Important

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.

The Workers’ Safety and Compensation Commission is an independent governmental agency that operates “at arm’s length” from the Nunavut and Northwest Territories governments. 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 the Workers’ Safety and Compensation Commission

If you’ve been harmed by sexual harassment at work, you might think the WSCC 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 the WSCC often covers.

And it’s possible that if you make a claim for harm you experienced from being harassed it will be successful. The WSCC, which serves both Nunavut and Northwest Territories residents, is more likely than some other jurisdictions to approve this type of claim if you meet the conditions for coverage.

Important

Legally, if your employer is a WSCC member, they are required to report any injuries that occur in their workplace. But really most are unlikely to do this in sexual harassment cases, because they often deny the harassment occurred or that it caused real harm.

Important

If you want to apply for disability insurance through your workplace provider, the insurer may require you to apply to the WSCC first, and appeal if you are turned down.

Pros and cons of going to the WSCC

  • It isn’t expensive to submit a claim. 
  • WSCC benefits can be generous. Wage replacement is up to 90% of your net salary.
  • Representing yourself is possible when first making a claim. But if your claim is denied, appealing is more complicated. There may be some legal resources to help if you still want to represent yourself.
  • The WSCC doesn’t investigate or adjudicate whether you were sexually harassed. If you are looking for someone to tell you that you were sexually harassed, and to punish the harasser or your employer for allowing the harassment, the WSCC won’t give you that.
  • You can’t apply to the WSCC secretly. You must inform your employer of your injury as well as report it to the WSCC. That means your employer will have information about your private health circumstances.
  • Your employer will have the opportunity to dispute your claim and it’s very likely they will do this, in which case proving your case will be more difficult.
  • To make a claim, you must present a police report or similar objective proof.
  • You will need a psychologist to say that you’ve suffered an injury. If you don’t have easy access to someone who will do this, making a claim will be harder.

Psychiatric and psychological disorders claims

The WSCC awards benefits due to the injury you sustained, which in your case would be damaged mental health. While the WSCC will cover some claims for mental health harms, there are two things you need before that might happen, which make the process challenging:

  • a police report or other outside confirmation of the incident or incidents 
  • a diagnosis of a disorder described in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-5, including acute stress disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, or an anxiety or depressive disorder

If you don’t have a police report, your employer’s verification could be sufficient, but many employers dispute claims.

The WSCC won’t cover every kind of mental stress that arises at work. If you develop a mental health condition caused by your employer making changes to your shifts or other working conditions, for example, or firing you, or due to interpersonal conflicts that don’t involve harassment, you aren’t eligible to file a claim.

How to make a WSCC application

First, you must inform your employer, then complete the Worker’s Report of Injury form. See What to Expect with Your Claim and the Claims Process Map on the agency’s website.

To file a claim with the WSCC, you must be employed in a business or industry that is covered by the Workers’ Compensation Act. About 97% of workers in Nunavut are included under the act.

For more information

Contact the Workers’ Advisor Office for information and advice. Also, see the frequently asked questions page on that agency’s website.

Legal help 

Representing yourself is possible when first making a claim. But if your claim is denied, appealing is more complicated. Here are some places that offer free or lower-cost legal services:

  • The Workers’ Advisor Office is an independent government agency that provides free and confidential services about workplace injuries and compensation to workers. This office can provide information, advice, and help with representation to you throughout the WSCC process.
  • You may be able to find a lawyer though the Law Society of Nunavut, which maintains a list of lawyers by area of practice. 
  • JusticeNet is a not-for-profit service for those whose income is too high to qualify for legal aid but too low to afford regular legal fees. To qualify you must have a net family income under $70,000, or $90,000 if there are three or more people in your family, and be experiencing financial difficulties. Participating lawyers’ reduced rates vary depending on your family size and income.
  • Your workplace union, association, or employee assistance program may be able to help you find legal services or cover part of your legal fees.

For advice on hiring a lawyer, see How to find and work with a lawyer.