Air Canada employee who fell on stairs in her home eligible for worker’s compensation
 

Interesting arguments.

National Post - Dec 21 2021

https://nationalpost.com/news/canada...ensation-judge

Sounds reasonable.

Agreed - that seems completely fair. But it will raise questions about how home environments measure up in terms of compliance with safety standards and such. Lots of lawyers will get new cars out of this.

I actually find this a little odd. My immediate response was going to be along the lines of an actual quote from the article:

So if I fall down the stairs at a TTC station (or an equivalent in Quebec) on my way to the office, my employer is responsible?

I've worked at home for years for an online division of my university. The employer definitely pays workman's comp premiums for me, so that should mean that I am eligible when working at home or even working on the road. As far as I know it has never been tested, though, and I can't see how it would apply to COVID.

Yes, probably, it seems that commute to and from work counts....

You don't even have to leave your house

https://netherlandsnewslive.com/germ...e-work/306107/

That jurisdiction (Germany) had already determined "commuting" counts for these claims.

As far as I know, no Canadian jurisdiction had made the same determination.

There are circumstances in the US (likely state by state) where if the employee is traveling to/from work and is in a collision or like event, worker's comp applies, although it is a fairly narrow range of circumstances.

Tried to do a quick search on Canlii but didn’t find anything. The court document would be helpful in telling us on what factors were presented and what led to this decision.

How about if you stop at the grocery store on the way home from work and have an accident there, is that still work commuting, my guess is not...

This does seem bizarre.
If you trip down the stairs in the office, it's usually because someone has been negligent. Poor design, an item placed in the wrong spot, etc. It's likely that company policies or lack of enforcement led to that negligence.
If you trip down the stairs in your own home, what could your employer have done to prevent the incident? What can they do differently so that it doesn't happen again?

It doesn't matter, you got injured on the job, regardless the reason...

As I said upthread, reading the court document would clear up lots of confusions.

Based on what I read in the news article and my (very limited) understanding of employment laws, the case wasn’t about AC being responsible for the worker’s injury, it’s about whether AC should offer worker’s compensation to the employee. Being ordered to offer worker’s compensation doesn’t mean AC is fully responsible for worker’s injury.

I think the limitation is that you were performing a work function in an approved environment (not drunk or at the beach)