stays with the provider you choose.
How soon must you tell your employer?
Tell your supervisor or employer as soon as you reasonably can. Do not wait. Your employer is required to file a Form 7 with the WSIB within three business days of learning about your injury, and that clock does not start until they know.
Note when you reported it, who you told and what was said. That note costs you two minutes and settles arguments months later.
Should you file your own Worker's Report?
Yes. File a Form 6 directly with the WSIB, online at wsib.ca or by telephone. Filing your own report puts you on record regardless of what your employer does or does not do. You have six months from the date of injury to file.
Describe what happened specifically. The date, the time, what you were doing, how the injury occurred and the symptoms that followed.
What does WSIB cover?
The Ontario system is no fault. You do not need to prove your employer was negligent. You need to show the injury happened at work.
Coverage includes necessary health care related to the injury and wage replacement if you cannot work. It also covers support for rehabilitation and return to work. Wage replacement is paid at 85% of your pre-injury net average earnings, on earnings up to the 2026 maximum of $121,700. A fuller account of the money, including partial benefits, the age 65 limit and the 72 month review lock, sits in how much the WSIB pays while you are off work.
How long does WSIB take to approve a claim?
A straightforward claim with a clear injury, a prompt report and a matching medical note can be decided in a few weeks. A claim involving a disputed cause, a pre-existing condition, gradual onset or a psychological injury takes considerably longer.
Delays usually come from mismatches rather than from anyone deciding to be difficult. A Form 7 describing the injury one way and a clinic note describing it another way sends the file back for clarification, and clarification takes weeks. Your own dated account of what happened, who you told and when, lets you answer that in a day instead of a month.
Can your employer fire you while you are on WSIB?
Not for filing a claim. Firing, demoting, threatening or penalizing a worker because they reported a workplace injury or claimed benefits is a reprisal and is prohibited under the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act. You can file a reprisal complaint with the WSIB.
Many Ontario workers also hold a separate re-employment right where the employer regularly employs 20 or more workers and the worker had at least one year of continuous service before the injury. The conditions, the duration and what happens when an employer breaches it are set out in whether you can be fired while on a WSIB claim.
A termination arriving soon after a claim deserves a written record on the day it happens. The date, who told you, the exact reason given, whether anything was put in writing and who else was in the room.
Does WSIB cover mental health?
Yes. Since 1 January 2018, Ontario has covered chronic mental stress arising from the work environment as well as traumatic mental stress following a sudden event, such as witnessing a fatality or being threatened at work. First responders carry additional presumptive coverage for post-traumatic stress disorder.
Psychological injury connected to a physical workplace injury is covered too. The depression and anxiety that grow through a long, painful, uncertain recovery are part of the injury rather than a separate personal failing.
These claims turn on documentation more than almost any other kind. A torn shoulder shows on imaging. A mental health injury shows in the record, meaning the dates, the incidents, who you told, what changed at home and at work and what a clinician wrote down at the time. Start that record the moment you notice something is wrong, even if you are not sure you will ever file.
If things feel heavier than you can carry right now, the 9-8-8 Suicide Crisis Helpline can be reached by call or text at any hour, anywhere in Canada.
What are you allowed to do after a workplace injury?
You are allowed to choose your own health professional rather than one your employer selects.
You are allowed to file your own Form 6 whether or not your employer has filed a Form 7.
You are allowed to object within 21 days to your medical information being released to your employer.
You are allowed to say that a task in a return to work plan is beyond you, at the time you are asked to do it rather than after you have tried and failed.
You are allowed to ask for any decision in writing and to ask which provision it rests on.
You are allowed to bring someone with you to an appointment or a meeting and to take notes while you are there.
What should you record from the first day?
Six things. Return to work conversations arrive sooner than most people expect, and they go better when they start from a real picture of your situation rather than someone else's estimate of it.
- The injury itself. Date, time, location, what you were doing, how it happened, who saw it and who you told first.
- The reporting trail. When you told your employer and to whom, when you filed your Form 6, when the Form 7 went in and your claim number once it arrives.
- Symptoms, daily. What hurts, where, how badly on a scale you use consistently, how you slept and what you could not manage that day.
- Appointments. Date, provider, what was discussed, what was recommended and any limits set on your activity.
- Contact with the WSIB and your employer. Date, the name of the person, what was said, what was agreed and what was refused. They log every call. Log yours.
- Money. Days missed, hours reduced, every WSIB covered job you hold, prescriptions, equipment, travel and parking.
The National Workplace Injury Recovery Guide holds all six and works with any board in Canada. The Ontario Workplace Injury Companion Guide holds the Ontario part, meaning the forms, the objection limits and the appeal route. Check the WSIB claim deadlines before you file anything.
Keep your claim in one place
The National Workplace Injury Recovery Guide covers what applies across Canada. Your Companion Guide from The Way Back series adds the board, the forms and the deadlines where you work.
Read next
- How Does a WSIB Claim Work in Ontario?
- Common Mistakes Injured Workers Make During a WSIB Claim
- What Happens at an Independent Medical Examination
Last verified August 2026. Reporting duties, filing limits, benefit rates and re-employment conditions are Ontario rules under the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act. Other provinces and territories set their own through their own boards. The maximum insurable earnings ceiling is adjusted each January. Hurt Square Companion Guides are tools for documenting your own recovery. They are not legal, medical or insurance advice.