Employer ordered to pay AD&D benefit to firefighter’s estate for work-related suicide
In a precedent-setting case, a municipality has been ordered to pay an accidental death and dismemberment (“AD&D”) benefit to the estate of a firefighter who died by suicide linked to work-related Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (“PTSD”).
Background
The firefighter’s PTSD and subsequent death were accepted as work-related by the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (“WSIB”). Ontario’s no-fault WSIB system recognizes that there are unique risks of workplace injuries faced by firefighters, including with respect to heart injuries, certain occupational cancers, and post-traumatic stress. Where a firefighter develops one of these eligible conditions, it is deemed to be “accidental” and presumed to be caused by the firefighter’s employment unless the contrary can be shown. The WSIB may also award survivor benefits for deaths resulting from workplace accidents, including deaths due to suicide. Notwithstanding the WSIB’s decisions in this case, a further claim for AD&D benefits was denied under the insurance policy purchased by the employer, which contained exclusions for (among other things) self-inflicted injuries and suicide. The grievance alleged that the employer had breached the collective agreement with the firefighter union, which required the employer to arrange a benefit equal to two times the firefighter’s annual salary “in case of accidental death”.
The Decision
The arbitrator found that he had jurisdiction over the grievance because the question was not whether the AD&D claim was eligible under the terms of the insurance policy, but rather whether the employer had arranged insurance coverage that was consistent with the collective agreement’s requirements. He accepted that a long line of Ontario arbitration cases establishes that AD&D benefits in firefighter collective agreements are intended to cover the types of accidental deaths that firefighters are known to suffer from, which may include “line of duty” deaths due to physical injuries while fighting fires or due to deemed workplace accidents such as occupational cancers. A death will be accidental where it results from an accident or its sequelae, even if death follows later and there are other contributing causes.
The arbitrator agreed that, in this case, the accident was the firefighter’s development of PTSD, which was analogous to past cases even though the immediate cause of death was suicide. A firefighter no more expects to die from developing PTSD due to their work than from developing occupational cancer. The exclusions in the employer’s insurance policy, which the union did not agree to, reflected an outdated conception of suicide as an immoral act when it is today more appropriately recognized as a health issue. The arbitrator concluded that because the employer did not obtain an insurance policy that provided the AD&D benefit in the firefighter’s circumstances, it was liable to the firefighter’s estate for the value of the benefit.
Takeaways
This is the first arbitration case recognizing that death due to suicide may be an accidental death for purposes of a firefighter collective agreement benefit. While the circumstances were tragic, the decision recognizes the importance of providing support to families where a firefighter dies due to the hazardous impacts of firefighting on their mental health, on the same basis as for accidental deaths that are due to physical injuries.
You can read the decision here: Sudbury (City) v Sudbury Professional Firefighters’ Association, 2025 CanLII 109730 (ON LA)