FEATURE
Loopholes in Workers’ Compensation Board
policies allow employees to file fraudulent
claims that hurt the employer financially and
their ability to bid on future projects
By Craig Slater, Martin Charlton Communications
A troubling trend has caught the attention of the Saskatchewan Heavy
Construction Association, its members and several councils in rural munic-ipalities
across the province.
Though this foulness has little to do with machinery and asphalt, it has everything to do
with fairness in Workers’ Compensation Board (WCB) claims.
Concerns among these groups have steadily grown louder over the summer due to a lack
of defined policy and protocol within the WCB. It’s something that has the potential to se-riously
impact a company’s bottom line, its safety rating and its ability to bid on projects in
the future.
“There are a lot of other groups involved with this that are saying the same thing that we
are,” said Shantel Lipp, president of SHCA. “It is something that is causing a lot of frustration
across a lot of lines.”
It’s no secret that short-term disability claims spike at the end of the construction season.
This stems from a loophole in which the WCB is lacking policies and procedures to ensure
proper processing and consistency with these claims. This results in employers spending
large sums of money fighting fraudulent injury claims.
In many cases, particularly close to the end of the construction season, employees will fail
to report an injury until just before they receive their seasonal lay-off notice. This process
handcuffs an employer to a certain extent.
By comparison, in Alberta, the Alberta WCB will not initiate payment for a claim until
the employee, employer and health care professional has submitted the information, allow-ing
for more accountability of all parties and ensuring the employee is getting the appropri-ate
medical care.
“We’re asking for an equal
opportunity. The employers
need to have a say and need to
have their concerns heard. Right
now, they don’t have that.”
– SHANTEL LIPP, PRESIDENT, SHCA
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