Workers - WorkSafeNB

[return to work]
What happens if I am considered medically
fit to return to work, but I choose not to?
Do I continue to receive benefits?
When your adjudicator or case manager finds
you medically fit to return to work, you are
expected to return to suitable employment. If you
decide not to return to work, the Commission
will reduce or stop your benefits.
Can my employer lay me off after a workplace
accident?
Under the HR Act, all employers have a duty to
accommodate injured workers who are disabled
as a result of their employment, so that they can
return to work. Reasonable accommodations
include, but are not limited to:
• Altering work schedules.
• Reconfiguring job duties.
• Re-assigning or re-bundling work.
• Introducing job aids.
• Retraining the injured worker.
Employers are obligated to accommodate a
disabled employee only up to the point of
undue hardship to the employer as determined
by the Human Rights Commission.
Employers also have a duty to accommodate
injured workers under the WC Act. Employers
with ten or more workers have a legislated
responsibility to re-employ injured workers in
one of the following:
• The same or equivalent job if the injured
worker is capable of performing the required
duties.
• Suitable employment that may become available
with the employer, with no loss of seniority
benefits, if the injured worker is incapable
of performing the required duties of the
pre-accident job.
The re-employment obligation applies for:
• One year for employers who regularly employ
ten but fewer than twenty workers; or,
• Two years for employers who regularly
employ twenty or more workers.
In the construction industry, re-employment
obligations are subject to the rules and practices
respecting hiring and placement in the
worker’s trade, and whether the construction
project and position exist at the time you are
able to resume work.
The re-employment obligation begins on the
date the injured worker was entitled to receive
compensation following a workplace accident
or recurrence, and continues until the one or
two-year period has expired.
If an accident employer offers the injured
worker the pre-accident or equivalent position,
or other suitable employment, but the worker
refuses, an accident employer is no longer
bound to re-employ the injured worker under
the WC Act.
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