Category Archives: Workers Compensation

Health & Safety, Workers Compensation

Campaign urges injured workers to testify for WCB review

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As the Alberta government conducts its ongoing review of the province’s Workers’ Compensation Board (WCB), two organizations for workers’ rights have teamed up to launch a campaign lobbying for injured workers to tell their own stories.

Be Human WCB is a collaboration between the Alberta Federation of Labour (AFL) and the Canadian Injured Workers Association of Alberta (CIWAA). According to an AFL press release dated Nov. 22, the campaign aims to put a human face on injured Alberta workers by urging them to share their experiences directly with the WCB’s review panel. Its website, BeHumanWCB.ca, encourages visitors to share videos and social-media memes of two women who say their workers’ compensation claims were unfairly denied.

“Injured workers are ill-served by a heartless WCB system. They need a system that treats them as humans, not numbers or liabilities,” said AFL president Gil McGowan in a press statement, adding that many Alberta workers were “being chewed up” by the system.

McGowan also accused the WCB of denying valid injury claims to keep employer premiums low. “Too often, the WCB has treated employers as the client instead of injured workers,” he said. “That cannot continue.”

CIWAA executive director Donna Oberik said in her own statement that she had encountered many injured workers claiming to have had terrible experiences dealing with the WCB.

“The system doesn’t treat workers like people,” said Oberik. “They get denied legitimate claims and face a bureaucratic nightmare that never gets resolved. The life they knew is over.”

The Be Human website charges that the WCB has been failing Alberta workers in several ways. In addition to denying claims in order to increase its own profits, the site claims, the WCB has allegedly paid bonuses to its staff for closing claims quickly and returning injured workers to their jobs before they were ready. The site also accuses the Board of making it harder for workers to get access to occupational health specialists.

“There are approximately 195,000 workers and 200 industries that are excluded from mandatory WCB coverage,” the website states. “Alberta has the longest list of excluded industries in Canada, and workers in these industries have no automatic safety net if they are hurt at work.”

The Government of Alberta announced earlier this year that it would conduct a full review of the WCB to evaluate its effectiveness, authority and policies (COHSN, March 29). Human-resources and labour-relations consultant Mia Norrie is leading the three-member review panel.

The review is the first comprehensive evaluation of the WCB in more than 15 years.

Health & Safety, Health and Wellness, Legislation, Workers Compensation

Unions rally for changes in N.S. law regarding PTSD

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HALIFAX, N.S. – Two unions demonstrated behind Province House in Halifax on the afternoon of Nov. 10 to express support for a provincial bill that would allow automatic workers’ compensation coverage for sufferers of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). A press release from the National Union of Public and General Employees stated that its Nova Scotia affiliate, the Nova Scotia Government and General Employees’ Union (NSGEU), was collaborating with the Union of Canadian Correctional Officers (UCCO) in the rally. The bill, which the NDP tabled in the N.S. legislature on Oct. 14, would allow presumptive workers’ comp coverage for first responders, correctional officers, nurses, social workers and several other types of professionals who are diagnosed with PTSD. “Despite mounting evidence of the lasting impact of PTSD and the need for timely treatment, the Nova Scotia government has not moved on the issue,” the NSGEU stated in the release, calling the passing of presumptive legislation “long overdue.” The UCCO had previously demonstrated at the New Brunswick legislature on Nov. 8 to raise awareness of PTSD as an occupational illness and the need for presumptive legislation, according to a separate release from the union.

Health & Safety, Health and Wellness, Legislation, Workers Compensation

Saskatchewan introduces bill to make PTSD a presumptive work disease

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REGINA, Sask. – The Saskatchewan government is following the leads of Ontario and Manitoba by proposing a law to make psychological injuries, such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), presumptively work-related – meaning that a worker diagnosed with a condition does not have to prove that his or her job caused it when applying for benefits from the Workers’ Compensation Board (WCB). According to a news release from the Ministry of Labour Relations and Workplace Safety, the Ministry introduced an amendment to the province’s Workers’ Compensation Act making PTSD and similar conditions presumptively occupational on Oct. 25. The government expects to pass the bill into law as soon as possible, the release added. “We know the stigma attached to psychological injuries and illnesses often prevents people from getting help,” Don Morgan, the province’s Labour Relations and Workplace Safety Minister, said in a press statement. “By reducing barriers, our hope is that more people feel confident seeking support, including applying for benefits from the WCB.” Ontario passed a law making PTSD presumptive for first responders earlier this year (COHSN, April 12), after Manitoba had passed similar legislation for all occupations (COHSN, Jan. 5).

Health & Safety, Workers Compensation

Health and safety conference honours brewery, two teachers

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MONCTON, N.B. – The annual WorkSafeNB Health and Safety Conference has given its Safety Star Award to Moosehead Breweries Limited this year, recognizing its St. John brewery for achievements in occupational health and safety. According to a WorkSafeNB news release, the company was awarded on Oct. 14 for safety efforts that have resulted in a decline in accident frequency and improved claims costs at the facility, which was founded in 1867 and is now Canada’s oldest independent brewery. “Moosehead is a company that demonstrates, daily, that everyday little things make a huge difference,” WorkSafeNB president and CEO Gerard Adams said in a press statement. The conference also launched its new Health and Safety Educator Award, which went to two teachers, Keith Armstrong and Charles Allain. Armstrong teaches skilled trades with a strong focus on safety modules at Harbourview High School in Saint John, while Allain enforces safety among teachers as an example for students at École Mathieu-Martin in Dieppe, a separate release noted. “Allain and Armstrong are examples of exceptional educators making a difference in the lives of New Brunswick students,” said Adams. More than 500 people attended the awards ceremony at the conference, which WorkSafeNB has been hosting for 36 years.

Health & Safety, Health and Wellness, Legislation, Workers Compensation

Government committee calls for research on PTSD in first responders

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A committee of Members of Parliament (MP) is lobbying for the federal government to develop a national strategy to help first responders with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other operational stress injuries. In particular, the group has recommended setting up a new research centre devoted to the workers’ mental health.

Chaired by Rob Oliphant, Liberal MP for the Don Valley West riding in Toronto, the committee published a 50-page report detailing its own research and recommendations on Oct. 4. The report, titled Healthy Minds, Safe Communities: Supporting Our Public Safety Officers through a National Strategy for Operational Stress Injuries, suggested a research institute for PTSD in firefighters, police officers, paramedics, correctional officers and similar professions.

“If we don’t have healthy first responders and public-safety officers, we won’t have safe communities,” Oliphant told COHSN. “Our safety and security, in a variety of ways, is dependent upon those who help us being healthy and well.”

The committee began its study after conducting a survey and realizing that there was not a lot of concrete data on the subject, in spite of the wide range of anecdotal narratives and therapy available, he explained.

“We don’t know enough. We don’t have best practices being shared. We don’t have international experience being translated into Canada well enough.”

The kind of research centre that the committee has in mind would be modelled off the Canadian Institute for Military and Veteran Health Research at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ont., but for first responders rather than military personnel.

“What we heard in our testimony was that with soldiers, sailors and air-force members,” said Oliphant, “they could be in war, in theatre, and then come out for two weeks or three weeks, or two years, go back in, whereas police officers or EMS or corrections officers, every day, it is a cumulative effect. There could be nothing one day, and three days in a row, a tragic incident, and then nothing.”

This is why research is required into the cumulative effect of an ongoing, steady stream of tragedy, he said. The proposed institute would ideally collect data to study the prevalence of operational stress injuries, as well as establish an expert working group to collaborate with the government to come up with a response for employees who suffer from these conditions.

At the moment, supports for first responders and public-safety officers with PTSD are limited and tend to vary. Medical treatments and employee-assistance plans are available for some. VIA Rail, Oliphant noted, has processes for employees who witness traumatic events like train accidents with pedestrians.

“What’s good about that is, it reduces stigma,” he said. “They have an assumption after a traumatic event that they have work to do to make sure something doesn’t go wrong. We don’t have that at the same level in our federal employees.”

This year, the Ontario government enacted legislation that made PTSD a presumptively occupational disease for first responders, meaning that those diagnosed do not have to prove that work caused the condition to get workers’ comp (COHSN, April 12). But Oliphant’s group has stopped short of demanding a similar federal law.

“What we want is an investigation into presumptive legislation,” said Oliphant.

“Our committee was really very favourably predisposed to it,” he added, “but we just don’t have the evidence on it. We don’t want to be knee-jerk.”

Healthy Minds, Safe Communities is available online at http://www.parl.gc.ca/Content/HOC/Committee/421/SECU/Reports/RP8457704/421_SECU_Rpt05_PDF/421_SECU_Rpt05-e.pdf.

Compliance & Enforcement, Health & Safety, Human Resources, Workers Compensation

Company CEOs have an influence on workplace injuries: study

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Chief executive officers play a role in the injury rates that frontline employees experience – and can influence the number of workplace injuries through a more dedicated safety culture, according to a recent study funded by the Saskatchewan Workers’ Compensation Board (WCB).

Published in the Sept. 2016 issue of the Journal of Applied Psychology, “Safety in the C-Suite: How CEOs Influence Organizational Safety Climate and Employee Injuries” analyzed the effects that CEOs’ attitudes have on their companies’ safety records, both directly and indirectly. Researchers examined the results of surveys given to 54 organizations, employing more than 2,700 workers and nearly 1,400 supervisors.

“We found that CEOs have the most direct safety-related influence on their top managers,” said report co-author Dr. Sean Tucker, of the Faculty of Business Administration at the University of Regina, in an Oct. 5 press statement. “These top managers then role-model pro-safety values and behaviours to lower-level managers and supervisors, and this in turn cascades down to the frontlines.

“We call this process ‘collective social learning’, and our data shows [sic] that this process works to create an overall safety climate that reduces injuries on the frontlines,” added Dr. Tucker, who conducted the study with the University of Regina’s Dayle Ehr and the University of Calgary’s Dr. Babatunde Ogunfowora.

The report concluded that it is appropriate to attribute a company’s low injury rates to the CEO when it is evident that other organizational parties have contributed to the safety climate. But the authors also admitted that their research had certain limitations. For example, they had relied on the surveyed workers to report on their own injuries and lacked sufficient time to get personnel information about employee grouping by supervisor.

“Future studies should attempt to obtain organizational-level injury reports, although such records may be unreliable,” the authors wrote.

Phil Germain, the WCB’s vice president of prevention and employer services, said in a statement that occupational injuries and fatalities can have a drastic effect on employers’ bottom lines.

“This research makes an important contribution to our understanding of how we can improve worker safety and reduce businesses’ costs,” said Germain. “Reducing worker injuries, which can save businesses literally millions of dollars, comes through a CEO-driven, top-down cascade of directives that promote a pervasive climate of safety at all levels.”

The key to reducing workplace injuries, according to the report, is a strong safety culture throughout an organization. “While supervisor safety-related leadership interventions have been associated with improved safety outcomes, it is critical that the organizational leader’s behaviors are in alignment with… supervisory safety training,” wrote the authors.

“Safety in the C-Suite” is available online at http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/apl/101/9/1228.pdf&productCode=pa.

Compliance & Enforcement, Health & Safety, Health and Wellness, Human Resources, Workers Compensation

Safety guide for small businesses published for northern territories

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YELLOWKNIFE, N.W.T. – The workers’ compensation board for the Northwest Territories and Nunavut has released a new guide to help small businesses in the territories to develop occupational health and safety programs. Published on Sept. 6 by the Workers’ Safety and Compensation Commission (WSCC), the Occupational Health and Safety Program Guide for Small Businesses is a step-by-step guide for companies with fewer than 20 employees to build their own safety programs, with samples and templates they can adapt for their own purposes. A WSCC media release noted that although small businesses in these territories are often not required to develop full oh&s programs, regulations still deem that they must provide some form of safety training and implement safe procedures. “No business is too small for safety,” WSCC president and CEO Dave Grundy said in a press statement, adding that the new guide would make health and safety manageable for small companies. “Having a safety program is taking care of your business.” The WSCC has also created a new role, the OHS Specialist, responsible for helping businesses in developing and improving formal oh&s programs via workshops and one-on-one assistance.

Environment/Climate Change, Health & Safety, Health and Wellness, Workers Compensation

WorkSafeBC issues heat-stress alert for Okanagan region

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RICHMOND, B.C. – British Columbia’s authority on workplace health and safety is warning that outdoor workers in the Okanagan region may be at increased risk of heat stress and heat stroke, due to unusually high temperatures in the area. An Aug. 18 news release from WorkSafeBC stated that employers in the province are required to conduct heat-stress assessments and establish heat-stress mitigation plans that include education and training in recognizing symptoms. WorkSafeBC also offered recommendations for workers to prevent heat stress, such as drinking a glass of water every 20 minutes, wearing loose-fitting clothes, limiting hard, physical work to cooler times in the day and taking rest breaks in well-ventilated areas. “The majority of workers suffering heat-stress-related symptoms in 2015 were in the construction sector, followed closely by primary resources and manufacturing workers,” said Patrick Davie, WorkSafeBC regional prevention manager for Kamloops, in a statement. “But we need to remember – all outside workers are potentially at risk.” Twenty-four workers in B.C. lost time at work because of heat stress in 2015, according to information from WorkSafeBC.

Compliance & Enforcement, Health & Safety, Workers Compensation

Safety gear not used enough in Saskatchewan residential construction, says WCB

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The Saskatchewan Workers’ Compensation Board (WCB) and the provincial government are raising concerns about worker safety in the residential construction sector, pinpointing low use of personal protective equipment (PPE) as a factor in the industry’s high injury rate in the province.

A study by WorkSafe Saskatchewan, a partnership between the WCB and the Ministry of Labour Relations and Workplace Safety, has revealed that last year, only 41 per cent of workers in residential construction were using fall-protection equipment and 48 per cent were using protective head gear on the job. Only about half of the workers in the sector had been trained in fall protection, according to an Aug. 17 press release from the WCB.

Ray Anthony, executive director of the Ministry’s occupational health and safety division, stressed noncompliance with PPE regulations as a major factor in Saskatchewan’s relatively high injury rates in residential construction, as well as lack of training and supervision.

“Obviously, we’re not quite there where we should be,” said Anthony.

On the other hand, 87 per cent of the industry’s employers had zero injuries last year, he added. “Thirteen per cent of employers in the province are the ones that generate all the statistics that we see. So it is an exception to have workplace incidents and accidents. It’s not the norm.”

The WCB accepted 775 claims from the construction sector last year, the fourth-highest number among all of the province’s trades, according to the Board’s 2015 annual report.

Employers have a legislative responsibility to provide PPE and train workers on it, while employees have a legislative responsibility to use the equipment properly, noted Shelley McFadden, director of prevention with the WCB.

“If they’re not using it correctly,” said McFadden, “then that isn’t going to be in place to protect them either. So they need to be much more conscientious in how they go about being safe in the workplace.”

She added that WorkSafe was collaborating with the Saskatchewan Construction Safety Association (SCSA) on strategic initiatives to educate employers and workers on safety, increase training and raise public awareness. “The SCSA has many educational and promotional opportunities for employers made available to them,” said McFadden.

“It’s really beneficial, of course, to have recognition that an injury that happens at work will extend out into their day-to-day lives.”

SCSA president Collin Pullar told COHSN that safety culture has been slowly changing in residential construction in the province. “Saskatchewan has historically had significantly high injury rates and workplace deaths,” he said, noting that the province had once ranked second-highest in the country for occupational injury. “Over the last few years, especially the last couple, we have made strides and have actually moved up in the rankings.”

Nonchalant attitudes towards safety and PPE have been a part of the problem in construction, Pullar added. “I think a lot of it has been, ‘Let’s just get it done, it takes too much time to put this thing on, it can’t be that important, I’m kind of tough, I can just do it. It’s not going to happen to me,’” he explained. “Once that is ingrained in the culture, it takes a lot of time to get out of it.”

He compared the situation to the introduction of seatbelts in vehicles: “When seatbelt laws first came into play, there was a lot of bucking and people were slow to put them on,” he said. But today, “you have this other generation of people who just jump in the car and they put it on, don’t even think about it.”

Residential construction is a particularly vulnerable sector, said Anthony. While the Ministry usually targets the worst offenders when trying to enforce safety, “residential construction is extremely difficult because it’s such a large number of very, very small employers,” he explained. “We’re more stuck with the idea of an industry-level enforcement activity, as opposed to a very targeted enforcement activity to each individual employer.”

The WorkSafe study was based on two workplace inspection campaigns, which examined 161 residential construction sites last year, and the Ministry plans to conduct more inspections this summer and fall, according to the WCB release.

“Our officers will go out, and they will do workplace inspections, and they’ll write compliance orders and those sorts of things,” said Anthony. But training by the SCSA will be another major factor in this campaign, he added.

“There’s a reason why we’ve got high injuries, and collectively, we need to perform better,” said Pullar.

“We’re not doing so good.”

Compliance & Enforcement, Health & Safety, Legislation, Workers Compensation

High increase in WCB claims from Alberta farming industry since last year

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New statistics from the Workers’ Compensation Board of Alberta (WCB) have revealed a sharp increase in workers’ comp claims in the agriculture industry this year. The Board approved a total of 143 farming claims from Jan. 1 to July 2, 2015 – but that number shot up to 356 for the same period in 2016.

There has also been a substantial increase in agriculture employer accounts with the WCB since the beginning of this year, according to data obtained by COHSN. The Board had 1,754 farm employer accounts on Dec. 31, but has opened an additional 1,461 since then.

“There’s definitely a correlation, now that more farms have coverage,” said WCB spokesperson Dayna Therien. “So I don’t think you can read any trends into it in terms of more of them getting injured or anything. It’s just, more of them are covered now.”

Therien was referring to the mandatory workers’ compensation coverage that has been in effect for farms since the passing of Bill 6, or the Enhanced Protection for Farm and Ranch Workers Act, on Dec. 10.

“I wouldn’t really want to comment or speculate on whether the bill is working,” said Therien. “All we know is the part that we’re playing in it, and we can certainly be happy that we know there are more workers we were able to help this year.”

In an e-mailed statement, Alberta Labour Minister Christina Gray acknowledged the increase in WCB claims among farm and ranch workers, as well as in agricultural producers registering for coverage.

“I’m pleased that we’re making steady progress with WCB registrations and that more workers in this sector are accessing the medical and financial supports they need,” said Gray.

“Our government is working with farmers and ranchers to build a culture of safety… The Alberta Workers’ Compensation Board provides no-fault insurance that protects farmers and ranchers in the event of a lawsuit, while providing workers with coverage in the event of an incident.”

Farmworkers Union of Alberta president Eric Musekamp saw the WCB’s numbers as a good sign of the Act’s effectiveness.

“At least 200 more people are being protected by WCB, as opposed to the same timeframe last year,” said Musekamp. “That’s substantial in itself.”

He clarified that the new statistics did not indicate whether Alberta farms are now safer, but maintained that Bill 6 would make agriculture safer in the long run “because we will be applying the same tools that are applied to other sectors: financial incentive, proper investigations, that sort of thing.”

Not everyone has a positive outlook on the numbers. Wildrose Party MLA Grant Hunter said in a media statement that the increase in WCB claims “cannot be read into without further information being provided.” Alberta Progressive Conservative agriculture critic Wayne Drysdale told the Calgary Herald on Aug. 1 that some claimants may be getting benefits for very minor injuries not worthy of compensation.

Musekamp conceded that a few workers would probably take advantage of the system, but added that this was no different from the situation in any other industry. “That’s just a red herring,” he said about Drysdale’s comments.

“Farm people, people who work on farms, people who own farms are human beings. We all have the human condition,” Musekamp added, noting that the system has checks and balances in place for malingerers.

“Probably there’ll be fewer in our sector,” he continued, referring to cheaters, “because of the very close proximity between workers and their bosses. So it would probably be harder to cheat because they know where you live.”

Of the 356 agriculture claims that the WCB approved in the first half of 2016, two of them were for fatalities and 147 involved time away from work. Ninety-two incidents occurred in feed lots, 46 involved hay, grain or crop farming and another 44 were on beef-producing farms.

In terms of injury types, 88 of the approved claims were for sprains or strains, 76 were for superficial wounds, 62 were for open wounds and 43 were for fractures, dislocation or nerve damage.

“The bottom line is, at least 200 claims have been approved over and above what would have happened in this timeframe last year,” said Musekamp. “So that’s 200 workers that have the piece of mind of being protected by WCB. The employers of these 200 workers have the piece of mind of knowing that they’re not subject to lawsuits. The public purse is off the hook for the medical expenses for these 200 workers.

“It’s a win-win-win.”