Admissibility of a claim

In the event of a work accident or an occupational disease, workers must file a worker’s claim.

For an occupational disease claim, the worker must also complete the Appendix to the worker’s claim that corresponds to their medical situation.

Once the claim is filed, the CNESST will assess its admissibility. As each request is different, we cannot specify the time frame required to assess your file.

Steps in processing a claim

Completing the worker’s claim

The worker’s claim contains specific questions relevant to the analysis of the claim. It must be completed and accompanied by the corresponding appendix for occupational disease claims. You must provide the CNESST with all relevant and valid information regarding your claim as well as any medical certificate, receipts or prescriptions.

Fill out the claim within the allotted timeframe

You have 6 months to send us your worker’s claim when you have a work accident, believe you have an occupational disease or have a relapse, recurrence or aggravation of an occupational injury.

For a work accident, this timeframe begins when the employment injury occurs.  

In the case of an occupational disease, this period begins when the following 2 criteria are met:

•    The illness is diagnosed by the worker’s healthcare professional
•    the worker realizes the probable relationship between their illness and their work

To send us your claim in the case of an employment injury resulting from sexual violence, you have 2 years from the date of the injury or from when you found out that you had an occupational disease. 

We recommend that you file your claim as soon as possible.

Assessment of claim admissibility

For the claim to be admissible, we must establish that you have an employment injury. The CNESST is responsible for determining whether your injury is linked to your work.

In the event of a work accident or an occupational disease, the CNESST will decide whether your claim is admissible when it receives all the documents required to process the claim.

These time limits exclude claims following occupational hearing loss or death. In these cases, a longer period of time may be required to process the claim.

Whether the claim is accepted or rejected, the CNESST will inform the employee and the employer of their decision in writing. If you don’t agree with the decision rendered by the CNESST, you may contest the decision.

If the claim is admissible, you may receive indemnities following the admissibility decision. You may also request a refund for certain expenses (in French only). To get an idea of timelines, see the Declaration of services (in French only).

Undergo medical tests 

You are required to undergo medical test and all treatments prescribed by the treating healthcare professional.

Your employer and the CNESST can request a medical assessment. They may ask for a separate assessment by a different health care professional than the one you initially consulted.