This is not legal advice! What you are getting here is just general legal information. It is not a substitute for advice from an actual lawyer about your specific situation. If you need legal advice, we urge you to find a lawyer who can help you.
WorkplaceNL is an independent Newfoundland and Labrador governmental agency. It gives benefits and supports to people who’ve been injured at work. These can include replacement of lost wages, health care (including rehabilitation, counselling, and medications), and, in extreme situations, retraining.
Facts about WorkplaceNL
- WorkplaceNL functions like an insurance provider. Employers pay premiums to WorkplaceNL for the people who work for them. As a result, those people are entitled to benefits if they suffer a workplace injury.
- More than 95% of Newfoundland and Labrador workers are covered by WorkplaceNL.
- Every year, about 4,300 WorkplaceNL claims are filed. Most claims are for physical injuries.
- WorkplaceNL accepts more than 90% of claims.
- Sources: Workplace NL, Association of Workers’ Compensation Boards of Canada, , WorkplaceNL Annual Performance Report 2023, WHSCRD Annual Performance Report 2022-23
If you’ve been harmed by sexual harassment at work, you might think WorkplaceNL will help you.
- Maybe after you were harassed, you took time off work and so lost income.
- Maybe the harassment damaged your mental health, and you ended up needing to spend money on medication for anxiety or depression.
- Maybe the harassment had such an effect on you that you had to leave an industry and ended up needing to retrain for a new type of work in a different field.
Those are the kinds of expenses—replacement of lost wages, medication costs, retraining costs—that WorkplaceNL often covers.
However, historically, WorkplaceNL has mostly handled claims related to physical injuries suffered by workers in male-dominated fields like construction, manufacturing, and uniform occupations like policing and firefighting. If you slip at work and break your ankle, or are struck by a falling object, or are injured in a fire or explosion: that is the kind of situation WorkplaceNL was designed for and has a lot of experience handling.
But if the injury is to your mental health, WorkplaceNL coverage currently “does not include stress other than stress that is a reaction to a traumatic event or events.” The agency has been considering expanding its policy to include chronic stress from workplace violence and harassment, but as of early 2025, this had not happened. So realistically, unless or until this change occurs, there is little chance of a claim for harm due to sexual harassment would be successful.
Check the WorkplaceNL website regularly to see if the policy has changed.
In the meantime, your options could include making a complaint to the Human Rights Commission or taking legal action.
