CSR | January 2015 | News
©2014 Thomson Reuters Canada Ltd
ISBN/ISSN: 978-0-7798-2810-4
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted,
in any form or by any means, electronic, photocopying,
recording or otherwise without the written permission of
the publisher (Carswell, a Thomson Reuters business).
Canadian Safety Reporter is part of the
Canadian HR Reporter group of publications:
• Canadian HR Reporter — www.hrreporter.com
• Canadian Occupational Safety magazine — www.cos-mag.com
• Canadian Payroll Reporter — www.payroll-reporter.com
• Canadian Employment Law Today — www.employmentlawtoday.com
• Canadian Labour Reporter — www.labour-reporter.com
See carswell.com for information
Safety Reporter
Canadian
www.safetyreporter.com
Published 12 times a year by
Thomson Reuters Canada Ltd.
Subscription rate: $129 per year
Customer Service
Tel: (416) 609-3800 (Toronto)
(800) 387-5164 (outside Toronto)
Fax: (416) 298-5106
E-mail: carswell.customerrelations
@thomsonreuters.com
Website: www.carswell.com
One Corporate Plaza 2075 Kennedy Road
Toronto, Ontario, Canada M1T 3V4
Director, Carswell Media Karen Lorimer
Publisher John Hobel (on leave)
Acting Publisher/Managing Editor Todd Humber
Assistant Editor
Mallory Hendry (416) 649-7898
Mallory.hendry@thomsonreuters.com
Contributing Editors
Liz Foster
Sabrina Nanji
Sarah Dobson
Liz Bernier
Jeffrey R. Smith
Marketing Manager Mohammad Ali
mm.ali@thomsonreuters.com
(416) 609-5866
Circulation Co-ordinator Keith Fulford
keith.fulford@thomsonreuters.com
(416) 649-9585
adding that the workers' com-
pensation board is in the midst
of revamping its experience rat-
ing program.
"The WSIB's modernization
of programs helps injured work-
ers receive faster access to spe-
cialized medical care and sup-
ports, and our new approaches
to workplace reintegration for
injured workers helps reduce
the risk of the onset of perma-
nent impairments."
The workers' compensation
board provides rebates or levies
surcharges based on the experi-
ence of the employer, and since
2009, it has collected $1.1 bil-
lion in employer premium sur-
charges.
As well, the fatal claims ad-
justment policy saw the cancel-
lation of $10.9 million in pre-
mium rebates since 2009, with
$4 million worth of rebates still
pending review.
Research 'ironclad,'
says author
When conducting his research,
Joel Schwartz, OFL study au-
thor and staff lawyer at the
Toronto-based Industrial Acci-
dent Victims Group of Ontario,
filed Freedom of Information
requests and contrasted those
against the Ontario Ministry of
Labour's workplace injury and
fatalities releases.
As such, the research is iron-
clad and any suggestion other-
wise amounts to pandering, he
said.
In his report, Schwartz rec-
ommended the WSIB be sub-
ject to regular oversight and
be held accountable by a third-
party body.
As well, he suggested both
the experience rating program
and the fatal claims adjustment
policy be overhauled or thrown
out entirely.
The experience rating pro-
gram is supposed to encourage
health and safety, he said.
"But it is so bad at measuring
real health and safety perfor-
mance that it was churning out
rebates to employers that hadn't
even complied with the mini-
mum standards."
And as for the fatal claims ad-
justment, Schwartz called that
response a Band-Aid for a bullet
wound.
"I don't think it does anything
to encourage health and safety. If
it has been consistently applied
— and the data we got suggests it
isn't — it's just tinkering around
the edges of a much more seri-
ous problem. I don't think it was
anything but a minor political
solution to a much bigger prob-
lem," he said.
WSIB under fire
in 2008, 2012
This isn't the first time the WSIB
has come under fire from the
labour federation. In 2008, a
Toronto Star investigation re-
vealed the board had rebated
tens of millions of dollars to
businesses that had been found
guilty of workplace injury and
death.
After heated backlash, then-
Ontario premier Dalton Mc-
Guinty called the matter "an
embarrassment" and vowed
change.
Then, in 2012, the govern-
ment initiated a funding re-
view, headed by Harry Arthurs,
a professor and former dean of
Osgoode Hall Law School. In it,
he determined that experience
rating programs fail to punish
illegal claims suppression prac-
tices.
Now has never been a better
time to fix an antiquated system,
Ryan went on to say.
"There is no worse crime that
can happen in a workplace than
having a fatality," he said.
"It means that all of your sys-
tems have completely broken
down and you don't have a de-
cent health and safety working
environment — and that is the
travesty of it all."
WSIB < pg. 7
Engineers stand next to an open pit gold mine of Goldcorp in Mexico. The Canadian company was paid a net rebate of millions of dollars two years
after pleading guilty to failing to adhere to safety procedures which resulted in an employee's death and paying a $350,000 fine, says an OFL report.
Credit:
Reuters
Never a better time 'to fi x antiquated system'
