BC Ombudsman Jay Chalke conducted an investigation into errors made by WorkSafeBC in canceling monthly injury benefit payments to a cabinetmaker who had lost the tips of some of the fingers on his left hand.
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The BC government has rejected a call from the BC Ombudsperson to allow WorkSafeBC to voluntarily make payments to an injured worker for mistakes made by the provincial safety insurance agency.
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BC Ombudsman Jay Chalke conducted an investigation into errors made by WorkSafeBC in canceling monthly injury benefit payments to a cabinetmaker who had lost the tips of some of the fingers on his left hand.
The cabinetmaker, identified only as Mr. Snider, was forced to go back to work in 2011 when his payments ended despite a damaged grip on his left hand. A week after returning to work, his hand was more seriously injured, when a thumb and three of his fingers were partially or totally cut off by a saw blade.
A review division of WorkSafeBC eventually found that the safety agency was wrong in terminating the injured worker’s benefits after the first injury.
“So it all comes down to this. A worker loses part of his hand in a terrible, painful and disabling accident that will affect his quality of life forever. And it happened because of a mistake by a public body, ”Chalke said in his 22-page report.
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“And the worker bears the loss, not the public body that was wrong, nor the government that established and preserved the legislative framework that prevents the public body from doing the right thing.”
WorkSafeBC has finally apologized to Snider for its mistakes and has made some changes to processes and paperwork to help ensure that other workers’ benefits are not canceled too soon.
However, the provincial government says it would be wrong to allow special payments to an injured worker because it is inconsistent with the no-fault basis of its workers’ compensation system. No-fault insurance was a historic compensation introduced in BC in 1917 that allows workers to be compensated for injuries without having to prove that their employer caused the injury. Employers pay premiums that are pooled to pay for workers’ injuries.
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Chalke had recommended that changes be made to provincial laws to allow WorkSafeBC to provide additional discretionary monetary compensation to workers seriously injured by the agency’s own mistakes.
Pending those new laws, Chalke had recommended that Snider be compensated, that the amount of the payment be determined by a retired judge of the BC Supreme Court, and that his legal expenses to present his case also be paid.
The province rejected all the recommendations, although British Columbia Deputy Minister of Labor Trevor Hughes said in a response attached to the Chalke report that the province is asking WorkSafeBC to “engage in a more in-depth review of the claim of Snider to see if there is anything else that can be done. to address your circumstances and take additional steps to prevent similar situations from occurring in the future. “
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When asked by Postmedia on Friday if the province was deliberating on the rejected recommendations, Labor Ministry officials did not answer the question.
“Minister (Harry) Bains is driven to make WorkSafeBC and the workers’ compensation system more worker-centered, which means, in part, ensuring timely and compassionate care for workers injured on the job,” he said. the ministry in a written statement.
It took Snider more than five years to navigate nine different appeals and obtain all the benefits to which he was entitled in March 2016, according to the ombudsman’s report.
At the end of the process, in March 2016, he only gradually increased the most basic awards to $ 1,496.60 per month for the injured cabinetmaker.
Janet Patterson, a retired employment attorney who conducted a 2019 review for the British Columbia government of the workers’ compensation system, including return-to-work practices, said she believes Chalke’s recommendations are legally defensible and that the province could implement them. .
“A financial acknowledgment from WorkSafeBC of his heinous conduct is fair, and the remedy is fair,” argued Patterson.
She said, unfortunately, there are other Sniders too.
Reference-vancouversun.com