Ontario construction employers will not face targeted WSIB (Workplace Safety and Insurance Board) premium hikes if any of their workers become infected with COVID-19, the agency announced recently.
“We have determined that costs associated with COVID-19 related claims will not be allocated at an employer or class level. Instead, they will be allocated on a Schedule-wide basis and there will be no change in premium rates for 2020,” the WSIB stated in a notice posted on its website.
Ontario General Contractors Association (OGCA) president Clive Thurston indicated the policy decision was reached April 2 following advocacy efforts by his organization and others.
“That was a very good decision reached by the WSIB board,” Thurston said.
The WSIB has deemed COVID-19 to be a workplace disease with compensation to be paid by the board, he explained, but by including it in Schedule One, the costs will be shared by all employers.
“The problem is, it is a more widespread disease. It is not something you necessarily get from the workplace. You could have got it anywhere,” explained Thurston.
“If you apply it against each individual company, if a worker passes away, God forbid, from COVID-19, the devastation to the individual companies would be huge. The rate increases would probably put some of them out of business.”
He said the OGCA argued that the entire industrial sector of Ontario, not just construction, is impacted by COVID-19 “so we should be sharing the pain.”
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