Published on: March 30, 2020

WorkSafeBC’s Certificate of Recognition (COR) team is working with our certifying partners (CPs) to support employers with your 2020 COR audit requirements during the COVID-19 outbreak. We will continue to monitor the situation and take measures to ensure we follow the guidance from public health agencies.

Please note: For the latest information, please see this July 24 announcement.

2020 audits

Audits that have been completed or are in progress

Completed audits will be processed as usual.

Audits that are underway must follow the practices outlined by public health agencies (e.g., physical distancing during interviews). We understand that some employers are scaling back operations or changing work processes, so auditors need to be flexible in their ability to observe and conduct interviews. Document reviews should not be affected as directive documents and records should still be available.

To help determine if an audit is still practicable and to see the preventative measures you can take when conducting an audit, please visit WorkSafeBC’s COVID-19 information and resources.

If you have questions about your audit, please contact your CP.

Audits not yet started for employers with COR certifications that expire by August 31, 2020

If you are an employer with an Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) or OHS and Return-to-Work (RTW) certification that expires by August 31, 2020 and you have not started the certification audit, you can apply for a “2020 audit waiver.”

To apply:

• Contact your CP to ask for the waiver
• CPs will complete and submit the 2020 audit waiver form to WorkSafeBC on your behalf
• WorkSafeBC will reply to the CP with appropriate approvals
• CPs will contact you to outline next steps

Once approved, we will issue a one-year COR certificate(s) from the date of the original certificate expiry (i.e., expiry of 2020-05-03 will now have expiry of 2021-05-03). This means that employers accepted into the waiver program will require certification audit(s) conducted by an external auditor (or internal auditor for small employers) in 2021 on or before the new expiry date.

To apply, please contact your CP.

Audits for employers with COR certifications that expire between September 1 and December 31, 2020

At this time, we are planning to continue as usual with certificates that expire after September 1, 2020. However, we will continue to monitor the COVID-19 outbreak and adjust our operations as necessary.

Audits that are due for maintenance in 2020 (M1 and M2)

Maintenance audits can be performed at any time of the year, as long as they are completed before December 31. Therefore, you have until the end of the year to complete your maintenance audit.

New certifications

All new 2020 COR employer certifications need to follow the standard processes and auditing requirements. If this is not possible, you are requested to defer pursuing COR certification until the usual auditing requirements can be satisfied.

Certificate printing and distribution

Certificates are not being printed or distributed at this time. You can check your certification details in our COR Employer Search and use this information to fulfill any requirement to provide proof of COR qualification when bidding for work.

2020 financial incentives

An employer with a valid COR is eligible to receive a financial incentive for each year you hold a COR and where none of the exceptions to COR financial incentive eligibility apply. Employers who are approved by WorkSafeBC and have one-year certifications under the waiver program will be considered to have valid certificates for 2020 and will be considered for a 2020 financial incentive in May of 2021.

Next steps

We will continue to monitor the COVID-19 outbreak and adjust our processes to ensure we follow the guidance from public health agencies. If you have questions, please contact your CP.

To contact the WorkSafeBC Partners Program, please email us.