Recovering After a Workplace Injury in Yukon: A Complete Guide

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

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

Then call the Workers' Advocate Office. It is free, it is independent of the board and reports to the Department of Justice, and one of its stated duties is identifying the important timelines in your particular appeal. Given how much the deadlines vary here, that alone is worth the call.

How long do I have to appeal in Yukon?

You must complete the board's internal reconsideration and receive a final decision from a reconsideration panel before the Appeal Tribunal can hear you. The window to reach the Tribunal then depends on the subject.

Full dates and forms are on our Yukon appeal deadlines page.

Who sits on the Appeal Tribunal?

A chair, a vice chair, two members representing employers and two representing workers. It is deliberately balanced, it is independent of both the Yukon government and the board, and its jurisdiction now covers everything from claims to assessments to health and safety to administrative penalties.

A panel issues its decision within forty-five business days of hearing the appeal, and decisions are published on the Tribunal's website. Reading a few on your issue is the quickest way to see what actually persuades them.

Two costs nobody warns you about

You pay for your own witnesses. If you call a witness, including one who attends because the panel issued a subpoena at your request, you are responsible for their attendance, professional, travel and other fees. In a territory where a specialist may need to travel, that is a genuine expense.

The practical answer is to get evidence onto your file in writing while it is easy and free, rather than needing someone to appear and testify later.

Interpretation is not your cost. If you or a witness needs an interpreter, the Tribunal selects a qualified one and pays for it. Worth knowing plainly, because the assumption otherwise stops people from asking.

What should I be writing down?

Three things, shaped by what is specific to Yukon.

• The date you learned anything new, on the day you learn it. The thirty day new evidence window cannot be extended, and it runs from discovery rather than from a decision.
• Which kind of decision each letter is, and its date. With limits ranging from fourteen days to a year, the category matters as much as the date.
• Written statements from anyone who saw or knows something. Because you pay for live witnesses, a signed statement collected early is worth a great deal more than a willing colleague later.

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

Who can help me for free?

The Workers' Advocate Office advises injured workers and dependants of deceased workers, will tell you whether a reconsideration or appeal is actually supported by the evidence, and will prepare and present your appeal if it is. The service is free and it is independent of the board.

You are entitled to copies of relevant information on your file. Request it using the Request for Disclosure form sent to the board's Information Management Unit, and do it before you decide whether to appeal rather than after.

The Yukon Workers' Safety Compensation Appeal Tribunal publishes its rules, its deadlines by subject and its decisions, and can be reached at 867-667-8731. The board sets out the internal reconsideration process.

The Yukon Companion Guide

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