Canadian Safety Reporter - sample

6 Canadian HR Reporter, a Thomson Reuters business 2018 CSR | September 2018 | News Degenerative condition not aggravated by minor workplace accident Worker had underlying, degenerative condition and didn't miss time or require accommodation until after surgery 11 months later BY JEFFREY R. SMITH AN ONTARIO worker's appeal for workers' compensation ben- efits for a aggravation of an un- derlying knee condition has been denied for a lack of evidence that the workplace accident actually worsened the condition, which was already progressive and de- generative. The 62-year-old worker first joined the accident employer — a company that operated casinos — in 2002 as an accountant. Six years later, she joined the em- ployer's housekeeping depart- ment at another location, where her job duties involved vacuum- ing the floors of the casino, wip- ing down gaming machines, and moving around chairs during vacuuming. She had a degenera- tive condition in her right knee but it wasn't serious enough to affect her work or cause any physical limitations. The worker was cleaning a large gaming room at the casino where she worked on Feb. 2, 2013. It was decided to vacuum the floor of the room that night, though it was a Saturday and the task was usually done on week- nights when it could be split up. The worker's job was to push all 400 chairs back into place after another worker moved them out and a second worker vacuumed the floor — normally, they would do half the room in a night and the worker would only have to push 200 chairs back into place. Each chair weighed less than 10 pounds. After the cleaning was fin- ished and all the chairs were back in place, the worker noticed her right knee was swollen and she felt a shooting pain. She told her supervisor about it and when she went home she iced the knee and took a pain relief pill. However, she returned to work for her next shift two days later and didn't miss any time or require any ac- commodation as her mobility wasn't affected. A few days later, the worker saw her family doctor, who re- ferred her to an orthopaedic surgeon with a suspected strain. The worker visited her doctor three more times up to Decem- ber 2013, and during each visit she complained of right knee pain. Surgery 11 months after workplace accident The worker claimed entitle- ment to health care benefits, saying the workplace injury was caused by having to move twice as many chairs as usual and ag- gravated the underlying degen- erative condition in her right knee, which was initially granted by the Ontario Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) in March 2013, but this was over- turned on Dec. 30 because she didn't miss any time from work. Two weeks later, on Jan. 13, 2014, the worker had arthroscopic sur- gery on her right knee, which re- vealed osteoarthritis and other degenerative conditions in the knee. The worker returned to work on modified duties six weeks lat- er and requested a reconsidera- tion of her claim. However, the original denial of her claim was upheld and the worker appealed again, taking her claim to the Workplace Safety and Insurance Appeals Tribunal and providing a report from the orthopaedic surgeon from September 2014 that stated the worker's "work duties on Feb. 2, 2013, aggra- vated an underlying degenera- tive condition in the right knee. 'Similar functions' > pg. 7 Credit: Shutterstock/Elijah Lovkoff

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