Does my employer have to help me fill out my CNESST claim?

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In detail

The form referred to is the Worker's Claim (RTR, document 1939, eight pages), which the CNESST describes as intended for the worker's use to claim benefits following a work accident or an occupational disease, and as mandatory to claim reimbursement of health services, adapted equipment and other costs. It is filled out as an online service in MonEspace CNESST.

The duty to assist sits in the middle of the section that fixes the time limit, and the three paragraphs read together: the claim is filed "within six months after the injury or his death" · two years where the injury results from sexual violence · the employer assists and furnishes the necessary information, and the worker remits a copy of the completed, signed form to the employer. The six months run from the injury; for an occupational disease, s. 272 moves the starting point to the date on which "the worker or the beneficiary is made aware that the worker has an occupational disease".

One exhibit accompanies the claim and it comes from a third party. Section 199 requires the health professional who first takes charge of a worker who has suffered an employment injury to give the worker, without delay and on the form prescribed by the Commission, an attestation stating the diagnosis.

The employer has a document and a time limit of their own. The Employer's Notice and Reimbursement Claim (ADR, document 1940) is the form provided for in section 268, and section 269 requires the employer to transmit it to the Commission, along with a copy of the medical certificate referred to in section 199, "within two days after" either the worker's return to work · if that happens within 14 full days after the beginning of the inability · or the end of those 14 full days if the worker has not returned. The same section adds: "The employer shall give the worker a copy of the form duly filled out and signed." Under section 268, the form must indicate, among other particulars, "the gross income described in the worker's contract of employment".

What to document

The date each decision was RECEIVED · that is what starts the time limits, not the date printed on the letter. The pay slip, written by the employer and whose minimum content the law sets. The actual hours worked. And every written exchange, with its timestamp: a day where everything went normally is a non-event that nothing records for you.

Official sources

• art. 270 de la Loi sur les accidents du travail et les maladies professionnelles (RLRQ c A-3.001) · read on 2026-08-09

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