The government introduced new measures this week designed to give companies across the province another reason to take employee safety more seriously.
Minister of Employment and Immigration Thomas Lukaszuk announced changes that will see the government pay more attention to companies that hold a certificate of recognition (COR) from the Workers’ Compensation Board (WCB).
The COR is a program that recognizes companies for setting up good safety standards and protocols. If the company hires an external auditor to review their standards and then completes a plan for review to an industry association, they are granted rebates for their WCB premiums.
The program has also become an industry standard and many contractors require subcontractors to show they have met the COR standards. All government projects also require the COR as part of the bidding process.
The changes Lukaszuk announced require reviews of companies’ CORs if they have a fatal or major accident or if an inspector issues two or more stop-work orders at one of their job sites.
Lukaszuk said the financial incentive of the WCB premiums would ensure companies do everything they can to keep that recognition.
“Just a couple of months ago the WCB did the refunds to COR holders and they refunded $70 million to the 9,000 employers.”
About 43 per cent of companies in the province are enrolled in the COR program. Lukaszuk said he believes people will buy into it more and more as the refund potential increases along with the barriers not having one will present to many bidding on contracts.
Lukaszuk said the original program required companies to be inspected only once when they first got their recognition, but these changes will see companies coming back especially if there are problems.
“What it really says is that at the time of the application, the company met the rigorous core requirements, but who is to say they continue to meet those requirements?”
The auditor-general found serious problems with the program in a report last year, noting many companies in the program had been among the worst offenders in workplace health and safety in the province.
Gil McGowan, president of the Alberta Federation of Labour, said the program has a less than perfect reputation and while the changes are good, there is a long way to go before it will be a reliable measure of safety.
“Up until now the COR program has been an unmitigated disaster and a running joke,” he said. “It is going to take the minister a long time to convince people that it should be taken seriously.
He said the reviews of COR participants who have an accident or are ordered to stop work should be public, which the government has not committed to do.
He also said the government should make the program mandatory for companies, especially among those working in more dangerous industries.
