On October 19, 2024, B.C. voters will be offered a stark choice about B.C.’s future government.
And while there is little public comment about “WCB” matters, make no mistake that there are serious backroom discussions going on about it in the Employer community. Many employers see this election as an opportunity to again raise the spectre of an urgently needed WCB make-over. Their focus is the current surplus in the WCB’s Accident Fund, the foundational funding of the WCB system.
Since 2019, the WCB has used this surplus to provide employers with lower rates than are needed to cover claims costs. Employers see this practice as “smoothing” out their assessments to avoid risk; others see it as subsidizing employers. Either way, the Accident Fund surplus has benefited employers, directly and substantially, for the last five years. Injured workers, not so much.
In a pre-election bustle, there are two schools of thought among employers about the Accident Fund surplus. On the one hand, the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) argues that the Accident Fund has way too much money. Their solution? Some of the surplus should be returned to employers. The CFIB calculates that with the current surplus, WCB could give a typical B.C. business with 5 employees or more over $3800 “without jeopardizing WorkSafeBC’s financial stability.” 1
In contrast, some large Employer associations are sounding alarm bells that the Accident Fund is running low. The September issue of the Journal of Commerce2 highlights views from key Employer Forum members: Dr. David Baspaly, president of the Council of Construction Associations, Jason Bateman, spokesperson for the Independent Contractors and Businesses Association, David Earle, president and CEO of the BC Trucking Association, and Ken Peacock, chief economist and vice president of the Business Council of B.C. Collectively, they argue that the pace of change at WCB has been too fast and that balance needs to be restored if the Accident Fund is to remain stable. Earle warns that the situation can’t go back to the 1990’s when there was fear that the Accident Fund would become insolvent, while others fear that the future holds large increases in WCB assessments. The solution? Look back to the cost cutting activities of the 1990s and/or transfer or discontinue “out of scope” activities and/or focus on safety, not social justice issues. In other words, cut claims costs and lower employer assessments by whatever means possible.3
These employer concerns about the health of the Accident Fund are again code for curtailing compensation entitlements and benefits for injured workers.
Of course, alarm about the Accident Fund is a hard sell when the WCB itself says that the Fund is in a financially strong position and that BC compares well with other Canadian WC Boards. Or when the CFIB calculates that the surplus is so large that employers should get a refund. But this group of large employers is laser focused on cutting claims costs. And this should concern all workers. So what does this provincial election mean for injured workers? Rolf Harrison, the Workers’ Advocate for the BC Building Trades, gave us a picture in his article for TradeTalk Fall 2024, set out below:
Election Results Could Impact WCB Benefits
By Rolf Harrison, Workers’ Advocate, B.C. Building Trades
A member recently called me with good news about his claim. The WCB had agreed to pay
him loss of earnings benefits and extend them to age 70. The only catch was that it would take
them several months to complete their calculations and start payments. He wanted to know how to speed things up, but then asked a question that caught me a bit off guard: “What if, between now and then, there’s a change of government?”
“That seems unlikely,” I replied.
“Yes, but what if,” he asked again. He had been reading up on what’s happened to the
compensation system over the years and was worried it might affect his benefits.
I stopped and thought about his situation before answering: “That is a very good question.”
The sad reality is he is right to be worried. If either of the right-wing parties, BC Conservatives
or BC United, were to win a majority, it’s foreseeable that they would amend the Workers’
Compensation Act and make it extremely difficult for a worker like him to receive loss of
earnings benefits or to receive any compensation after age 65. For him, it would be a race to see if the WCB can issue its decision before the new legislation comes into effect.
Taking benefits away from injured workers is the bread and butter of right wing governments.
It is exactly what the BC Liberals, whose members now make up BC United and the BC
Conservatives, did to injured workers when they came into power in 2001. They gutted the
compensation system so that employers no longer had to pay the real cost of doing business.
They cut benefit levels for injured workers, slashed vocational rehabilitation benefits, blocked
- Article by Joseph Ruttle, Vancouver Sun, August 29, 2024. ↩︎
- Article by Peter Caulfield, Employers Worry WorkSafeBC Accident Fund is Running Low, Journal of Commerce, September 10, 2024. ↩︎
- In the WCB system, each individual employer is assessed at a rate, based not only on their work category but also on their individual “Experience Rating” (ER). Each employer has an ER calculated from the annual claim costs from their injured workers. Under the ER system, each individual employer has a direct financial interest in reducing or avoiding individual compensation claims. ↩︎