When staying employed meant burning her own vacation and sick days to cope with the pain
A nurse who could only keep working by spending down her own vacation and sick days has won a fight over whether that arrangement really counts as being able to do the job.
The decision came down on June 1, 2026, from the British Columbia Workers' Compensation Appeal Tribunal, with Vice Chair Renee Miller presiding. The worker, a nurse since 2007, was assessed with a 17.75 percent loss of function from a 2014 back injury. At issue was whether a supervisor role she could hold only by drawing on her yearly bank of 38 vacation and sick days truly restored her pre-injury earnings.
The worker began nursing for the employer in 2007 and injured her low back in 2014. WorkSafeBC first denied the claim, but the tribunal overturned that decision in 2015 and her injuries were accepted as permanent. They included a low back strain and a permanent aggravation of degenerative disc disease in her lower spine, with chronic pain.
Returning to the floor was difficult, by her account. She found regular nursing shifts too heavy, tried a surgical floor, then moved into a supervisor role and later a community care team lead position that split her time between a desk and patient care. Even with those adjustments, she relied on vacation and sick days to rest.
Treatment gave her only temporary relief. After each rhizotomy on her lumbar spine she got a few months of partial relief,...
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