PowerPoint

Presentation for
Management of
Occupational Health
and Safety

Prepared by
Bernadette Gatien

Copyright © 2021 by Nelson Education Ltd.

 Chapter 3

Workers’ Compensation

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 Learning Objectives
• After reading this chapter, you should be able to:
– Outline the historical roots of the workers’ compensation
system in Canada
– Describe the goals and methods of Workers’
Compensation Boards (WCBs)
– Discuss the problems associated with compensating for
psychological conditions and occupational illnesses
– Describe the assessment methods of WCBs

continued…

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Poll

• Open the MindTap Mobile App and select

your course.

Which came first to Canada, automobiles or

worker’s compensation?

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 Opening Vignette: Canada’s Hub for
Workers’ Compensation Information
• The topic of worker’s compensation can be complex
and multilayered; however, there are resources to
help.
• Each jurisdiction in Canada has a website and social
media presence.
• Canada has the added benefit of the
Association of Workers’ Compensation Boards of Can
ada (AWCBC)
, which is a hub of WCB information

7-5
 Introduction
• Workers’ compensation
– Form of insurance governed by an act of Parliament to
help workers injured on the job to return to work

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 Introduction
• Ensures injured worker
receives:
– First aid treatment
– Benefits while at home
recuperating
– Proper treatment for any
injuries
– Rehabilitation

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 Historical Roots
• 1884: Workers’ compensation originated in Germany
• 1914: Workers’ compensation was established in
Canada
– Collective liability for employers
– Compensation for workers despite employer’s financial
condition
– Compensation based on loss of earnings
– “No-fault” system
– Nonadversarial process: Little or no recourse in the courts

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 Historical Roots
• Collective liability
– Where all employers in a class or other rate group are
liable for the costs of any or all accidents and occupational
diseases that occur in the operations of those employers

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 Workers’ Compensation
in Canada
• Administered by Workers’ Compensation Board
• Injured worker will receive:
– Payment while off work and all medical bills paid if injury
happened at work and because of work
– Pension if disability is or becomes permanent
– Benefits if he or she cannot earn same amount of money
earned before incident

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 Workers’ Compensation
in Canada
• Regulations and responsibilities of WCBs:
– Classify employers to ensure consistency
– Decide whether an individual is classified as a worker, a
subcontractor, or an employer, as each class has different
conditions
– System can pay benefits if worker is affected by an
industrial disease that has resulted from his or her
occupation

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 Legislative Updates
• A number of changes to WCB legislation around
Canada (refer also to OH&S Today 3.1).
• Some of the changes include:
– Saskatchewan expanded presumptive coverage to
volunteer firefighters
– BC expanded coverage for wildfire firefighters
– NS now has presumptive coverage of PTSD for
emergency responders
– Alberta amended its act in 8 categories including
expanded psychological coverage, extended window of
appeal, and so forth.

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Compensation Rates and Methods
• Amount of compensation: Two methods
– Five jurisdictions base on a percentage (generally 90%) of
net earnings
– The remaining jurisdictions base on a percentage of
average earnings
– Jurisdictions like Nova Scotia have used both methods
depending on the date of the incident

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Compensation Rates and Methods
• Economic Loss
– Wage or earnings loss when workers can no longer earn
the same amount of money that they were earning before
the incident
• Non-Economic Loss
– Injured worker could receive non-economic loss if unable
to perform some of the things that they had been able to
do before the incident

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 Medical Aid and
Incident Prevention
• Employees who sustain a work-related injury are
compensated for loss of earnings and loss of
functional capacity
– Limit of ability or dexterity depending on seriousness of
an injury
• Workers are no longer able to perform some of their
job duties, such as lifting, twisting, or bending, and
are considered to have suffered loss of functional
capacity for which benefits are payable

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 OH&S Today 3.4
Safety Associations
• Represent a specific industry and provide general
and industry-specific safety knowledge to their
members
• Industry groups funded in part through the workers’
compensation board
• Provide training programs, prevention programs,
and other health and safety–related services (e.g.,
safety audits, certificates of recognition) to
members of their industry, typically charging a fee
for these services.
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 OH&S Today 3.4
Safety Associations

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 Social Goals of
Workers’ Compensation
• Two main goals:
1. Provide services to prevent injuries or reduce
psychological impact of injuries when they occur
2. Provide training and development to prepare an
injured worker to return to work

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 Social Goals of
Workers’ Compensation
• Grounded in the following standard provisions:
– Unlimited medical aid
– Artificial prostheses
– A fund to encourage re-employment (known as the Second
Injury and Enhancement Fund [SIEF] in some jurisdictions)
– Liberal compensation
– Rehabilitation maintenance income

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 Social Goals of
Workers’ Compensation
• Summary tables comparing assessments and
premiums at each Workers’ Compensation
Board/Commission in Canada:
– https://awcbc.org/en/summary-tables/assessments-premi
ums/provisional-average-assessment-rates/

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 Social Goals of
Workers’ Compensation
• Provision for Second Injuries
– Second Injury Fund
• Facilitates the re-employment of disabled workers
• Without a provision for multiple injuries, employers might be
tempted to discriminate against workers with disabilities
• Additional injury could make employer responsible for a far more
serious disability than if the worker had not had a prior injury

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 Health Care Injuries
• WorkSafeBC’s health and safety information and
resources for health and social workers:
– https://www.worksafebc.com/en/health-safety/industries/
health-care-social-services

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 Social Goals of
Workers’ Compensation
• Rehabilitation
– Vocational Rehabilitation
• Helps injured workers return to their place of employment or find
similar work elsewhere
– Physical Rehabilitation
• Restores workers’ physical function
– Social Rehabilitation
• Psychological and practical services to help workers with severe
disabilities cope with daily life

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 Social Goals of
Workers’ Compensation
Social Rehabilitation Physical Rehabilitation

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 Occupational Diseases and
Workplace Stress
• Occupational diseases include:
– Various cancers
– Skin diseases
– Allergic reactions to materials and components in the
workplace
• Latency Period
– Time between exposure to a cause and development of a
disease

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 Occupational Diseases and
Workplace Stress
• Three groups of stress-related disabilities:
– Physical injury or occupational disease leading to mental
disability
– Mental stress resulting in a physical disability, traumatic
occurrence, or series of occurrences
– Mental stress resulting in a mental condition

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 OH&S Notebook 3.3
The WCB Claims Process
• To process a claim when a worker is injured, WCB
needs information from three parties:
1. Employer
2. Employee
3. Physician
• Details vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction.
• See example from PEI on page 66 in the textbook.

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 Assessments
• Employers are grouped together according to type of
operation or industry in which they are engaged, and
they are assessed on that basis.
• Employers are divided into three categories:
– Contribute to incident fund and benefit from collective
liability
– Individually liable for their own employees’ incidents
– Certain low-risk industries excluded under various acts
across the country

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Assessments

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 Assessments
• Injury Frequency Rates
– Some organizations calculate injury frequency rates to
benchmark and track their own safety performance.
– In some cases WCBs can also provide this information to
companies.
– This information helps organizations benchmark their
health and safety.

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 Assessments
• Calculating Injury Frequency
– To determine the frequency injury ratio, consider that the
frequency is the number of medical aid injuries relative to
the number of hours worked expressed in a ratio of 200
000
– Some firms and jurisdictions use a factor of 1 000 000
rather than 200 000. Using the 200 000 figure, the
relationship becomes:

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 Experience Rating
• Experience Rating
– Incident insurance premium pricing scheme
– Takes into account clear cost experience of employer
– Firms with lower-than-average incident costs per worker
pay lower premiums than firms with above-average
incident costs
– Safer employer will face lower workers’ compensation
costs given two similar firms
– Primary effect is financial incentive for relatively safe firms

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 OH&S Notebook 3.7
Experience Rating Programs
• Various experience rating programs exist across
provincial jurisdictions.
– For example, Newfoundland and Labrador offers the
opportunity for employers to reduce their rates and
injuries via its PRIME incentive program.
– Program compares an employer’s PRIME claim costs to its
expected range of injury costs (experience incentive range)
– Employers can receive Experience refund if after one year
their PRIME costs are below the bottom range

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 Reporting Requirements
• Employers must report all workplace injuries to WCB
within a certain time.
• Employer report collects information about:
– Nature of employment relationship
– Employee’s salary and hours of work
– Nature of incident and injury
– Extent of time loss and medical treatment

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Reporting Requirements

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 Reporting Requirements
• Noncompliance
– When employers and employees fail to comply with the
act in their jurisdiction, then penalties and fines can be
applied.
– Penalties and fines vary, as penalties do not require court
proceedings.
– Employers could pay upward of $50 000.

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 Reporting
Requirements
• Each board provides
a form for employer
reporting.
• Figure 3.1 shows the
form used for
employer reporting
in Manitoba.

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 Reporting
Requirements
• Employees are also
required to report to
the WCB if they want
to open a claim for
compensation.

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 End-of-Chapter Activities
• Outline the responsibilities of WCBs today. Describe
how these responsibilities have changed since the
inception of workers’ compensation in 1914.
• If you are employed, talk with the health and safety
manager in your organization. If you are a student,
ask to speak to the safety officer at your school.
– Obtain information about the organization’s sector,
assessment, and record-of-experience ratings.

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