Canadian Safety Reporter

6 Canadian HR Reporter, a Thomson Reuters business 2018 CSR | February 2018 | News Worker wins appeal for compensation for gradual onset back injury Worker didn't initially report back injury and took time to heal, but pain didn't improve and was linked to heavy lifting in job BY JEFFREY R. SMITH AN ONTARIO worker who wasn't able to fully perform her physical job duties and required physio- therapy after the onset of back pain at work is entitled to benefits for disablement from a gradual onset back strain, the Ontario Workplace Safety and Insurance Appeals Tribunal has ruled. The worker was employed at a plant where her work du- ties included picking up large, 60-pound rolls of paper from a cage, turning and attaching them to a machine, as well as oc- casionally lifting 30-pound rolls of plastic. In early January 2013, the worker had to take one week off work due to back pain and provided a note from her doc- tor diagnosing her with "severe right-sided sciatica." When she returned to work, she continued to oversee the machine to which she was assigned and fill out the paperwork, but had others lift the paper rolls under her direction. A few weeks later, the work- er's pain still hadn't gone away, so she went to her doctor, who prescribed physiotherapy to help with the pain. However, she didn't initially tell her employer it was related to her work duties and the week she took off was taken as vacation leave. The worker underwent diag- nostic imaging which found nar- rowed disc space in some of her vertebrae that was considered to be congenital, through there was no significant abnormality. The worker's doctor filled out a form indicated picking up the 60-pound paper rolls and put- ting them in a machine was "an injuring mechanism" that con- tributed to her back pain and she had a back sprain and possible herniated disc from the repeti- tive activity. The doctor gave an onset date of Jan. 11 for the inju- ry and stated the worker needed physiotherapy before returning to work as she wasn't able to lift more than five to ten pounds. Employer initially wasn't aware of link to job duties The employer thought the work- er's back pain was a personal is- sue and not work-related, but this was cleared up by the docu- mentation from the worker's doctor, and the employer report- ed the workplace accident to the Ontario Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) on Feb. 7. The worker returned to work again but didn't have to lift the paper rolls. The worker applied for work- ers' compensation benefits for a low back injury caused by either "a chance event or on the basis of a gradual onset disability." A WSIB eligibility adjudicator found the worker was unable to establish compatibility and continuity between the accident history, her ongoing symptoms, and the medical diagnosis and denied her claim. When the worked claimed entitlement based on an aggravation of a pre- vious condition, she was denied again. An appeals resolution of- ficer agreed with the decision, so the worker appealed to the tribu- nal, arguing that the back injury was an "unexpected result of her working duties which arose in and out of her employment." The tribunal referred to the WSIB policy documents iden- tifying an accident as "an iden- tifiable unintended event which causes an injury" and stating that disablement could emerge grad- ually over time or be an unex- pected result of working duties. The tribunal noted that an allowable claim must have five points: an employer, a worker, a personal work-related injury, proof of accident, and compat- ibility of diagnosis to accident history. The first two points were already in place, and the tribunal found the worker's doc- tor early on made a link between the worker's duties and her back Credit: Shutterstock/brumhildich Worker unable > pg. 7

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