The following is something I've been holding back for a while. I want to publish it on a larger scale than just my blog, but I'm waiting for a response from the case worker at the Worker's Compensation Board of Manitoba. I'm giving her a chance to plead her case with me before I publish it.
The Worker’s Compensation Board was created to help workers financially when they get injured on the job. It is for insurance. A novel idea when implemented correctly and honestly, but the reality is different from the idea. The Worker’s Compensation Board works just like any other insurance company: They don’t like to pay out. They pay only when their conditions are met. And since they have the monopoly in ‘protecting’ workers, they dictate the conditions. Most of them are impossible to meet.
To pay out money means, of course, getting it first. So they force companies to register and pay the WCB a certain percentage of the wages the company pays to its employees. Companies have no choice. They must register or face fines. That’s how governments work. The WCB makes the rules, sets the percentage, and collects the money. Naturally, they need people to do this work. And, as every one knows, government employees get paid high wages and have plenty of benefits. This money comes out of the coffer that is meant for the payment of injured workers.
Now here is my case and my beef: I’m a retired Electrician. For most of my career I ran my own business as an Electrical Contractor, but before that I worked for a couple of different Electrical Contractors. Both are out of business now, the owners are dead, which is one of the problems. A very convenient problem actually for the WCB. I was a registered apprentice for three years with the first company and 2 years with the second. Construction sites are noisy at the best of times. Electric saws, drills, compressors, generators and heavy machinery. They all produce noise that can be detrimental to a person’s hearing. I worked at different jobs, some residential buildings and some commercial buildings. In those days (1960s) apprentices were cheap labour and we worked hard. I spent sometimes days with an electric hammer smashing concrete. Every house needed an electric service, which meant drilling a hole through the concrete wall. That needed to be done sometimes every day. The houses were small and we had to wire one house a day. We didn’t have electric hammers with a diamond bit. The bits we used were hardened steel and we had to turn the bit by hand. It took sometimes an hour to drill through a wall. Plenty of noise to damage a worker’s hearing. Nobody told us about ear protection. To make a long story short, I did damage my hearing, and over the years it became worse.
Now my hearing has reached a point where I need a hearing aid. Since I was 'covered' with the WCB, I applied for financial aid with them. My application was turned down for various reasons. First, I needed to prove that I actually worked for the company in question, which I did by producing a paper from the Labour board stating that I was an apprentice with the said company. That wasn’t good enough. Then they wanted proof that I worked in a noisy environment. I suggested to the case worker to visit a construction site and find out for herself about the noise.
Next I was requested to give them names of people I worked with who could testify that I worked at that company (Something I already proved with my contract). In addition, these people also needed to proof that they worked for this company.
Now, we are talking about people who are either dead or, if still alive, in their 80s. Most of the people I worked with I only knew their first name, and even those names are beginning to fade in my memory. Besides, it is not easy to prove that anyone worked at all. The government, apparently, keeps records only for about 10 years, so anyone needing a T4 Slip to prove who they worked for is out of luck. The same goes for any other government department, be it the Department of Labour or the Canada Pension Plan. Nobody seems to keep any records. Apparently. Most people throw away their own records, especially if they are not in the workforce anymore. All these facts must be known to the case workers of the WCB. If they don’t they can’t be very competent, and that is something I will not suggest. They are quite competent...in denying claims. That's what they've been trained for. As far as I’m concerned they are not the friend of injured workers but an adversary. I'm going as far as saying they already know from the start which claim they will accept and which one they'll deny. So why do they play these games with us if they already know from the beginning that none of the conditions can be met? Why make us jump through loops. I wasted a lot of time searching for the documents I was supposed to produce in order for my claim to be accepted. It was all for nothing. And that makes me angry.
What good is an insurance if you can’t collect when you need it? The WCB took my hard earned money. The WCB uses strong-arm tactics and intimidation to get companies to register. Anyone building a house must report to them all the contractors and sub-contractors, so the WCB can check up if they are registered and in good standing. If they are not registered or haven’t paid their dues, the WCB will tell the builder not to pay the trades. The WCB will deny this vehemently, but it is true. I can testify to that, so can other trades people I talked to. Trades people still in the workforce won't report this because of the intimidation tactics of the WCB, but I'm retired and won't be intimidated.
One of the General Contractors I worked for as a sub-contractor was audited by the WCB. There were a few sub-contractors who were not registered. I was one of them. So they forced the General Contractors to pay the dues plus a fine. They also told him not to pay us trades until we were in good standing with the WCB. For years sub-contractors, if they didn’t employ anyone, were not required to take out coverage for themselves with the WCB, but that was suddenly changed one year. The WCB has the power to make up rules like that whenever they feel like it. When I told the employee from the WCB that I had private insurance, I was told that it didn’t count. I was required to be registered with them. And yet, in one of their brochures it stated if anyone was collecting money from somewhere else after an injury the WCB would not pay out anything. Also, if they did pay out some money and if the claimant went back to work, the claimant had to pay back all the money paid to them by the WCB. That to me sounded like a scam. I brought this up with the Director of the WCB at the time, and he said to me, “Well, we know the system isn’t perfect, but we listen to you boys out there.” Incidentally, they did change that rule the next year.
When I told the Director that I was not happy about being forced to register and that it wasn’t right to charge the General Contractor a fine and force him to pay the dues for us, he said that had I been injured I would have been covered. I said, “I did injure my back and had to spend money with a chiropractor to get it fixed,” he told me to put in my claim and it would be looked at and taken care of. Well, I put in my claim. It was turned down.
While I was in the 'protection' of the WCB I had an accident on the job where I hit my head so hard that from that day on I’ve suffered from ringing in my ears. I went to see my doctor, but I never reported it or put in a claim. I knew it would be useless because there were no witnesses, and, according to their rules, an injured person’s word isn’t good enough. There need to be witnesses to the accident. How convenient! Accidents don’t always happen in the presence of others. At another occasion I fell from my ladder and injured my back. Now I am in constant pain, even painkillers don’t work. I’ve spent hundreds if not thousands of dollars going for therapy and to chiropractors with little results, because of the damage to my spine. I didn’t report this accident either, even though I was paying into the WCB, because I knew it would be a useless exercise. There was only one tradesman present when it happened, but he didn’t see it happen. He only helped my get to my feet after he heard the clatter and saw me lying on the floor. I would not have been able to meet the WCB’s requirements.
Mine is not the only case. I’ve talked to many other trades people who had their cases dismissed. Some injured workers don’t even report their accidents, especially self-employed tradesmen like me. I am retired now. I would have liked to work longer, but I had to quit because of my injured back. There is something wrong with a system that forces you to pay, promising protection, but refuses to keep the promise. It is time for a shakeup and an investigation into such practices. And perhaps a bit more transparency where the money they collect goes and how many cases they accept and how many they refuse, and on what grounds.
To briefly come back to my private insurance. I had a hernia operation. My insurance company paid me for 6 weeks, which is the allotted time for such an operation. I didn’t have to prove when I got my hernia or how I got it. I didn’t have to provide any witnesses, either. Just the fact that I had a hernia and needed an operation was good enough. By the way, I was covered 24/7, unlike with the WCB that covers only work-related accidents. In addition, it cost me far less to be covered than what I had to pay the Compensation Board.
I will be appealing my case regarding financial assistance with a hearing aid, but I’m not holding my breath. The review board has to follow the WCB’s guidelines. In other words a snowball has a better chance to survive in a hot oven than I have in getting my claim approved. They’ll just be going through the motions. It is impossible to meet the criteria imposed by an organization that doesn’t have to worry about losing customers, because the WCB has no competition and the case workers have been given the power to be judge, jury and executioner of any claim put in front of them. It is all designed to pay out as little as possible.
There was a time when a man’s word was good enough. Not anymore. These are certainly sad times.
My advice to any worker: If you are secure in the knowledge that you are protected by the WCB should you have a mishap at work, think again. They’ll make you jump through so many hoops and demand you meet impossible requirements that you finally will give up wasting your time. Arrange for more secure vehicles to deal with any tragedy you may suffer.
Disclaimer: Everything I wrote here is from my own experience with the WCB and I testify that it is true. It is the way I see it. Any assumption I made is just that. I cannot speak for other people and their experiences.
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