SAFETY MOMENT
The Saskatchewan Workers’ Compensation Board (WCB) recently released its 2017 injury rates. The total workplace injury rate for 2017 was 5.25 per cent, a 5.4 per cent drop from 2016. Since 2008, this represents an overall drop of 48.6 per cent (2008 total injury rate 10.21). The total number of reported claims in 2017 was 28,952, a decrease of 1,001 from 2016 or 3.34 per cent.
In 2017, for the second year in a row, 88 per cent of Saskatchewan employers had zero injuries.
“Because of injury prevention from our Saskatchewan workers, employers and safety partners, our provincial injury rates have been considerably reduced,” said WCB CEO Peter Federko. “We launched Mission: Zero in 2008. Since then, our province’s workers, employers and members of the public have answered by making Saskatchewan workplaces safer.”
Despite the total injury rate drop, the time loss injury rate remained the same at 1.86 per cent in 2017. Time loss claims increased from 7,813 in 2016 to 7,888 in 2017.
“Since the 2017 time loss injury rate did not keep decreasing like it has for the past 14 years, this may be a sign that we must keep working together to be effective in recognizing and preventing every workplace hazard. We cannot become satisfied with where we are now,” said Federko.
WorkSafe Saskatchewan, which is the WCB’s partnership with the Ministry of Labour Relations and Workplace Safety (LRWS), focuses on an integrated provincial injury prevention strategy.
Sask. WCB hosts rate model industry information sessions
The WCB recently hosted seven rate model industry education sessions for employers in 14 industry rate codes to learn more about how the WCB’s enhanced rate model impacts the industry.
The premiums employers pay fund a no-fault system that protects workers and employers from financial loss due to workplace injuries. The WCB sets industry premium rates annually to ensure today’s employers pay the costs of today’s claims. The WCB uses a rate model to determine the rates all employers pay. In 2017, the WCB enhanced its rate model based on recommendations from an external actuary’s (Eckler) review in 2016. The enhanced rate model was implemented January 1, 2018.
To mitigate the impact for the 14 industries seeing increases as a result of the transition to the enhanced rate model in 2018, the WCB drew from the Injury Fund to cover the costs associated with the transition. Starting in 2019, all industry premium rates will be as determined using the enhanced model. These changes will impact the premiums employers pay.
The sessions provided an opportunity for employers in these 14 rate codes to become educated on how the transition to the enhanced rate model will impact the premiums they pay in the future. Webinars were available for all sessions. Recordings for each session are posted on the WCB’s website at www.wcbsask.com and on the WCB’s YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/ channel/UCkf1lQhS90NnJxx4AFFuKyQ.
For more information, please visit: http://www.wcbsask.com/ wcbs-2016-rate-model-review-recommendations/