Worker claims workplace stressors led to acute stress disorder
The New Brunswick Court of Appeal has overturned an award of workers’ compensation benefits to a federal employee for “gradual onset stress.”
A nurse manager at the mental health facility of Dorchester Penitentiary in Dorchester, N.B., filed a claim for workers’ compensation benefits because of the inability to work due to stressors that were work-related.
On June 22, 2010, the nurse manager was told of an anonymous letter written by other employees that accused her of bullying, harassment and discrimination causing a poisoned work environment. The nurse manager asked for an investigation, but Corrections Canada (CSC) determined it didn’t qualify as a complaint.
A short time later, the nurse manager saw a psychologist who diagnosed her with acute stress disorder, a condition recognized in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. The psychologist felt the stress would continue if there was no resolution to the harassment claim.
The New Brunswick Workplace Health, Safety and Compensation Commission (WHSC) dismissed the claim, finding there was no evidence of personal injury arising out of and in the course of employment. Asked to reconsider with the notion of cumulative stress as a possible injury, the WHSC upheld its original decision.
The WHSC appeals tribunal disagreed, finding the nurse manager’s condition qualified as a work-related injury warranting benefits. The government employer appealed to the New Brunswick Court of Appeal.
The court found there was “a two-prong framework” for assessing compensation claims for gradual onset stress, as established in previous decisions. The first prong required proof that various events in the workplace directly contributed to an employee’s high stress levels causing mental impairment. The second prong involved the consideration of whether the employee’s reaction to the workplace stressors was how a reasonable person would react.
The court found the nurse manager’s list of workplace stressors — being very busy and on call all the time, budget and staff shortages, interpersonal conflicts in the workplace and the harassment claim — contributed to her psychological disorder that prevented her from working. However, it also found these stressors were not unusual in the workplace. Also, the employer had decided not to investigate the harassment claim, so the nurse manager could have considered the matter over with no impact to her career.
“Other than (the anonymous harassment claim), none of the stressors identified can be labeled as either unusual or excessive when compared to what most Canadian workers are facing today,” said the court.
