WSIB's mixed message

When it comes to workplace safety, the Ontario government has been sending dangerously mixed messages.

"The WSIB admits a company sometimes qualifies for a rebate even if it has been held responsible for an on-the-job death. . . . Until this loophole is closed, Ontario workers have every right to question the government's claims that it takes workplace safety seriously. "

A recent investigation by Star reporters Moira Welsh and David Bruser shows the province's Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) has paid tens of millions of dollars in rebates to companies that have been prosecuted and fined by the provincial labour ministry for safety violations leading to workplace deaths and injuries.

For example, after Gordie Heffern died in 2001 from injuries he suffered in an explosion at a Sudbury nickel refinery, his employer was prosecuted by the labour ministry and fined $375,000. But a Star analysis shows that in the year after the incident and the year the fine was levied, the same company received rebates from the WSIB totalling $5 million, far exceeding the fine. Disturbingly, Heffern's case does not appear to be an isolated example.

The WSIB admits a company sometimes qualifies for a rebate even if it has been held responsible for an on-the-job death. That's because rebates are handed out if a company's overall claim costs in a given year are lower than projected. And some fatalities do not lead to expensive claims, particularly if a dead worker has no dependants.

WSIB chair Steven Mahoney acknowledges the situation "doesn't make any kind of sense." To its credit, the WSIB, which administers the province's workplace insurance system, launched a review of its "experience rating" program last month after the Star raised questions about the safety rebates. At the same time, it put a moratorium on rebates for companies found responsible for workplace deaths.

In the Legislature yesterday, Labour Minister Brad Duguid acknowledged "the experience rating system is in need of reform."

The WSIB should conduct its review and implement changes as quickly as possible to ensure it is not working at cross-purposes with the labour ministry. Until this loophole is closed, Ontario workers have every right to question the government's claims that it takes workplace safety seriously.