On November 21st, the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) confirmed that they will be rebating $2.5 billion, with employers receiving the lion’s share of this rebate ($2 billion). The provincial government was quick to say that this would help both workers and employers. However, this does nothing but return money to employers on the backs of injured and ill workers.
Resolving liabilities
Surplus rebates are a new WSIB practice, starting in 2021, with the implementation of the Working for Workers’ Act. The Act legislates that the WSIB can award rebates to “safe” employers when the WSIB’s fund meets a sufficiency ratio between 115% to 125%. Last year the ratio reached 122.5%.
This practice is the evolution of the Board’s longstanding concern over unfunded liability. Simply put, the Board was concerned that they lacked sufficient funds to pay for future benefits to be paid to workers. The WSIB was able to resolve this issue by 2018. The WSIB achieved this, in part, by ending/reducing claim costs. The WSIB was so effective in this practice that they have reduced employer premiums by $18.6 billion since 2017.
Reducing worker benefits at all costs
The quickest way to reduce premiums is to deny more claims to workers or implement practices that get workers back to work sooner, regardless of whether or not they can work.
This is clear from reviewing the WSIB’s 2023 annual report. On page 24, the report shows that loss of earnings (LOE) benefits awarded to workers increased from 2022. However, the report specifies that this is due to claims from previous years. The reason given for this was the indexation of past benefits. Not mentioned, however, are all the claims that injured or ill workers appealed successfully. Those appeals are only successful because the WSIB should have accepted those claims in the first place.
Reviewing this one figure, it becomes clear that there was a decrease of $5 million for workers who received LOE benefits for injuries or illness in 2023. Is this because fewer workers are getting injured or becoming ill, or because the WSIB recognizes fewer injuries/illnesses as work-related?
Incentivized denials
Anyone who has insurance knows that insurance companies increase premiums to ensure there are sufficient funds to pay claims. Instead, the WSIB flipped this idea on its head. Since the 2023 report, the WSIB now has so much money that $2 billion is being handed to employers. The direct relationship between the number of benefits awarded and premiums rates is clear. So, it should be no surprise that the incentive mechanism is presented as such: award fewer benefits so that the money can be given to the employers.
The WSIB has provided eligibility criteria to ensure that only “deserving” employers receive the rebate. These feckless criteria are intended to legitimize these handouts by insinuating that only “safe” employers deserve rebates.
Who are the “safe” employers?
The Government announced that up to 280,000 employers are eligible for a rebate. The WSIB and the government share the rhetoric that only “safe” employers will be eligible for it. Upon review of the WSIB’s website, it is clear that employers don’t have to do anything to be deemed safe; rather, they have to ensure that they don’t get convicted under the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act or Occupational Health and Safety Act or hope that no one dies on the job. Luckily, those employers convicted before 2020 might still have a chance at a rebate.
Working through the rain forest
It only takes a glance at Amazon’s health and safety record to show how the bar for eligibility is six feet deep. Criticisms by workers of Amazon’s work environment are not new. Its dreadful health and safety record is only one more reason for criticism.
Since 2019, the rate of workplace injuries and illnesses for Amazon warehouses in Ontario has increased by 45%. In 2022 alone, Amazon warehouses accounted for 1,300 injuries in Ontario.
Considering all of this, the WSIB might not determine that Amazon is a “safe” employer. The only thing that stops this determination from being made is the fact that a worker died in a London warehouse in January of this year. Yet, we cannot be certain that the WSIB attributed the worker’s death as work-related or if their death will affect the eligibility of other Amazon warehouses for the rebate.
Compensate, not rebate!
To say that there is a “surplus” is premature at best. The WSIB should use this money to improve its policies to reflect the current situation that injured and ill workers face. One example that the WSIB is not currently meeting workers’ needs is their practice regarding chronic mental stress claims.
The WSIB implemented the chronic mental stress policy so workers that are harassed/bullied are compensated for these injuries. Currently, 90% of these claims are denied. This is a result of the policy created by the WSIB that places a higher threshold for acceptance of these claims and the carte blanche given to employers to harass workers through disciplinary measures.
These are hardly the only cases that the WSIB denies. For those workers who are denied, their options are a lengthy appeal process or not receiving deserved compensation.
Yes, approximately $400 million of the total rebate will be used by the WSIB to expand healthcare partnerships with public hospitals. However, the 90% of workers whose mental stress injuries the WSIB denied will never benefit from these services.
The WSIB is incentivized to keep its funders happy. Lower premiums are one mechanism for doing this. Yet, this comes as a direct cost to workers. Incentivizing lower premiums will only result in one thing, and that is not coverage that compensates 100% of work-related injuries.
There is no surplus until there is full compensation.
Did you like this article? Help us produce more like it by donating $1, $2, or $5. Donate
