Amend B.C. Workers Compensation Act: review

A review of services offered to injured workers in British Columbia makes more than 100 recommendations to improve communication, care and individual services at the Workers' Compensation Board.

Labour Minister Harry Bains released a report Wednesday by retired labour lawyer Janet Patterson, who was commissioned by the government to review the workers' compensation system and make recommendations for improvements.

Patterson's 517-page review calls for an organizational shift to a worker-centric delivery system that treats all injured workers with dignity.

Her report, New Directions: Report of the Workers' Compensation Board Review, 2019, calls on the government to amend the Workers Compensation Act to make a cultural shift back to supporting all injured workers as an organizational goal.

Bains says Patterson consulted widely and heard from more than 2,000 people and organizations.

He says the government is making the report public while it considers Patterson's recommendations.

"There are over 100 recommendations, of which about 60 are for operational and process changes within WorkSafeBC," Bains says in a news release. "It contains substantial information and recommendations that will take some significant time to carefully review."

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