If you are hurt at work in Manitoba, tell your supervisor right away, see a healthcare provider and say it happened at work, then report it to WCB Manitoba by app, phone or online. Your employer must report it within five business days and pay your full shift for the day you were hurt. If your claim is accepted, wage loss benefits are usually 90 per cent of your net earnings, and WCB pays approved treatment. You can challenge a decision with no time limit, except for administrative penalties.
Getting better comes first. The claim is there to support that, and it runs more smoothly when you know the order of things and keep a simple record from the first day. In 2025, WCB Manitoba recorded 26,745 workplace injuries, 13,891 of them serious enough to cost time off work, according to its 2025 Annual Report. You are far from alone in this.
What should I do first after a workplace injury in Manitoba?
Three things, in this order.
- Tell your employer immediately. WCB Manitoba asks you to let your supervisor or manager know right away, even if the injury seems minor. If your workplace has no form of its own, use the Notice of Injury to Employer form.
- Get medical attention as soon as possible. Tell the provider the injury happened at work, so it is recorded that way from the first visit.
- Report to the WCB. You report when you need medical care or miss time from work. A WCB representative helps open the claim.
Your employer has its own duty. It must report your injury to the WCB within five business days of learning about it, and it must pay you for the whole shift on the day you were hurt, not only up to the time of the injury.
How do I file a claim with WCB Manitoba?
You have several ways to report, and all of them reach the same place.
- The Worker Connect app, in English or French, which WCB describes as the most convenient option.
- By phone, weekdays from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m., at 204-954-4321 or toll free at 1-855-954-4321. Translation services are available.
- Online, with the Worker Online Incident Report.
- By mail, fax or in person, with the Worker Incident Report, at offices in Winnipeg, Brandon and Thompson.
Creating a new claim can take up to two business days. You then receive a claim number and the name and phone number of your adjudicator, the person handling your claim. WCB gathers information from you, your employer and your healthcare provider before deciding, and the time that takes depends on how complex the claim is.
WCB Manitoba's own pages do not set a filing deadline for workers. We would not wait on that basis. Report as soon as you can, while the details are fresh and easy to confirm.
What does WCB Manitoba pay?
Wage loss. In most situations, your benefit rate is based on 90 per cent of your net earnings. For 2026, the maximum insurable earnings are $171,500. The minimum annual earnings are $33,280, unchanged as of 1 January 2026. Our article on how much workers compensation pays in Canada explains what net earnings means in practice.
Health care. WCB covers hospital expenses, physiotherapy and occupational therapy, prescribed medication, dental treatment, braces, crutches and other aids, and transportation and living allowances depending on how far you travel for treatment. Some of these need WCB approval first, so check with your WCB representative before starting a new treatment.
Which dates matter on a Manitoba WCB claim?
- Five business days for your employer to report your injury.
- Up to two business days for WCB to create your claim.
- Ten business days to consent or object if your employer asks to see your file during an appeal.
- Thirty days to appeal an administrative penalty, from being served the decision.
- Sixty days, the Review Office's own target for deciding most reconsiderations once listed. That one is a goal, not a deadline against you.
Every date in one place is in our Manitoba WCB appeals and deadlines article.
What if I disagree with a WCB decision?
Start by talking it through with your WCB representative. Many problems are settled there. If not, there are two formal levels.
The Review Office. Send the Request for Review form, with the date of the decision and why you disagree. The Review Office is a separate department inside the WCB and decides on the file rather than at a hearing. If you have new information it has not seen, you can make a fresh request.
The Appeal Commission. This is the final level of appeal, and it sits outside the WCB. It uses your actual WCB claim file, and anything new must reach it at least five business days before your hearing. It only considers issues that were first raised at the Review Office, so list every decision you disagree with when you go to the Review Office.
Except for administrative penalties, there are no time limits to appeal. The Worker Advisor Office, a Government of Manitoba program, offers free and confidential advice and help with appeals at 204-945-5787 or toll free at 1-800-282-8069, extension 5787.
How does return to work work in Manitoba?
WCB treats safe and suitable work as part of recovery. Your employer is expected to look first at your own job, then modified duties, then different work with the same employer. Your part is to follow your treatment plan, ask your provider what you can do, and stay in touch with your employer and your adjudicator or case manager.
Employers with 25 or more full-time or regular part-time workers must re-employ a worker who had at least 12 continuous months with them before the injury. That obligation ends at the earliest of the second anniversary of the injury, six months after you can do your old job or other suitable work, or the date you would have retired. It is also against the rules for an employer to discourage a claim or punish you for making one. More on that in can you be fired while on a workers compensation claim.
What should I write down?
- The injury itself. Date, time, place, the task you were doing, and who saw it.
- When and how you told your employer, and the name of the person you told.
- Every symptom, with the date it first appeared. Tell your provider about each one so it reaches your file.
- Every appointment and every call with WCB, including the date, the name and what was said.
- Every shift or part shift you lost, plus overtime or second-job earnings you usually had.
- Every return-to-work offer, what the duties were, and how they went.
- The date each decision letter arrived.
Our free Resource Hub has fillable trackers for symptoms, appointments and calls. The full route is in recovering after a workplace injury in Manitoba, and the first steps anywhere in Canada are in what to do after a workplace injury in Canada. If a vehicle was involved, see our guide to MPI injury claims in Manitoba too.
The National Workplace Injury Recovery Guide keeps that daily record in one place, and the Manitoba Workplace Injury Companion Guide sets out the Manitoba forms, dates and appeal routes beside it.
Keeping the record
A Manitoba claim is decided on what reaches your file. A few lines each day, with dates, are what let your file tell the story the way it happened. Write things down while they are fresh, keep them together, and put your energy into getting well.
Why use Hurt Square?
Because WCB Manitoba decides on your reports, your provider's notes and your own account, and only one of those is yours to keep. Hurt Square guides give you one place to keep it all.
- Your account, written as it happens. The National Workplace Injury Recovery Guide has structured space for your symptoms, appointments, time away from work and every conversation with your employer and the WCB.
- The Manitoba rules, in plain words. The Manitoba Workplace Injury Companion Guide holds the board, the forms, the deadlines and the appeal routes in Manitoba.
- 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 Manitoba Workplace Injury Companion Guide, with the discount applied at checkout. Bought separately: $63.99.
Get both guidesSources
- WCB Manitoba, Report your injury
- WCB Manitoba, Worker claim process
- WCB Manitoba, Wage loss benefits
- WCB Manitoba, Healthcare benefits
- WCB Manitoba, Worker rights and responsibilities
- WCB Manitoba, Return to work and Re-employment obligation
- WCB Manitoba, Appealing a WCB decision
- The Appeal Commission, Before the appeal
- Government of Manitoba, Worker Advisor Office
- WCB Manitoba, 2025 Annual Report
Last verified: 14 October 2026. If you find something out of date here, write to Recovery@hurtsquare.ca and we will correct it publicly.
This article is general information for people in Manitoba. It is not legal or medical advice.
