Why the Manitoba Federation of Labour wants WCB coverage for mental health injuries in the workplace

The Manitoba Federation of Labour (MFL) is calling on Manitoba's provincial government to make changes to the type of workplace injuries covered by the Workers Compensation Board (WCB).

"Right now, the WCB system in Manitoba doesn't treat physical injuries and mental health injuries in an equal way," said MFL President Kevin Rebeck. "and unless your mental health injury is the result of a traumatic injury, you often aren't covered by WCB."

Rebeck said that people dealing with health issues such as extreme stress and burnout in the workplace don't receive adequate support and care. He said expanded WCB coverage is desperately needed to address workplace-related mental health injuries appropriately.

"So many people know that they aren't covered, or have been rejected in the past, that they’ve just given up and they're left to their own devices and have nowhere to turn," said Rebeck. "And we know nowadays that more and more people have mental health injuries and that we need to figure out how we deal with that in a more constructive way."

The MFL is pushing for the province to change legislation to allow the WCB to process workplace mental health injury claims, something that has already happened in Ontario and B.C.

Rebeck said that there is no added cost to the government for this change, as employers already pay into the WCB fund. The revised legislation would simply allow for documented mental health injuries sustained in the workplace to be covered by the fund.

CTV News has reached out to the province for comment, but has not heard back.