Recovering After a Workplace Injury in Ontario: A Complete Guide

A workplace injury in Ontario runs on two clocks at once. One belongs to the WSIB. The other belongs to your employer, who carries a legal duty to give you your job back. Most people learn about the second clock too late to use it.

What should I do first after a workplace injury in Ontario?

Tell your employer, then see a doctor and say the injury happened at work. Those two sentences do more for your claim than anything else you'll do in the first week. Your employer must report your injury to the WSIB within three days of learning about it, and your doctor's report is what connects your condition to your job.

Ask for a copy of your employer's Form 7. You're entitled to it, and it tells you what version of events the WSIB received.

Were you in a vehicle when you got hurt? If the crash happened while you were working, a second system may be the one that covers you, and which one applies changes your deadlines, your benefits and who you report to. Sort that out in the first days rather than after you've filed, because the two run on different clocks. What to do after a car accident in Ontario covers that side, and our Ontario car accident guide walks through the accident benefits route.
Read next: What to do after a workplace injury in Ontario and what to do after a workplace injury anywhere in Canada.

How long do I have to file a WSIB claim?

Six months from the date of your injury. For an occupational disease the clock runs from the date you learned the illness was work-related. If a family member died from a work-related cause, a survivor's claim must be filed within six months of the death.

Late claims are sometimes accepted where there's a good reason for the delay, so write down why the delay happened while you still remember it clearly.

Our plain-language walkthrough of the whole process is here: How does a WSIB claim work in Ontario.

How long do I have to appeal a WSIB decision?

This is where most people lose ground, because there are two different clocks and the shorter one covers the decisions that matter most day to day.

Decision Time to object
Return to work, work transition or re-employment 30 days
Release of your medical information to your employer 21 days
Entitlement, loss of earnings, health care, permanent impairment 6 months
Appeal to the Workplace Safety and Insurance Appeals Tribunal 6 months from the final decision

You object using an Intent to Object form. If two decisions arrive with different limits, the WSIB applies the six month limit to both. Missing a limit isn't always fatal, though you must ask for an extension in writing and explain the delay.

If a decision has already gone against you, how to read a denial letter takes the letter apart line by line and shows you what it's actually telling you to do next.

Full dates and forms are on our Ontario WSIB claim deadlines page.

Does my employer have to give me my job back?

In many cases yes, and this is the clock nobody mentions. If your employer regularly employs twenty or more workers and you had worked there continuously for at least one year before your injury, they carry a re-employment obligation.

If you're dismissed within six months of returning to work, your employer has to satisfy the WSIB that the dismissal had nothing to do with your injury. Either way, object within three months of the dismissal or the WSIB isn't required to consider it.

Separately from the WSIB, the Ontario Human Rights Code treats a workplace injury as a disability, so your employer has a duty to accommodate you regardless of company size or how long you worked there. That has its own time limits and doesn't wait for the WSIB.

What this looks like in practice is set out in can you be fired while on a WSIB claim in Ontario.

What should I be writing down?

Three things, from day one.

  • What your restrictions say, in the words your provider used. Every return to work dispute is decided by comparing what you were offered against what your provider said you could do.
  • Every conversation about coming back. Date, who, what was said, who else was there. A supervisor pressing you to return early carries real weight in a file and leaves no trace unless you make one.
  • What the return actually cost you. Hours worked is only half the record. If four hours on the floor cost you two days afterwards, the four hours on their own tell the wrong story.

Our free Resource Hub has a fillable return to work tracker built around exactly that comparison. If you want the fuller set, the Pain and Symptom Tracker Free Starter Edition costs nothing to start with, the Comprehensive Edition and the Medical Appointment Tracker carry a fuller record, and the Ontario Workplace Injury Companion Guide holds all of it alongside the Ontario deadlines.

Why documenting your recovery matters sets out the whole system, and how to document injuries covers the technique itself, which is the same whether the injury happened at work or on the road.

Who can help me for free?

If you're not in a union, the Office of the Worker Adviser gives free advice and representation to Ontario workers on WSIB matters. Community legal clinics also take workers' compensation cases. Both are free, and neither is well enough known.

The WSIB publishes its own appeals guidance, and your decision letter names your decision maker, who can walk you through an objection.

What else is worth reading?

These go deeper on the parts of a workplace claim people ask about most.

More in Workplace Injury Recovery.

Which guides do I actually need?

Two of them, because either one on its own leaves a gap. With only the National Workplace Injury Recovery Guide you'll build a clean daily record of symptoms, appointments, calls and costs, with no idea that your objection to a return to work decision was due in thirty days. With only the Ontario Workplace Injury Companion Guide you'll know every Ontario deadline and have nothing to put in front of the WSIB when it asks what the injury actually cost you. Together they're the record and the map.

Recovering in northern Ontario? The law is the same, but the practical problem isn't. When the specialist sits in Sudbury, Toronto or Ottawa, a single appointment can mean a long drive, a flight or a night away from home, and none of that travel or rebooking reaches your WSIB file unless you record it. The Ontario Northern Companion Guide holds that layer.
Hurt on the road rather than at work? The Ontario MVA Companion Guide and the National MVA Recovery Guide cover the accident benefits route instead.

Last verified July 2026 against the WSIB and the Office of the Worker Adviser. We re-check these pages quarterly. If you find something wrong here, write to Recovery@hurtsquare.ca and we'll correct it publicly.

This page is general information for people in Ontario. It's not legal or medical advice. Confirm anything specific to your situation with a representative, the WSIB or the Office of the Worker Adviser.