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Determining entitlement to workers’ compensation benefits for work-related mental injuries is a complex issue for workers’ compensation boards. A recent successful Charter challenge to the British Columbia Workers’ Compensation Board’s mental stress policy has resulted in a direct change to B.C.’s policy on this issue. The decision may herald challenges to the manner in which all Canadian workers’ compensation boards adjudicate mental stress claims.
Facts of the case
In Plesner v. British Columbia Hydro and Power Authority, the B.C. Court of Appeal held that the test for workers’ compensation benefits for mental injuries under the Workers Compensation Act violated equality guarantees in section 15 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The court was asked to examine a WCB policy which required mental stress claimants to meet a higher threshold than claimants suffering physical injuries. The court found that this distinction amounted to discrimination on the basis of mental disability.
The case arose after Mr. Plesner, an employee of British Columbia Hydro and Power Authority, witnessed a natural gas pipeline rupture. At the time, Plesner was 40 to 50 feet away and he initially heard only a loud hiss. Plesner climbed a set of nearby stairs to get a better look. From the top of the stairs, he could see a plume of natural gas rising into the air. He was concerned that the situation was very dangerous and worried that the gas would explode setting off a chain reaction at the plant. Plesner and other employees were evacuated to a gravel parking lot where they waited while the rupture was contained.
Shortly after the incident, Plesner was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. He was unable to return to work and filed a claim for worker’s compensation benefits for mental stress.
Section 5.1(1)(a) of the B.C. act provides that workers are entitled to benefits for mental stress “only if the mental stress is an acute reaction to a sudden and unexpected traumatic event arising out of and in the course of the workers’ employment.” It also requires the WCB and its appeals division to apply policies adopted by its board of directors.
Among the policies adopted is Policy Item no. 13.30. This policy item interprets section 5.1(1)(a) of the B.C. act as creating a two-part test for establishing entitlement to workers’ compensation benefits for mental stress.
First, the mental stress must be an acute reaction to a sudden and unexpected traumatic event. The policy item defines “traumatic event” as “a severely emotionally disturbing event” and provides examples to illustrate the requisite level of trauma, including a horrific accident, armed robbery, hostage taking, actual or threatened physical or sexual violence, and a death threat. Second, the acute reaction must arise out of and in the course of employment.
Plesner’s claim for benefits was initially denied by the WCB. He appealed. The Worker’s Compensation Appeal Tribunal (WCAT), the independent appeals body of the WCB, found that while Plesner’s injury was work-related, it did not “fit within [the act], when read together with [Board] Policy Item #13.30.” Specifically, the WCAT found that the gas line rupture while very serious, was not a “traumatic event” as defined by the policy item.
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