Normal Job Pressures Don’t Trigger Coverage for Chronic Mental Stress

A doctor diagnosed a recruiter as suffering from an adjustment disorder as a result of her excessive workload and lack of support in the workplace and recommended she take time off. WSIB policy 15-03-14 provides for coverage of a properly diagnosed stress injury caused by a ‘substantial work-related stressor.’ The WSIB acknowledged the validity of the diagnosis but rejected her chronic mental stress claim since the stressors she experienced were fairly normal for her position. To constitute a ‘substantial work-related stressor,’ stressors must be excessive in intensity and duration as compared to the normal pressures and tensions experienced by workers in similar circumstances [20180040 (Re), 2018 CanLII 97756 (ON WSIB), Sept. 28, 2018].