Quick Links
Customer Centres
WorkSafeBC announces lower average premium rates for 2007
Richmond, B.C., October 12, 2006 — WorkSafeBC (the Workers’ Compensation Board) has announced a 10.8 percent decrease in the average base rate for employers in 2007. While the reduction reflects recent years’ trends of stable injury rates and lower duration of injuries, it is largely due to very positive investment returns that enable WorkSafeBC to maintain lower premium rates for employers.
The 2007 average published base rate will be $1.69 per $100 of assessable payroll, compared to $1.90 in 2006.
“The average rate for B.C. employers will be lower than at any time in the past three decades, and among the lowest in Canada,” said WorkSafeBC Chief Financial Officer Sid Fattedad. “While economic expansion in British Columbia means more jobs and thus more claim volumes, the rate at which workers are injured has been holding steady. In periods of significant economic growth, it is normal to expect that the injury rate would turn up. However, with the help of employers and workers engaging in safety training and effective return-to-work programs, the cost of injuries is expected to stay on a declining track.”
“It’s important to note that employer premium rates are being protected by very strong investment returns,” added Fattedad. “Sound financial management of WorkSafeBC’s investment portfolio is keeping employer rates lower than they would otherwise be.”
In 2007, rates will decline by 40 percent for hospitals, 20 percent for sawmills, paper mills, and for firms engaged in industrial and residential construction. Rate reductions of at least 15 percent are also planned for road construction, general trucking, public schools, hotels and supermarkets. Other industries that will see base rate reductions include general retail, universities, restaurants, and local governments.
Electrical utilities and forestry firms will see their rates remain virtually unchanged.
Increases are scheduled for such industries as gas utilities (20 percent), department stores (7.5 percent), ferry services (6.6 percent), and various business services such as consulting, accounting, and clerical labour supply, which will see a small rate increase next year.
Overall, just over 68 percent of employers will see a reduction in their 2007 base rate, 10 percent will see their rates remain unchanged and 22 percent of employers’ rates will increase.
“Premiums are primarily driven by injury costs,” said Fattedad. “It’s important to recognize that industries can influence their rates by improving safety and return-to-work programs with effective disability management.”
To help industries lower their injury and premium rates, WorkSafeBC has worked with industries to establish safety associations in forestry, construction, agriculture, and the oil and gas industries, and continues to develop sector-based business teams to work closely with industry and labour groups.
Information on 2007 rates is available on the WorkSafeBC web site at WorkSafeBC.com.
Serving nearly two million workers and about 185,000 employers, WorkSafeBC is a provincial statutory agency governed by a Board of Directors and funded by employers. WorkSafeBC was born out of a compromise between BC’s workers and employers in 1917 where workers gave up the right to sue their employers or fellow workers for injuries on the job in return for a no-fault insurance program fully paid for by employers. WorkSafeBC is committed to a safe and healthy workplace and to providing return-to-work rehabilitation and legislated compensation benefits to workers injured as a result of their employment.
|
For more information please contact: |
Scott McCloy
|