COVID-19 does not allow one-year job search extension

The worker contested the designation of information officer as suitable employment upheld by the CNESST due to her functional limitations at the cervical level. She alleges that the side effects of her medication, particularly headaches, prevent her from holding that position. If the suitable employment is confirmed, she requested that the CNESST extend her year of job search indemnity, as COVID-19 has slowed economic activity and thus her efforts. The tribunal found that the suitable employment was within the worker’s functional limitations. Fear of working was insufficient to invalidate it. The effects of the worker’s medication were not confirmed by physicians, much less the inability to work. The law does not provide for extensions to job search indemnity. Case law allows it only in case of relapse, for a maximum of one year. The worker had already benefitted from that extension. COVID-19 does not allow the granting of another. The challenge was dismissed.

Houle vs. Distributions Gerry Grondin Inc.
2020 QCTAT 3322 (SST), J.A. Gaétan Guérard