Pickering v. Workers’ Compensation Board, 2025 BCSC 376

Challenging the constitutionality of restrictions on compensation for work-related chronic mental disorders

CLAS represented James Pickering, an injured worker, in a constitutional challenge to sections of the Workers Compensation Act, R.S.B.C. 2019, c. 1. The challenged sections applied a more stringent test to claims arising from chronic mental disorders than to other claims by creating:

1. A higher causation standard for chronic mental disorder claims; and
2. An exclusion for chronic mental disorders caused by an employer’s decision relating to a worker’s employment (the “labour relations exclusion”).

Mr. Pickering alleged that the higher and additional standards for chronic mental disorder claims were discriminatory on the basis of mental disability contrary to s. 15 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (the “Charter”).

In its March 6, 2025 decision, the BC Supreme Court ruled that the challenged sections created a distinction and placed additional burdens on persons with chronic mental disorders. It accepted that a higher causation standard was not arbitrary and did not exacerbate or reinforce existing disadvantage. However, it found that the labour relations exclusion breached s. 15 of the Charter because it had an overly wide scope. The Court found that the breach could not be justified under s. 1.

The Court held that the appropriate remedy was to interpret the labour relations exclusion more narrowly. Chronic mental disorder claims could be excluded from compensation only if caused by management decisions on generic processes and actions taken in good faith.