WorkSafeBC is a complex organization that plays a very important role in today’s economy. According to its website, WorksafeBC is:
…a provincial agency dedicated to promoting safe and healthy workplaces across B.C [that] partner[s] with workers and employers to save lives and prevent work-related injury, disease, and disability.
It is a large organization with multiple stakeholders that processes tens of thousands of claims every month. Given its mandate and the scope of its activities, regular policy and program tweaks are inevitable.
Since 2017, the NDP government has made several modest – and mostly appropriate – updates to expand and adjust worker benefits. It is now considering more sweeping changes as it continues to flesh out what Minister of Labour Harry Bains vaguely describes as a more “worker-centric” agenda.
Over the past four years, the government commissioned five separate reviews of different aspects of WorkSafeBC’s programs and operations. This plethora of disjointed reviews has spawned confusion and uncertainty about the government’s intentions for the agency. One of the reviews – penned by former labour lawyer Janet Patterson – contains recommendations which, if implemented, would have significant cost implications for B.C. employers and upend the balance that has long existed in the system.
Anyone reading the Patterson report would think the workers’ compensation system is fractured, poorly run, and unable to meet the needs of injured workers. The report posits -- but does not demonstrate -- an urgent case for far-reaching change.
The reality is the exact opposite of what Ms. Patterson suggests. A careful assessment indicates that WorkSafeBC has been well run and prudently managed, and that the compensation system for injured workers that it operates is one of the best and most comprehensive in the country, if not North America.
Of particular note, the B.C. system has the highest coverage rate in Canada. Approximately 98 per cent of workers in the province are covered – meaning they are eligible for benefits if they are hurt on the job. The comparable figures for Alberta and Ontario are 82 per cent and 77 per cent, respectively. Of any metric used to evaluate a workers’ compensation system, the extent of coverage arguably is the most important.
Then too, the board of directors and management at WorkSafeBC have overseen more than a decade of declining accident rates. In part, this reflects a shifting industrial mix, but it’s also evidence that WorkSafeBC’s prevention and safety programs have been effective in reducing injuries. And when workers are injured, they generally receive prompt treatment and reasonable compensation.
For 15 years now, WorkSafeBC has surveyed workers and employers to gauge their views on service delivery as well as their overall satisfaction with the agency. Over this period, worker satisfaction has steadily risen (from 70 per cent to 82 per cent). The proportion of workers interacting with WorkSafe who say their claims decisions were fair or somewhat fair exceeds 90 per cent, a figure that has been maintained for almost a decade.
At the same time, the number of B.C. workers who describe their claims decisions as unfair -- or who otherwise indicate dissatisfaction with WorkSafeBC -- is around 8 per cent, half of the level reported in the mid-2000s.
These positive trends belie any argument that WorkSafeBC is systematically failing to meet the needs of workers in the province.
Similarly, employers – whose annual premiums of $1.6 billion largely pay for the system – also report high levels of satisfaction (over 80 per cent, up from 65 per cent in 2005). And, about 85 per cent of B.C. employers judge that the premiums they pay are fair or somewhat fair.
Contrary to the impression left by Ms. Patterson, some commentary emanating from union officials, and occasional statements by the Minister of Labour, WorkSafeBC has been well-run, it has improved service delivery over time, and it provides reasonable benefits to the vast majority of injured workers in a timely manner.
In this context, we find it troubling that the NDP government has failed to produce a broad situational and comparative assessment of the B.C. workers’ compensation system prior to embarking on a path that may lead to substantive, disruptive and very costly changes.
Our research finds that the comparative data on coverage rates, injury trends, return to work outcomes, benefit levels, and other metrics show the B.C. system performing well when judged against similar workplace health and safety agencies in other jurisdictions.
As published in Business in Vancouver.
Jock Finlayson is a Senior Advisor of the Business Council of British Columbia; Ken Peacock is the Council’s Chief Economist.
SWIM ON:
- Jock Finlayson and Ken Peacock last wrote that B.C.’s population has a relatively high income by global standards & an enviable quality of life. But judged against neighboring jurisdictions, our province is not as successful as many assume.
- In 2019, A significant number of unions and employer organizations withdrew from the government’s Worksafe BC Review Process. Ken Baerg asked why.
- A fascinating debate in the legislature illustrates the difficulty of government trying to create and impose regulations where none existed before – in this case, trampoline parks. Rob Shaw jumps in with both feet.
