Policy
A personal injury by accident occurs in the course of employment if the surrounding circumstances relating to place, time, and activity indicate that the accident was work-related.
Guidelines
In determining whether a personal injury by accident occurred in the course of employment, the decision-maker applies the criteria of place, time, and activity in the following way:
Place
If a worker has a fixed workplace, a personal injury by accident occurring on the premises of the workplace generally will have occurred in the course of employment. A personal injury by accident occurring off those premises generally will not have occurred in the course of employment.
If a worker with a fixed workplace was injured while absent from the workplace on behalf of the employer or if a worker is normally expected to work away from a fixed workplace, a personal injury by accident generally will have occurred in the course of employment if it occurred in a place where the worker might reasonably have been expected to be while engaged in work-related activities.
Time
If a worker has fixed working hours, a personal injury by accident generally will have occurred in the course of employment if it occurred during those hours or during a reasonable period before starting or after finishing work.
If a worker does not have fixed working hours or if the accident occurred outside the worker's fixed working hours, the criteria of place and activity are applied to determine whether the personal injury by accident occurred in the course of employment.
Activity
If a personal injury by accident occurred while the worker was engaged in the performance of a work-related duty or in an activity reasonably incidental to (related to) the employment, the personal injury by accident generally will have occurred in the course of employment.
If a worker was engaged in an activity to satisfy a personal need, the worker may have been engaged in an activity that was incidental to the employment. Similarly, engaging in a brief interlude of personal activity does not always mean that the worker was not in the course of employment. In determining whether a personal activity occurred in the course of employment, the decision-maker should consider factors such as
- the duration of the activity
- the nature of the activity, and
- the extent to which it deviated from the worker's regular employment activities.
In determining whether an activity was incidental to the employment, the decision-maker should take into consideration
- the nature of the work
- the nature of the work environment, and
- the customs and practices of the particular workplace.
Application of criteria
The importance of the three criteria varies depending on the circumstances of each case. In most cases, the decision-maker focuses primarily on the activity of the worker at the time the personal injury by accident occurred to determine whether it occurred in the course of employment.
If a worker with fixed working hours and a fixed workplace suffered a personal injury by accident at the workplace during working hours, the personal injury by accident generally will have occurred in the course of employment unless, at the time of the accident, the worker was engaged in a personal activity that was not incidental to the worker's employment.
The decision-maker examines the activity of the worker at the time of the accident to determine whether the worker's activity was of such a personal nature that it should not be considered work-related.
In all other circumstances, the time and place of the accident are less important. In these cases, the decision-maker focuses on the activity of the worker and examines all the surrounding circumstances to decide if the worker was in the course of employment at the time that the personal injury by accident occurred.
Application date
This policy applies to all decisions made on or after July 1, 1990, for all accidents.
Document History
This document replaces 03-01-02 dated April 25, 1990.
References
Legislative Authority
Workplace Safety and Insurance Act, 1997, as amended
Section 13(1)
Workers' Compensation Act, R.S.O. 1990, as amended
Section 4(1)
Minute
Administrative
#1, June 25, 2004, Page 378