SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
The Workers' Safety and Compensation Commission (WSCC) has published a new handbook to help workers injured on the job file a claim.
Claims department operations administrator Michelle Saunders displays the Workers' Safety Compensation Commission's new Worker's Handbook on Friday. - Thandiwe Vela/NNSL photo |
The sleek, 20-page Worker's Handbook, released on March 21, explains the claims process in simple language, and includes information on compensation coverage, incident reporting, frequently-asked questions about the claims process, and key contacts.
"This handbook is a really good one-stop shop. (It's a) plain, clear, user-friendly concise book that will give you all the information that you need," said Michelle Saunders, claims department operations administrator.
Saunders points to a key point of the handbook: no matter the degree of injury - file a claim.
"We want injured workers as well as workers who obviously haven't been injured to know that they should file a claim when they get injured, no matter what it is.
Even if they cut their finger - it could be a deep paper cut they don't think is a big deal. If it's something that they feel needed attention, then they need to file. Maybe they don't even get medical attention, they still need to file. Any injury, we want you to file," Saunders said.
"It doesn't matter what type of injury it is, if you think it's a minor injury, if you think it's a major injury, we want you to file your claim."
Receiving a larger number of smaller claims will not necessarily cost the system more, because not all claims are compensated, said senior communications officer Kim MacEachern.
"They're all important, even though they're not all compensational," MacEachern said, also urging workers to file all incidents.
"You're still filing and having a record of that happening on file. It doesn't mean that they're all going to trigger a payment or cheque and full scope of the compensations system, but you're getting that information on file to protect yourself now and in future. So they're not costing the compensation system anything."
According to 2012 WSCC claim statistics in Yellowknife, the most claims accepted were in the public administration and defence industry class, which saw 229 claims last year, and 991 since 2008. Construction saw 130 claims in 2012 and 770 since 2008.
Mining saw 18 claims accepted last year and no claims were accepted in oil and gas, a field which has seen the lowest number of accepted claims since 2008, with six.
The commission did not produce the handbook in response to claims statistics and cannot say for certain whether lack of knowledge of the claims process has kept any workers from filing a claim, Saunders said, adding there are several reasons why a worker might not file.
"We have a lot of young people that are in the workforce and young people generally have a tendency to think that they're 10-feet tall and bullet proof. We wanted to make this information available to new workers
and young workers too," she said.
The Worker's Handbook is the first published by the WSCC, although a since-discontinued handbook for workers was published in 2007 when it was known as the Workers' Compensation Board (WCB).
The handbook can be downloaded online in English, French, and Inuktitut, and is available in any language upon request.
