August 15, 2014
Director of the Office of the Employer Adviser, Michael Zacks, says the new Liberal government has promised to re-introduce the legislative bills that died when the election was called.  

Of those 28 bills, two deal with changes to the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act, 1997 (WSIA). Bill 146, Stronger Workplaces for a Stronger Economy Act, 2014, among other changes, would make client employers bear the accident costs of injured temporary workers. This Bill is now tabled as Bill 18. And, Bill 128, Workplace Safety and Insurance Amendment Act (Permanent Partial Disability Supplements), 2013 is another private member’s bill that would amend section 110 of the WSIA, so that a pension, that a worker is eligible to receive under the federal Old Age Security Act, does not reduce the worker’s permanent partial disability benefits for pre-1985 and pre-1989 injuries under the pre-1997 Workers’ Compensation Act.

This bill had not been re-introduced as of July 16.

Workplace Safety and Insurance Appeals Tribunal reveals that there are 8,100 active cases, which is significantly higher than the historic case load of about 5,000. “This is because of an increase in the number of appeals coming from the WSIB, and not enough vice chairs to deal with the increased volume. The result is that it is now taking anywhere from 12 to 15 months to get a hearing date,” says Zacks.