Injury Prevention and Workers Compensation Flashcards
What is the federal jurisdiction?
crosses provincial border, federal public servant, interprovincial transport, banking, telecomm, First Nations
10% of workforce
What is the provincial jursdiction?
provincial public servant
any job based in one province
What is a flag of convenience?
when a company is in one place but they register in a different place with less labour laws
What is an Act?
Legislation or law passed by the legislature setting out a broad framework
ex: workplace health and safety act
What is a regulation?
Rules developed by the government setting out how the broad framework operates in specific circumstances
Ex: Manitoba workplace safety and health act and regulation book
Can be changed easier without having legislation approved
What is a guideline?
specific rules about conduct around the law, usually directed at government actors
ex: when inspector can go into workplace and gives guidelines of what to examine
ex: Workplace health and safety board for the workplace health and safety act
What is the reasonability principle?
employers have obligation to provide reasonably safe workplace
Use the due diligence test
What is defined as a reasonably safe workplace?
employer must be aware of risks, communicate them to the workforce and cannot plead ignorance
Expected to take steps to prevent injuries
Employer is responsible for any issue
What is the issue with employers being responsible for workers’ injuries
Paternalistic: means employers are in charge and have power over workers
trade off is the worker cannot be responsible for incidents
What is the due diligence test?
- Forseeability
- Preventability
- Control
What is the issue with the due diligence test?
prevents injuries and death
gives employers defense against responsibility if they can prove they’ve done their due diligence
What is the internal responsibility system?
Right to know, right to participate, right to refuse unsafe work
firm governing through JHSC, most effective in unionized workplaces
Who is in charge of inspections and enforcement ?
The role of ministries of labour (or jurisdictional equivalent)
What do the ministries of labour do?
address complaints and launch inspections
Issues fines, orders, and prosecutions
What is a proactive approach?
addresses issues, prevents issues, worthwhile but underfunded
What is a reactive approach?
responding to injuries and complaints, majority of the inspections, more urgent and takes priority
What are orders and fines from the ministries of labour?
stop work orders, fines if orders are not followed to deter (from $1-5,000 depending on infraction and record)
What do ministries of labour prosecute for?
serious infractions (serious injury, death), not criminal (unless serious case due to negligence but jail time never really happens), fines of $5,000-50,000 (never issued), very rare to prosecute
What is workers compensation?
wage-loss benefits (max 90%), eased access to medical treatment and rehabilitation, ended workers right to sue, Meredith Principles
What happened before workers compensation?
assumption risk is priced into pay, common law protection: injured worker had to sue (very hard)
What are the Meredith Principles?
No fault insurance with accident fund paid by premiums
WCB is independent and sole provider of insurance (ensures identical rates)
How are employers premiums set?
per industry and dependent on employers history
What is the arises and occurs test?
did it happen at work or due to work
injuries are hard to prove if psychosocial
What is the balance of probabilities test?
51% certainty it happened at work, if terminate due to injury employer is fined, employer must prove firing is not related to the injury
What is the adjudicated system?
workers and employers have disagreements of injuries, both can appeal the decision
What is the re-employment obligation?
obligated to rehire in same or comparable position are injury or face a penalty, must be employed a year before its in effect, rehiring must last 6 months or two years from date of injury (whichever is shorter)
What are the limits of workers compensation?
inadequate wage-loss benefits, surveilling workers, large numbers of claims are rejected, experience-rating reduces cost of claims but leads to suppression
What would make inspections and enforcement more effective?
funding, more proactive, transparency in reports, worker involvement in inspection, increasing fines
