Well, unsurprisingly, her back seems to hurt a lot, so she wants to claim an occupational disease. You may be thinking about that 30 day notice requirement, but the WCL handles § 18 notice in a more lax way for occupational diseases. WCL § 45 states that the § 18 notice period is extended to two years after the claimant becomes disable, or after the claimant knew or should have known the disease was due to the nature of the employment, whichever is later.