Recovering After a Workplace Injury in Prince Edward Island: A Complete Guide

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

Tell your employer, then see a doctor and say the injury happened at work. Report to the WCB yourself rather than assuming your employer's report covers you.

Most claims are decided in one to two weeks, and more complex ones take longer. If information is missing your case worker will contact you, your health care providers or your employer, so keeping your own dates straight makes those calls quicker and cleaner.

Talk to the decision maker first, and mean it

Every board in the country says this and in most provinces it is a formality. On an island of this size it is genuinely different. The WCB asks you to contact the staff person who made the decision if you do not understand or agree with it, and says most concerns are resolved that way.

That is worth taking seriously before you file anything. A small system means the person who decided your claim is reachable, and a conversation costs you none of your ninety days.

How long do I have to appeal in PEI?

The ninety days runs from the date the decision was made rather than from when you read it, so open the letter the day it arrives and write the date on it.

Reconsideration requests cover decisions on a worker's claim, and on the employer side, assessments and classification.

Internal Reconsideration Office. appeals@wcb.pe.ca, 902-368-5680, or toll free 1-800-237-5049 in Atlantic Canada.

Workers Compensation Appeal Tribunal. The WCAT Coordinator is at 902-213-1852. The tribunal sits at the Sherwood Business Centre, 161 St Peters Road, Charlottetown.

Full dates and forms are on our Prince Edward Island WCB appeal deadlines page.

Get your claim file, and get it early

Workers in PEI can contact the WCB and request a copy of their claim file. If you are likely to be representing yourself, this is the single most useful thing you can do, and doing it early beats doing it under deadline pressure.

If someone is helping you, there is a form called Worker's Authorization for Communication and Representative that lets the WCB deal with them directly. Employers can request the claim information relevant to the reconsideration issue as well, so assume your file will be read by the other side too.

What should I be writing down?

Three things, and self-representation raises the stakes on all of them.

• Every decision, the date on the letter and what specifically is wrong with it. Without an adviser to shape your argument, this list is your argument.
• Every symptom you reported and to whom. The gap between what you said and what appears in a report is the most findable error there is.
• Every conversation with your case worker. Date, who, what was said, what was promised. In a small system a great deal happens by phone.

Our free Resource Hub has fillable trackers for symptoms, appointments, correspondence and return to work.

Who can help me?

The Workers Compensation Board of PEI publishes its policies on appeals and access to information, and those policies are the rules being applied to you, so they are worth reading rather than guessing at.

Unionized workers should start with their union, which will usually represent them. Others may want a lawyer who practises in this area. Unlike Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, PEI does not appear to run a free government workers' adviser programme, so check current options with the WCB directly rather than assuming one exists.

Past WCAT decisions are published by the province and are worth reading if your issue is a common one, because they show you how the tribunal reasons.

The PEI Companion Guide

Our Prince Edward Island Workplace Injury Companion Guide carries the deadlines, forms, board names and appeal routes for this province, with fillable space for the record you build alongside them. Pair it with The Way Back National Recovery Guide.