Most companies see workers’ compensation as an unavoidable cost of doing business in Canada. If you’ve got employees, you have to make sure they’re looked after if they get injured. Still, it’s not an easy pill to swallow when the bill comes in, and you realize that for every $100,000 in salary, you’re paying anywhere from $3100 to $7810 extra for disability insurance.

As noble a concept as WCB is, some companies, like TEKS Loss Management of Abbotsford, B.C., say the system is excruciatingly costly and prone to mismanagement. “The costs companies face in some industries is out of control,” says TEKS president Ted Shipley. “Clearly, there has to be an agenda set within a company to administer and maintain the claims costs themselves.” Far from considering WCB a fixed cost borne equally by all companies in a given industry, Shipley says there are ways to minimize the hit you take each year.

“Once you understand how the system works, you can play against it,” he says. “Once you determine how people can solve their own problems and reduce their own costs, they go through three phases: enlightened, infuriated that they’ve been missing out, and, finally, delighted that they don’t have to continue over-paying.”

1. PREVENT ACCIDENTS

The first step-from both a humanitarian and a business perspective-is to identify where and how injuries occur, establish a comprehensive policy to prevent them, and then discipline employees who don’t follow it.

“Rates are established by the accidents that occur within the industries we serve,” explains Cal Anstey, director of the transportation sector at the Ontario Workplace Safety and Insurance Board. “If there are no accidents, there are no premiums. It’s as fundamental as that.”

Administration is the hard part of the WCB premium. The soft part is the number of accidents reported in the industry, which can fluctuate dramatically from year to year. A good year in a given industry means WCB coverage is a little less expensive the next year. For example, Ontario has reduced the cost of insurance for the trucking industry by 6% for two years in a row, from $5.99 in 1999 to $5.21 in 2001.

Danger-proofing a worksite doesn’t have to be expensive, says Anstey.

“So much of it is just people walking the talk,” he says. “If a company has a policy where employees must wear safety shoes, but doesn’t enforce it, it’s basically inviting an injury. The same thing with gloves or safety glasses or hard hats.”

Anstey says once a company determines the nature of its most common injuries, it can find ways to prevent them. To help, workers’ compensation boards in every province and territory have statistics and databases which can profile industrial accidents in any sector-by the numbers, by the type, by the cause, and by the body part that was injured.

Accidents can also be assessed on a month-to-month, or season-to-season basis, allowing employers to identify problem areas that are likely to crop up at predictable times of the year.

2. PLUG INTO WCB INCENTIVE PROGRAMS

If your workplace is relatively safe, you may be eligible for rate reductions. Every province (but none of the territories) uses a carrot-and-stick strategy, rewarding companies that have not had a claim against them over a specified time, and penalizing others. The rebate in premium costs for companies with no injuries can be as much as 47%. The surcharge can be as much as 100% where recent injuries are frequent.

“Every company owes it to themselves to take a look at the incentive programs they are eligible for,” says Donna Freeman, manager of corporate public relations for the Association of Workers’ Compensation Boards of Canada.

3. SPEED UP THE WAIT FOR MEDICAL HELP

Delayed treatment can lead to lengthy leaves for injured workers. The cost to you can mount quickly if you don’t make sure your employee is getting the proper care-and begins recovering-as soon as possible.

Shipley’s business is to make sure injured employees are treated right away. “If somebody needs an MRI, they can wait six to seven months. We get it done today,” says Shipley. “If they need corrective surgery or discectomy as a result of that MRI, we can have it for them next week. We pay for it, of course, but the system is available. We’re not doing it in a back room.”

He says in one case, the cost to his company for an MRI and related procedures was more than $9000. It sounds like a lot of money until you consider that by not doing the MRI, it would have cost the employer $112,000 in premiums.

Steve Barnett, executive director of compensation services for the WCB of British Columbia admits that in-demand diagnostic treatments like MRIs have been slow. “We’ve been going to some private clinics to eliminate the backlogs for that kind of service,” he says. “In fact, we’ve pretty much reduced our backlog so that instead of taking us six to eight months to get an MRI or a CATScan, we’re down to one or two weeks.”

4. MINIMIZE DOWNTIME

When there is a workplace injury, create a situation where there’s no lost time involved. By having a modified work program established, a person who isn’t completely incapacitated can do something within their capability. The trick is to change their job so they’re not sitting idle. But, always, do it within their capabilities, so they don’t re-injure themselves.

“The impact on cost projections which influence rebates or surcharges, are so much lower when there is no time lost due to injury,” says Anstey. “No loss of earnings, means that doesn’t have to be compensated.”

“We encourage firms to think outside the box, even devising non-traditional work for injured workers when modifying work programs,” Shipley adds. “Look at other jobs within the organization and ask, if, for a short time, while a worker is recovering, could he or she do that.”

The alternative, he says, is accepting an extended sick-leave for that employee.

“Compensation benefits are different in every province,” he points out. “In British Columbia, they’re 75% of the wage, without tax. The incentive to return to work-and I’m not blaming the employees at all-is virtually non-existent. Why would they? They’re making more money at home. There’s no accountability. No one’s telling them what to do. Their child-care costs are reduced. They don’t have the attendant costs of going to work. Why bother?”

His company employs physicians to assess injuries, and suggest duties which allow the employee to return to work, safely in a productive capacity, even if that means a desk job.

“People definitely cure themselves faster in the workplace. The rehabilitation process is faster and if there is a specialist appointment necessary to review what the next step is, we’ll get it for them as soon as possible.”

5. DEVELOP AN INTERNAL POLICY FOR REPORTING INJURIES

Some companies don’t even know an incident has occurred until they’re contacted by WCB for their side of the story. Needless to say, they haven’t had a chance to deal with the case internally, nor have they been able to institute policies that would prevent future similar injuries.

“Make your employees very aware of your policy for reporting injuries,” says Shipley. “And that starts with understanding WCB policies.”

6. PAY ATTENTION TO PAPERWORK

Shipley says a significant number of the companies his company deals with had been paying too much in WCB premiums due to past board errors.

“It’s part of what we call our ‘housekeeping.’ A lot of companies have incorrect classifications or suffer from flawed adjudications. I mean, the board accepts 96% of claims, so the adjudication quality stinks. We have a team of people who check was everything done properly? Was the wage rate assessed properly? Was the injury caused by the workplace? Was it a compensable injury? Was it a pre-existing condition?”

He says TEKS Loss Management teaches companies how to help WCB in the adjudication process.

“We’re not adjudicators. We just provide information to the adjudicators. We get very involved in that, from the get-go, with respect to new claims,” he explains. “So when an incident occurs, we know exactly what happened. We have an accident investigation, and we determine if the employer is liable. If not, the WCB should turn the claim down. If it doesn’t, we believe there’s an argument to be made, and we’ll go through an appeal process. We’re in this for the employer.”

Every employee has the right to make a claim. In fact, a company which encourages any sort of avoidance is breaking the law. In the employer’s report of accident, if there’s any suggestion that the injury was not the company’s fault, make sure all the information is presented to WCB.

Anstey says workers’ compensation boards across Canada have taken the position that everybody has a right to go to work and come home in one piece.

“We have to take the position that every accident is preventable,” he says. “Some accidents are harder to prevent than others. But if you go back through, you’ll always find there was a way it could have been prevented. What it takes is a commitment to finding that way.”

SIDEBAR

WCB Rates Across Canada

Every province works individually to calculate the cost of insuring workers in various industries. In some provinces, the trucking industry is taken in isolation, or even broken down into sub-categories. In others, it comes under a broader category of “Transportation,” which can include everything from taxi drivers to forklift operators. Still in other provinces, trucking is considered part of a larger category of industrial activities like construction. Rates quoted here are per $100 of salary, so, for example, a driver making $50,000 a year in Newfoundland would be assessed at $7.81 per $100 of salary, or $3905 per year.

Newfoundland Workplace Health Safety and Compensation Commission, 709/778-1000 o Trucking: $7.81 Experience rating program

Workers’ Compensation Board of Prince Edward Island, 902/368-5680 o Trucking: $3.23 Experience rating program

Workplace Health, Safety & Compensation Commission of New Brunswick, 506/632-2200 o Trucking: $3.10 Experience rating program

Workers’ Compensation Board of Nova Scotia, 902/491-8999 o General freight: $5.16 o Used goods: $5.16 o Forest products: $5.16 o Bulk liquids: $3.92 o Dry bulk: $3.92 o Other: $3.92 Experience rating program

Commission de la Sante et de la Securite du Travail (Quebec), 514/906-3111 o Excessive-width vehicles: $7.80 o General transportation: $5.74 o Tankers: $4.57 o Construction vehicles: $6.17 Experience rating program

Ontario Workplace Safety and Insurance Board, 416/344-1000 o General trucking: $5.31 Experience rating program

Workers’ Compensation Board of Manitoba, 204/954-4321 o Cartage: $3.56 o Interprovincial trucking: $3.16 Experience rating program

Workers’ Compensation Board of Saskatchewan, 306/787-4370 o Trucking: $4.03 Merit rebate program

Workers’ Compensation Board of Alberta, 780/498-4000 o Trucking: $3.53 Partners In Injury Prevention program

Workers’ Compensation Board of British Columbia, 604/273-2266 o General: $5.30 o Long Haul: $6.71 o Courier: $3.17 o Construction Vehicles: $4.09 Experience rating program

Yukon Workers’ Compensation Health & Safety Board, 867/667-5645 o Short-haul trucking: $3.25 (to a maximum of $2028 per year: $62,400 salary) o Interprovincial trucking: $3.25 (to a maximum of $2028 per year: $62,400 salary) No discounts available

Workers’ Compensation Board of Northwest Territories & Nunavut, 867/920-3888 o Long haul transportation: $4 o Ground transportation: $2 No discounts available