• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
Injured Workers Online

Injured Workers Online

Working Together for Justice

  • Blog
  • Sign Up
  • About
  • Twitter
Working Together for Justice
  • Workers’ Compensation
    • History
    • Law Reform
    • Workers’ compensation bills
    • Chronic Pain Victory
    • Research and Education
    • Bancroft Institute
    • Meredith Conference: “No-Half Measures”
    • RAACWI
  • Issues
    • Appeals
    • Benefits
    • Cost of living adjustments
    • Deeming
    • Pre-existing conditions
    • Experience Rating
    • Funding
    • Mental Health
    • Poverty
    • Return to Work
    • Stigma and surveillance
    • Universal Coverage
  • Community
    • Ontario Network of Injured Workers Groups (ONIWG)
    • Workers’ Comp Is a Right campaign
    • Injured Worker Groups
    • IW Speakers School
    • Injured Workers’ Stories
    • Arts & social justice
  • Events
    • Calendar View
    • RSI Awareness Day
    • Day of Mourning
    • Injured Workers Day
    • Women of Inspiration Vigil
    • Labour Day – a workers’ festival
  • Media
    • Press Releases
    • Fact Sheets
    • Headlines on workers’ compensation
    • Videos
  • Resources
    • Law and Policy Submissions
    • Reports, Articles & Papers
    • Practical guides & booklets
    • IWHP Bulletins
    • Library
    • Find Legal Help
    • Links
Home / Issues / Benefits / Pre-existing conditions

Pre-existing conditions

WSIB  fundamentally changed the original mandate of Ontario’s system – to compensate for injury – when it brought in its 2014 pre-existing conditions policy. This new policy allowed the Board to deny benefits by blaming disabilities on age-related “degeneration” and other pre-existing conditions rather than on the work injury – even if these conditions had not affected worker’s ability to do the job or had shown no symptoms (were asymptomatic).

ONIWG fact sheet on WSIB policy on pre-existing conditions

Policy looks to deny

This sabotages:

  • the accepted standard causation test of whether the work was a “significant contributing factor” in the development of the condition (workplace injury has only to be an important, but not the sole factor), and
  • the “thin skull rule” (this means ‘take the worker as you find him/her’. A worker should not be penalized because of a pre-existing condition that did not affect her capacity to do the job but made her vulnerable to greater injury than another worker).

Despite a “cautious step forward” more action is needed

The injured worker community, legal representatives and labour waged an intensive fight-back campaign. A class action lawsuit and media spotlight also focussed attention on the issue. In December 2017 the WSIB issued a policy clarification, announcing that the Board will no longer reduce non-economic loss (NEL) awards for injured workers as a result of non-symptomatic pre-existing conditions, and will reconsider  NEL lump sum settlements that were awarded and then reduced based on asymptomatic pre-existing conditions.

However further action is needed. These latest changes to the policy apply differently to decisions made before or after 2014;  largely disregard psychological conditions; fail to address the needs of those already denied a NEL award and of the many denied wage-loss benefits because of asymptomatic pre-existing conditions.

More resources and links
  • Molina, Kimberley. 2023 Apr. 12. “Advocates want WSIB to reverse policy on pre-existing conditions.” CBC News
  • Buonastella, Orlando & David Neberry. 2018 Feb. 25. “Changes to WSIB pre-existing conditions policy a cautious step forward.” RankAndFile
  • Mojtehedzadeh, Sara. 2017 Dec. 15. “WSIB to Abolish Policy that Slashed Benefits for Thousands.” Toronto Star
  • Ontario Network of Injured Workers’ Groups. 2017 Sep. Workers’ Comp Is a Right: We Demand Stop Cutting Benefits Based on Pre-existing Conditions.
  • Yachnin, Maryth. 2017 Jun. No Evidence: the Decisions of the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board. Toronto: IAVGO Community Legal Clinic
  • Burke, Ashley. 2016 Oct. 27. “WSIB’s ‘devastating’ compensation policy all about Board’s bottom line, lawyers charge: some injured workers have had benefits cut by half since pre-existing conditions policy came into effect.” CBC News Ottawa
  • Injured Workers’ Consultants. 2014, Apr. 30. Submissions on WSIB Draft Policies. Toronto: IWC
 

Updated May 17, 2025

Copyright © 2025 Injured Workers Online
  • Accessibility
  • Terms of Use
  • Privacy

The information in this website is for educational purposes only. It is not a substitute for legal advice. For legal advice, see Find legal help