Manitoba Federation of Labour: Workers Compensation Board

Workers Compensation Board: Instead of trying to relight an old bonfire, the MFL would better assist both workers and employers by promoting the undertaking of a comprehensive review of what is a long outdated program. What all workers need is 24-hour, year-round comprehensive injury and illness coverage, regardless of cause. , according to Winnipeg Free Press. The philosophical underpinnings of the program extend back 150 years to Prussia, when Otto von Bismarck implemented the first program as a measure to calm then-revolutionary social unrest. Fast forward a century and a half and workers are more likely to fall ill due to lifestyle choices or fate, or be injured while off the job, than be disabled due to their workplace accident. The Manitoba Federation of Labour recently renewed its chronic complaint about the Workers Compensation Board, alleging the WCB's approach to setting annual premiums for employers provides an incentive for employers to suppress valid claims of workplace injuries and illnesses. The WCB, through a tripartite board of directors equal members drawn from labour, employers and representatives of the public interest , administers a legislative program. Injured and sick workers, disabled due to workplace accidents or conditions, are compensated and rehabilitated, while their employers, which pay for the costs of the program through annual assessments, cannot be sued by their workers. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.