Workers Advocate’s Message By Merrill O’Donnell Workers Advocate Injury claim suppression and under-claming in the WCB system
UNDER-CLAIMING
THAT BUILDING and construction contractors and subcontractors apply undue pressure on working men and women not to file a claim with the British Columbia Workers’ Compensation Board (WCB) when they get injured is a well-known fact. What is not known, however, is how
Setting the threshold at reporting a loss of two or more days of working time, the researchers found that 53.7 per cent did not submit a claim to WCB and 26.7 per cent reported that they received wage continuation from their employer or their workplace sick leave plan. Not surprisingly, under-claiming was more common among immigrant workers, those with a lower educational attainment, workers not attached to a union, those employed with smaller employers, and temporary workers. Gender and age made no difference. Table 1 provides a snapshot of the reasons given for not applying for WCB wage loss benefits by those who lost two or more days of working time. Interestingly, claim suppression was not the leading reason for under-claiming. The most important reasons given were lack of knowledge about entitlement or how to apply for WCB benefits (40.1 per cent) and believing that it was not worth the time to apply for benefits (35.9 per cent). Pressure not to claim, which included pressure from workmates, was reported to be 14.3 per cent.
prevalent this practice is in British Columbia. To answer this question, the Institute for Work & Health and Prism Economics and Analysis recently conducted a study on claim suppression for B.C.’s WCB. This project came to fruition as a result of the good work of Paul Petrie, who in his 2018 report Restoring the Balance noted that “the issue of claim suppression is fraught with allegations that are difficult to document” and recommended “that the Board of Directors consider initiating an independent review of this issue by a qualified organization with a scientific methodology to determine whether and to what extent claims suppression is a significant issue in the BC workers’ compensation system.” Funded by WCB, this research has now concluded and the report was issued in December 2020. To enable the reader to understand the findings of the report, two terms need defining: namely under-claiming and claim suppression. Under-claiming occurs when workers who appear to be entitled to workers’ compensation benefits choose not to submit a claim or having submitted a claim, choose not to proceed with it. While under-claiming may result from improper pressure or inducement by the employer, it may simply be from not knowing how to submit a claim or preferring to rely on a sick leave plan. In contrast, claim suppression is any overt or subtle action by an employer or its agents to discourage a worker from filing a work-related injury or disease claim or from claiming benefits to which he or she is entitled under the Workers’ Compensation Act. Raising the red flag of caution, the researchers note early in their report that “it is not possible through either survey evidence or claim file evidence to form a definitive conclusion on the incidence of under-claiming or claim suppression.”
CLAIM SUPPRESSION
The report used different indicators to estimate the incidence of claim suppression. The estimates ranged from 3.7 to 13.0 per cent of the sample, and the estimates towards the lower end were deemed to be more valid by the researchers. In the lower end of 3.7 per cent of the sample, workers said they did not apply for WCB benefits because they thought they would “get into trouble” or their employer “pressured” them not to apply. Among all cases (regardless of whether the worker filed a claim), 13.0 per cent of the sample reported that their employer asked them not to report time loss and/ or threatened them with making life difficult for them if they proceeded. As every building and construction worker is aware, employer bonus plans that reward a group of workers for being accident-free incentivizes workers to discourage their brothers and sisters from filing a claim with WCB when injured. These bonus plans serve the interests of capital far more than they benefit individual workers. In this context (and in many others!), workers should value their social union rights instead of their individual gain. Not surprisingly, 40.7 per cent of the employers who were found to engage in claim suppression had incentive bonus schemes. In contrast, only 6.4 per cent of the employers who did not engage in claim suppression
18 | tradetalk Fall 2021
Made with FlippingBook - Online Brochure Maker