Thursday, February 26, 2026

Gradual Onset Injuries

What you need to know when work-related pain builds over time—and how to protect your WSIB claim

By Nicole Wachner, Paralegal, CLAC Legal Team

If you work in healthcare, chances are you’ve worked through pain before. Sore shoulders, aching backs, stiff wrists—it’s all part of the job, right? You’re focused on your patients, your residents, your team but not on yourself.

But here’s the problem. When that pain eventually gets bad enough that you have to see a doctor or report it, WSIB often denies the claim. Why? Because you didn’t report it right away or you can’t point to one specific moment when it happened.

Sound familiar?

WSIB does recognize that not all injuries happen in a single incident. Some develop gradually over time from the physical demands of your job. Lifting, transferring, repositioning, pushing, pulling, and long shifts on your feet all add up.

The problem is that WSIB decision-makers often expect to see a clear timeline. But with gradual onset injuries, it doesn’t work like that. The pain builds little by little, and most workers don’t see a doctor right away because they’re hoping it’ll just go away or because they don’t want to leave their team short-staffed.

By the time they finally seek treatment, weeks or months may have passed. WSIB looks at that delay in reporting or seeking medical care as a reason to deny the claim.

Here’s the truth: a delay doesn’t mean it’s not work-related.

According to WSIB’s own adjudicative advice document, not every injury shows up right away or gets tied to a specific activity. It’s possible for pain to start close to the time of the activity and only later be recognized as a work-related injury. Just because a worker didn’t report it immediately doesn’t mean it isn’t real or that it didn’t come from their job.

This is especially true for healthcare workers, who often keep going even when they’re hurting. It’s part of your nature to care for others first, but that dedication shouldn’t cost you your entitlement to benefits.

How CLAC Can Help

When WSIB denies these kinds of claims, we get to work uncovering the full picture. We help show that your duties—even the normal ones—were a significant contributor to your injury. That includes gathering

detailed descriptions of your daily physical demands, and
documentation from doctors or therapists showing how your symptoms developed over time.

We remind decision-makers that WSIB’s own guidelines recognize gradual onset injuries and that delays in reporting are understandable in a sector where workers routinely push through pain for the sake of others.

If You’re in Pain, Speak Up Early

If something doesn’t feel right, talk to your supervisor, see your doctor, and contact your CLAC representative. Even small steps, like advising your doctor of the job you do, can make a huge difference later on if you need to file a claim.

You take care of others every day. Let’s make sure you’re looked after, too. And if you’re ever denied WSIB coverage because your injury wasn’t caused by one specific event, CLAC will be there to fight for the recognition you deserve.

Gradual Onset Injuries

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