Access to information & privacy

WorkSafeNB is accountable for all personal information and personal health information under our control. Under the RTIPPA and the PHIPAA, you have a right to examine and receive a copy of all your personal health information we maintain, subject to exceptions set out in the legislation. You also have the right to request a correction of or a change to your personal information we maintain, subject to the exceptions set out in the legislation. The RTIPPA also allows you a right of access to records in our custody or control, subject to the limited and specific exceptions set out in the Act.

If you have any questions about how WorkSafeNB handles your personal information or how you can access information in our custody or control, please contact our Access to Information and Privacy Co-ordinator:  

Email: access.information@ws-ts.nb.ca
Telephone: 506 633-2249
WorkSafeNB, 1 Portland St., PO Box 160 Saint John, NB, E2L 3X9

How we collect information about you

To administer the Workplace Health Safety Compensation Commission & Workers’ Compensation Appeals Tribunal Act, the Workers’ Compensation Act, the Firefighters' Compensation Act, Government Employees Compensation Act, and the Occupational Health and Safety Act, we collect your personal information, including health information directly from you, from a person acting on your behalf, from your employer or from a health care provider.

We will only collect the minimum information needed to administer the above acts. This may include information to allow us to determine whether you are eligible to receive benefits under the acts, for the medical management of your claim, to facilitate your return to work and to conduct investigations under the acts. The personal information we collect may include, for example, information about your workplace injury, your medical treatment, prescriptions, and your medical prognosis, limitations on your ability to work after a workplace accident, your pre-existing medical conditions and your earnings. When a worker is killed, we collect information from their employer and survivors to set benefit levels under the acts.

We collect only the information needed to provide care, to pay for and administer the care, to communicate with you, and to provide all legislated benefits payable to you or your family. We do not collect any other information or allow information to be used for other purposes, without your express (verbal or written) consent, except where allowed to do so by law.

We will make every reasonable effort to ensure the information we collect is accurate and complete.

Use of your personal health information

By seeking workers’ compensation benefits, including medical care and/or wage replacement, from and through WorkSafeNB, you provide your consent for us to gather, use, disclose and maintain your personal information and personal health information for us to provide benefits and ensure proper and timely medical care and treatment.

In the Application for Workers’ Compensation Benefits, you must agree to the following:

• “I agree to notify WorkSafeNB immediately of any work-related income received while on workers’ compensation benefits, regardless of the source, and of a return to work or any other change in circumstances that may affect this claim application.”
• “I consent and authorize WorkSafeNB to gather, use, release or disclose information from this claim, including medical and financial information, as authorized by law and in accordance with the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act, the Right to Information and Protection of Privacy Act and the Personal Health Information Privacy and Access Act. “
• “I consent to and agree that any health care provider may provide any medical information related to my workers’ compensation claim to WorkSafeNB and may provide any information related to my ability to return to work to WorkSafeNB or my employer.”

When injured on the job, your employer completes an Employer Report of Injury or Illness and must agree to the following:

• “I agree to notify WorkSafeNB immediately of any work-related income the employee receives, to my knowledge, while the employee is on workers’ compensation benefits, regardless of the source, and of a return to work or any other change in circumstances that may affect the worker’s claim application.”
• “I consent and authorize WorkSafeNB to gather, use, release or disclose information from this report, including medical and financial information, as authorized by law and in accordance with the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act, the Right to Information and Protection of Privacy Act and the Personal Health Information Privacy and Access Act.

To effectively provide care and services to you, we share information with or consult with other health care providers involved in your claim including (but not limited to) other health care agencies, other health care providers (physicians and specialists, pharmacists, lab technicians, nutritionists, physiotherapists and occupational therapists, etc.), other government income agencies and Canada Revenue Agency.

We may also collect, use and share your personal health information to others, without your direct consent, as reasonably necessary to make payments for your health care (and hospital services), to plan, manage and administer health care programs and services, or to fulfill reporting obligations to certain authorized organizations for use in the planning and management of the health care system, and to fulfill other purposes as permitted or required by law, such as billing provincial health plans, reporting infectious diseases, or responding to a court order.

We only provide the minimum of your information necessary to only those employees and agents of ours who need to know your information to reasonably carry out their duties under the acts. If we need to use your information for a purpose other than that for which we received your consent, we will ask for your further consent.

We need your express written consent before we may disclose your health information for purposes other than to determine whether you are eligible to receive benefits under the acts, for the medical management of your claim, to facilitate your return to work and to conduct investigations under the acts unless we are allowed to do so by law.

As your employer plays an active and important role in returning you to work after an injury, your employer has access to information about your accident, your injury and prognosis, all decisions made in your claim and as necessary to carry on their business. This means your employer will know how long it will take before you are able to return to work, your limitations and required work accommodations as well as any decision communicated to you in writing by us.

WorkSafeNB does not share your personal information with third parties without legal permission. We occasionally retain the services of third party providers (“agents”) to act on our behalf to help us deliver services to you, including but not limited to information technology services, health care services, client satisfaction surveys, investigations, training and improving our internal processes and systems. When we retain third parties, we enter into written agreements with them requiring them to comply with our legal obligations on how we handle your personal health information. These third parties may collect, use, disclose and retain your personal information on our behalf as directed by us to help us deliver services to you.

WorkSafeNB is committed to giving you the best services possible and we can’t do that without your feedback. We regularly perform surveys to evaluate our services. While we do some of our own survey work, other times we may contract with an “agent” (a third-party provider that has signed a contract to provide a service and follow privacy laws) on our behalf. We carefully select reputable survey providers and ensure that any information shared with them is done so in line with New Brunswick’s privacy laws. Any personal information of our clients that is shared with the service provider is the minimum amount needed to perform the survey (for example, we would share your contact information and the fact that you are an injured worker. The survey company would NOT have access to your personal health information, such as prescriptions or doctors’ reports or any of your financial information).

Your participation in any WorkSafeNB survey is voluntary. Whether you participate or not will have NO impact on your claim. 

For questions about surveys, or if you would like your name removed from our survey contact list, please contact Corporate Communications at communications@ws-ts.nb.ca.

We are required to retain personal health records and other personal information indefinitely. A workers’ compensation claim is never closed since future medical problems may occur that are caused by the original workplace injury, and the management of that issue is WorkSafeNB’s responsibility, regardless of your age.

We protect your personal information by having reasonable security safeguards that meet or exceed industry standards, against risks such as unauthorized access, collection, use, disclosure, disposal, loss and theft. These security safeguards include a combination of physical, technological and administrative security measures suitable to the sensitivity of the information. Our security arrangements also include directives about transferring personal information by email and fax, removing personal information from our premises in electronic format, verification of identity and ensuring that personal health information in our custody or control is stored only in Canada.

The RTIPPA and PHIPAA identify specific rights you have for your personal information, including your health information. You have the right to designate another person to make decisions about your personal health information. You have the right (subject to certain limited exceptions) to ask us not to give out your personal health information to other health care providers or other parties. In these cases, we will not give out the information unless permitted by you or required by law to do so. You should be aware, that unlike in the public health care system, refusing to participate in your own treatment may result in a review or suspension of your workers’ compensation claim.

WorkSafeNB may record phone calls for quality assurance. You are welcome to ask if your call is being recorded and you have the right to ask that it not be recorded.

You have the right to complain to the Ombud of New Brunswick if you think we have violated your rights. The contact information for the Ombud of New Brunswick is:

Office of the Ombud for New Brunswick

Access to Information and Privacy
65 Regent St., Suite 230
Fredericton, NB E3B 7H8
Telephone: 506 453-5965
Toll-free: 1 877 755-2811
Fax: 506 453-5963
Email: aip-aivp@gnb.ca 

WorkSafeNB’s Privacy and Information Security policy outlines our privacy and personal information security principles related to gathering, using, and disclosing personal information.