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Alberta workers seriously injured on the job in the past two years stayed home longer afterwards due to a soft economy with fewer opportunities for "modified work," the Workers' Compensation Board said Thursday.

"Opportunities present themselves when the economy is good. When it is not, we need to find them," said Guy Kerr, president and CEO of Alberta's WCB, speaking at the board's annual general meeting in Calgary on Thursday.

The modified work program allows employees to return to the workplace and take on a less-rigorous task even while they recover from an on-the-job injury. The WCB says modified work boosts morale, while also decreasing a worker's time off and reducing the costs associated with each claim.

According to the WCB's 2010 annual report, the drop in modified work started in 2009 and continued into last year.

The WCB measured this by the increase in the average time it takes for an injured worker to return to a job.

For employees injured seriously enough to have to take time off work, the average number of days absent was 32.1 in 2008. By 2010, that number had jumped to 36.1.

Overall, Kerr characterized the board as functioning smoothly.

He said the province has a "stable, affordable and effective" workers' compensation system, and client surveys show that 85 per cent of employers and more than 78 per cent of workers are satisfied with WCB services.

However, a number of workers and their advocates at the meeting expressed concern about the modified work program, and listed a number of other WCB grievances.

Gil McGowan, president of the Alberta Federation of Labour, held a press conference prior to the meeting to highlight the role the board played in the illegal release of one worker's medical information -as ruled on by Alberta's privacy commissioner this week. "This kind of slapdash approach to medical privacy is simply not acceptable," said McGowan.

McGowan also said the WCB sometimes pushes workers back to work too quickly, before they're ready -largely through the modified work program.

"We think this is an organization that puts a priority on reducing premiums for employers," McGowan said.

Richard Truscott, Alberta director of the Canadian Federation for Independent Business, said he wishes there was time allowed for more than just a few questions during the meeting. For instance, he wanted to ask about increasing average insurance rates paid by employers.

"Maybe they need to have an annual general meeting, but also have a series of stakeholder meetings."

Truscott added it's likely opportunities for modified work will improve this year and next as the province's economy revs up.

Although the Alberta WCB is a government-created entity, it is not a provincial department or crown corporation, but an employer-funded insurance body.

The board is meant to provide workers or their families with predictable, dependable benefits in the event of injury or death.

The trade-off is in most cases workers are unable to sue their employers.

Calgary mechanic Peter Harvey, also at the meeting, said he was injured while working on a truck in November 2005. "I wrenched my shoulder," Harvey said.

He wanted to talk to the board Thursday about his case because he believes he hasn't been treated fairly, and the WCB hasn't recognized that he will never be able to do physical work again. Harvey is still getting some benefits, but said he is now "close to bankruptcy."

He has now hired a consultant to help him.

"It is life, but what workers comp does is makes it worse," Harvey said.

Calgary Herald, Fri Jun 17 2011
Byline: Kelly Cryderman

The Alberta Workers' Compensation Board is failing in its duty towards injured employees and only a full investigation and overhaul can fix the problems, says the Alberta Federation of Labour (AFL).

"A ruling this week by the privacy commissioner that the personal medical information of a claimant was illegally released underscores bigger problems at the WCB," says Gil McGowan, president of the AFL, which represents 145,000 workers.

"Today, as the WCB holds its annual meeting, I am calling on Employment and Immigration Minister Thomas Lukaszuk to launch a probe into the way the WCB operates, the way it handles privacy issues and the way it treats injured workers," says McGowan.

Gail Cumming, an Edmonton WCB expert and CEO with Cumming Consulting, says the Alberta WCB has a history of complaints about personal and medical privacy being violated, created by a lack of leadership and staff resources.

"The root of the problem is the WCB's focus on rushing injured workers back to the workplace, in order to keep employer premiums down, rather than on caring for people who have been hurt," says Cumming.

McGowan says there must be serious consequences to the illegal privacy violation.

"This matter must not be swept under the rug, or shelved and forgotten. If a doctor or a nurse illegally released patient information, they would face serious consequences from their professional organizations," says McGowan.

"For a long time, the WCB has been putting the needs of employers, and the desire to hide Alberta's true workplace safety records, ahead of the interests of injured workers. This ruling by the privacy commissioner gives Lukaszuk the perfect opportunity to fix things," says McGowan.

"Responding to a question on the WCB, the minister recently told the Alberta Legislature: 'We have the ability to respond to issues as they arise.' Well, the privacy commissioner has clearly pointed out an issue that has arisen. The minister must respond now, or explain why he won't."

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MEDIA CONTACT: Gil McGowan, AFL president, 780-218-9888

Alberta's Workers' Compensation Board (WCB) is the only board in Canada that pays bonuses to staff as an incentive to trim their caseloads, according to the Alberta Federation of Labour (AFL), which wants the "immoral" practice stopped.

The AFL is also critical of the rates the WCB collects, pointing out that it collects the lowest premiums in the country from employers in dangerous industries.

According to the AFL, employers in the province's oil and natural gas exploration pay 55 cents per $100 of payroll in WCB premiums. Companies in the rest of Canada pay four times as much at $2 per $100 of payroll. Industrial construction companies in Alberta pay $2.04 per $100 of payroll. In the rest of Canada, construction companies pay $4.30 per $100 of payroll.

"The Alberta WCB's low premium rates and its immoral bonus system for case managers are two sides of the same coin," said AFL president Gil McGowan. "After years of putting a priority on premium reduction, the Alberta WCB simply doesn't have the funds to fulfill its mandate of supporting and rehabilitating injured workers. Sadly, instead of increasing premium rates, the board has focused on finding new ways to deny claims and otherwise reduce pay-outs. This perverse and despicable bonus system is the pinnacle of this process."

The AFL's comments came in the wake of revelations by Alberta's Liberal Party that the WCB paid $8 million in bonuses to its 1,500 employees in 2009 for meeting corporate goals, including getting injured workers back on the job and off benefits. (That amounts to an average of $5,600 per worker, and the program - called "goal sharing" - has been in place since 1999, according to the WCB.)

Hugh MacDonald, the Liberal employment critic, said it was "unfair" and distorts the objectivity of the WCB.

WCB spokeswoman Jennifer Dagsvik told the Calgary Herald there is nothing wrong with the bonuses because all decisions about when a worker is fit to return to work are based on medical advice.

"We wouldn't send someone back to work just to make a bonus," Dagsvik said. "If we weren't doing it well, it would come back on us. And it isn't. We have audits that are done and people are staying successfully at work . . . and when I say successful, I mean a healthy return to work."

A survey of other provinces conducted by the AFL revealed that no other Canadian WCBs give bonuses to their case managers for closing files or meeting "quotas."

The closest that any province came was Newfoundland and Labrador which, a few years ago, tried to introduce a job description for its WCB case managers stating that one of their priorities would be to consider the "financial viability" of the board when making their decisions, according to the AFL.

That clause in the job description was eventually eliminated after the union representing WCB workers raised strenuous objections on the grounds that it would make it difficult for their members to carry out their core responsibility - which is to provide benefits and support to injured workers based on the best medical advice, not on financial objectives or targets set by management.

"It's perhaps not surprising that Alberta is the only province that has this kind of perverse bonus system. We're also the only province where WCB employees are not represented by a union," said McGowan. "No union would ever have allowed this kind of system to be imposed. It puts WCB staff members in a horrible conflict-of-interest position."

McGowan said that the bonus system in Alberta literally adds insult to injury for injured workers.

Alberta has a higher workplace fatality rate than the rest of Canada (5.9 per 100,000 workers compared with 4.2 per 100,000 workers in the rest of Canada), said McGowan, and there are more people working in dangerous occupations than other provinces (22 per cent of Albertans work in the four most dangerous industries versus about 15 per cent in other provinces).

"Given these realities, the Alberta WCB should be collecting more premiums and paying out more for benefits and rehabilitation than other provinces. The fact that they don't - and instead are constantly focused on premium reductions for employers - shows that the Alberta WCB's priorities are seriously confused," he said.

Canadian Safety Reporter, Sat July 28 2010

Alberta is the only province where Workers' Compensation Board staff get bonuses for swiftly getting injured workers off benefits and back to work -- and must discontinue these "immoral" incentives, according to the Alberta Federation of Labour.

Liberal critic Hugh Mac-Donald revealed last week that Alberta's WCB uses bonuses to reward staff when the entire organization meets certain targets, which this year included a focus on helping return the injured to work and drafting clearly written decision letters to workers and their families.

The AFL has been in contact with its counterparts across Canada and said Alberta is alone in using such bonuses on staff who evaluate workers' compensation claims.

"The use of financial incentives to encourage WCB case managers to disallow claims or move injured workers back to work when they may not be ready for it is not only a built-in conflict of interest, we go so far to say it is an immoral abuse of the workers' compensation system," said Gil McGowan, president of the AFL.

The only other province that has come close to establishing a similar policy in the past was Newfoundland, which tried to introduce a job description for its WCB case managers making the "financial viability" of the board a priority in making decisions on individual cases, said McGowan.

While she could not comment on whether WCBs in other provinces use bonus systems, board spokeswoman Jennifer Dagsvik said Alberta's focus on helping injured workers get back to work -- even in a modified role -- is also meant to aid in a healthy recovery.

The longer an injured worker is off the job, the less likely they are to ever return to work, Dagsvik wrote in an e-mail interview.

"We care about our clients and believe our focus on helping workers integrate back into the job is the right one, and the statistics clearly indicate our current system works," she said.

The labour federation is also concerned about premium levels the WCB charges employers, which are lower than all other provinces.

According to the WCB web-site, employers are charged an average of $1.32 per every $100 of insurable earnings. By comparison, there's a $1.56 employer premium in British Columbia, $1.63 in Saskatchewan and $1.60 in Manitoba.

"What it says to us is that the people running Alberta's Workers' Compensation Board have their priorities seriously confused. It suggests they are more interested in keeping premiums low for employers than they are about providing support and rehabilitation for Alberta workers who have been injured on the job," McGowan said.

The Workers' Compensation Act requires the WCB to collect enough employer premiums to ensure it can cover all claim costs, both current and in the future, and the WCB must charge the premiums needed to do so, Dagsvik said.

"Our lower premium rates are reflective of good employer and worker claims performance. Even though the actual cost per claim goes up each year, and the average length of total disability has increased to just over a month (35 days away from work), the volume of claims has gone down," said Dagsvik.

While MacDonald continues to lobby against WCB staff bonuses, the Liberal labour critic disagrees with the labour federation that WCB premiums charged to employers are too low.

Alberta's premiums are the lowest in Canada, but having competitive WCB payroll rates is an economic incentive, Mac-Donald said.

Calgary Herald, Sun July 25 2010
Byline: Sarah McGinnis

CALGARY - Alberta is the only province where Workers Compensation Board staff get bonuses for swiftly getting injured workers off benefits and back to work - and must discontinue these "immoral" incentives, according to the Alberta Federation of Labour.

It was revealed last week that Alberta's WCB uses bonuses to reward staff who help return the injured to work.

The AFL said Alberta is alone in using such bonuses.

"The use of financial incentives to encourage WCB case managers to disallow claims or move injured workers back to work when they may not be ready for it is not only a built-in conflict of interest, we go so far to say it is an immoral abuse of the workers' compensation system," said Gil McGowan, president of the AFL.

Board spokeswoman Jennifer Dagsvik said Alberta's focus on helping injured workers get back to work is also meant to aid in a healthy recovery. The longer an injured worker is off the job the less likely they are to ever return to work, she said.

Canada.com, Sun July 25 2010

New research from the Alberta Federation of Labour shows that Alberta's Workers' Compensation Board (WCB) is the only board in Canada that follows the "immoral" practice of paying bonuses to staff as an incentive to trim their caseloads.

The Alberta WCB also collects the lowest premiums in Canada from employers in dangerous industries, says the AFL.

For example, employers in Alberta's oil and natural gas exploration sector pay only 55ﾢ/$100 payroll in WCB premiums. Companies in the rest of Canada pay four times as much, at $2/$100 payroll.

Industrial construction companies in Alberta pay just $2.04/$100 payroll. In the rest of Canada, such companies pay more than double that, at $4.30/$100 payroll.

"The Alberta WCB's low premium rates and its immoral bonus system for case managers are two sides of the same coin," says AFL president Gil McGowan.

"After years of putting a priority on premium reduction, the Alberta WCB simply doesn't have the funds to fulfill its mandate of supporting and rehabilitating injured workers. Sadly, instead of increasing premium rates, the board has focused on finding new ways to deny claims and otherwise reduce pay-outs. This perverse and despicable bonus system is the pinnacle of this process."

McGowan's comments came in response to recent revelations that the Alberta WCB has been paying bonuses - averaging $5,600 a year - to staff members who help the board meet its "corporate goal" of premium reduction.

A survey of other provinces conducted by the AFL revealed that no other Canadian WCBs give bonuses to their case managers for closing files or meeting "quotas."

The closest that any province came was Newfoundland which, a few years ago, tried to introduce a job description for its WCB case managers stating that one of their priorities would be to consider the "financial viability" of the board when making their decisions.

That clause in the job description was eventually eliminated after the union representing WCB workers raised strenuous objections on the grounds that it would make it difficult for their members to carry out their core responsibility - which is to provide benefits and support to injured workers based on the best medical advice, not on financial objectives or targets set by management.

"It's perhaps not surprising that Alberta is the only province that has this kind of perverse bonus system. We're also the only province where WCB employees are not represented by a union," says McGowan. "No union would ever have allowed this kind of system to be imposed. It puts WCB staff members in a horrible conflict-of-interest position."

McGowan says that the bonus system in Alberta literally adds insult to injury for injured workers.

He points out that Alberta has a much higher workplace fatality rate than the rest of Canada (5.9 per 100,000 workers compared with 4.2 per 100,000 workers in the rest of Canada) and that we have many more people working in dangerous occupations than other provinces (22 per cent of Albertans work in the four most dangerous industries versus about 15 per cent in other provinces).

"Given these realities, the Alberta WCB should be collecting more premiums and paying out more for benefits and rehabilitation than other provinces. The fact that they don't - and instead are constantly focused on premium reductions for employers - shows that the Alberta WCB's priorities are seriously confused."

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Media Contact:

Gil McGowan, President, Alberta Federation of Labour (780) 218-9888

Alberta's booming economy, huge influx of workers and lack of safety training on some job sites are causing more workplace accidents among young employees, and too often costing them their lives, say labour advocates.

The Association of Workers' Compensation Boards of Canada states young workers are the most accident-prone in the country, with more than 50,700 workers under the age of 24 losing time from work after being injured in 2006.

Young people, who make up 17 per cent of Alberta's workforce, accounted for almost one-quarter of disabled injury claims in 2006, and those under 25 are 33 per cent more likely to be injured on the job than older workers.

The most recent stats show 51 workplace deaths among young workers across the country.

Most recently, on June 7, Rona employee Mitchell Tanner, 16, was killed after a forklift he was riding on flipped over and crushed him at a location near Edmonton.

Alberta Federation of Labour president Gil McGowan said that incident was unfortunately not isolated, as young people are more accident-prone on the job because of their inexperience and a lack of health and safety training provided to them.

"It's not a surprise, but the statistics underline the need for an aggressive commitment to health and safety training for young workers because they are the ones most likely to be injured," he said, adding the lack of training is significant in Alberta as it experiences an "unprecedented" influx of people under the age of 25.

Holly Heffernan, interim executive secretary for the Calgary and District Labour Council agreed the economic boom is partially to blame.

"They are coming on to the workforce and getting no orientation - they just give them a hammer and let them go," she said.

The Meridian Booster, Page A10, Fri July 18 2008
Byline: Katie Schneider

Human Resources and Employment Minister Mike Cardinal has subverted a longstanding agreement with the labour movement by appointing an individual with no connection to labour to the WCB Board to represent workers, says the Alberta Federation of Labour. The AFL has sent a letter to Cardinal demanding an explanation and that the appointment be suspended.

On September 13, Cabinet quietly appointed Richard Mirasty to the WCB Board of Directors to represent the interests of workers. Mr. Mirasty is a lawyer and professor in the University of Alberta's Law Faculty. The WCB Board consists of 9 members, three each representing the interests of employers, labour and the public.

"This is the first time in history, to our knowledge, that a non-labour person has been appointed to represent workers at the WCB," says AFL President Gil McGowan. "It is an unnecessary antagonism of the labour movement.

"It undermines a longstanding protocol with labour in two ways," McGowan notes. "First, we have always been consulted about labour appointments and given the opportunity to put forward nominees. Second, the appointees always have some connection with the labour movement, either as an elected officer or staff representative or other position.

"None of that happened this time. Cardinal made this appointment in secret and by ignoring the traditional process - which has worked very well over the years."

McGowan notes that his concern is not with the abilities of the individual in question. "I do not know Mr. Mirasty. He is probably a very capable person. The problem is that I - and no one else in the labour movement - has any clue who he is.

"We would have no difficulties if Mr. Mirasty was appointed to represent the interests of the public. Our concern is that he has no connection to the labour movement."

The AFL has sent a letter to Minister Cardinal demanding an explanation for his decision to subvert the traditional process. The letter also requests that Mirasty's appointment be suspended until such time as a vacancy occurs amongst public members, and that an appropriate labour representative be selected in the meantime.

"We are worried this sets a very ugly precedent," McGowan concludes. "What's next? Appointing the CEO of Wal-Mart to represent the interests of workers?"

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For More Information:
Gil McGowan, AFL President  Tel: (780) 483-3021  Cell: (780) 218-9888

This is clearly a victory for all those workers who have been unfairly denied benefits. But given the government's track record on this issue, we can't assume it's a done deal. We need to watch them like hawks and make sure they don't try to wiggle out of the commitments they've made.

The provincial government first announced a sweeping package of reforms to the Workers Compensation Board (WCB) two years ago. Establishing a tribunal to review old cases was a major part of those reforms - but the idea was shelved by Human Resources Minister Clint Dunford as a result of intense lobbying from business.

Thanks to some very effective campaigning by injured workers and unions, the tribunal is a "go" again. But even though the government has finally agreed to do what it promised to do in the first place there's every reason to worry that the business community and reluctant members of the Tory cabinet will find other ways to make the tribunal a "toothless tiger."

Let's not forget that at one point, Dunford suggested the tribunal could make decisions without offering cash awards. The idea was that injured workers would get the satisfaction of knowing they were right, but they wouldn't get any real financial compensation for their injuries.

It's those kinds of ineffective half-measures that we still have to guard against.

Appointments to the new tribunal will also be crucial - the process will be a sham if injured workers and the labour movement aren't given some say in who sits on the panel.

As AFL president Les Steel said after the government made its long-awaited announcement on the tribunal: "There are a lot of people in the business community who don't want this panel to do its job. If some of those people are appointed to the tribunal, then the whole process will be a farce. That's why we need a say in appointments."

The bottom line is that the government is still not enthusiastic about the tribunal. That's why it's too early to celebrate. Labour activists have to remain focused and vigilant until this baby is actually delivered.

Gil McGowan, AFL Executive Staff
September 2003

After nearly two years of on-again, off-again support for a major review of old WCB cases, the government has finally agreed to open the books on previously rejected claims covering thousands of injured workers.

"This is clearly a victory for all those workers who have been unfairly denied benefits," says AFL president Les Steel.

"But given the government's track record on this issue, we can't assume it's a done deal. We need to watch them like hawks and make sure they don't try to wiggle out of the commitment they've made to injured workers."

The provincial government first announced a major package of reforms to the Workers Compensation Board (WCB) two years ago. Establishing a tribunal to review old cases was a major part of those reforms - but the idea was shelved by Human Resources Minister Clint Dunford as a result of intense lobbying from business.

Even though the government has finally agreed to do what it promised to do two years ago, Steel says he's still worried that the business community and reluctant members of the Tory cabinet will find a way to make the tribunal a "toothless tiger."

"At one point, the minister suggested that the tribunal could make decisions without offering cash awards," says Steel. "The idea was that injured workers would get the satisfaction of knowing they were right, but they wouldn't get any real financial compensation for their injuries. It's those kinds of ineffective half-measures that we still have to guard against."

Steel says appointments to the new tribunal will also be crucial - and he thinks the process will be a sham if injured workers and the labour movement aren't given some say in who sits on the panel.

"There are a lot of people in the business community who don't want this panel to do its job," says Steel. "If some of those people are appointed to the tribunal, then the whole process will be a farce. That's why we want a say in appointments."


For more information call:

Les Steel, AFL President   @ 780-499-4135 (cell)

Gil McGowan AFL Communications @ 780-910-1137 (cell)