Just as Albertans are facing emotional and economic hardships due to a global pandemic, Jason Kenney and the UCP are inflicting even more hardship with changes to the Workers’ Compensation Act.
The UCP is targeting millions of WCB-covered Albertans — private or public sector, unionized or not, full or part-time — with these injurious changes. Only the UCP’s corporate donors and lobbyists will benefit, allowing company bosses to eliminate health benefits to injured workers and their families, letting bosses refuse to reinstate injured workers and cutting the time to appeal a WCB decision in half.
Using its hypocritical Ensuring Safety and Cutting Red Tape Act, the UCP’s drastic and harmful changes to the Workers’ Compensation Act will steal half a billion dollars ($504 million) from the fund whose sole purpose is to help injured Alberta workers. Any workers who become sick or injured while on the job will find it more difficult to file successful claims, appeal unsuccessful ones, and get their payments and benefits while they are unable to work. These changes will increase red tape for workers while decreasing their health and safety and embolden corporations and other employers to mistreat workers injured or sickened while working.
The changes in the Workers’ Compensation Act include:
- Removing benefit of doubt that when all being equal, the decision favours workers.
- Letting companies and bosses cut health benefits to injured workers and their entire families.
- Eliminating the Fair Practices Office where workers could file complaints about their interactions or implementation with WCB staff.
- Reinstating the maximum insurable earnings cap.
- Limiting coverage for psychological injuries.
- Cutting the WCB decision appeal deadline by one year.
- Denying wage replacement in cases where the employer has fired workers.
- Allowing companies to refuse to reinstate injured workers. While workers can apply for reinstatement through the Human Rights Commission, that process can take years.
- Removing case conferencing options to resolve medical disputes.
Many of these changes come into effect by January 1, 2021, while others will be effective on April 1, 2021.
Fight Back
Take a stand against these cuts to injured workers and drastic changes to the Workers’ Compensation Act by:
- Sharing this update with your fellow workers, and your fellow Albertans and talk about what actions you can take.
- Using this link to voice concerns about WCB policy changes. https://www.wcb.ab.ca/about-wcb/whats-new/ . For some, you may get a Page Not Found note but on the left part of page you'll be able to click on the Legislative Changes tab.
- Emailing Jane Sustrik (UNA) and Mike Boyle (HSAA), the worker representatives on the WCB Board of Directors. To contact these and other WCB board members, email Leslie Henkel, Board of Directors Secretariat, Leslie.henkel@wcb.ab.ca, and in the subject line include name of the worker representatives plus the words: Personal and Confidential.
- You can also send a letter to the same WCB board members to:
WCB
PO Box 2415
Edmonton AB T5J 2S5