At the December 9, 2009 meeting, the Board of Directors approved amendments to policy item #70.20, Re-openings Over Three Years, in the Rehabilitation Services & Claims Manual, Volume II.

The changes to the Reopenings Over Three Years policy include:

• setting out the process for determining earnings used to calculate compensation payable;
• providing that a worker’s earnings at the time of reopening are generally used to calculate a new compensation amount where:
  • the current earnings are higher than the original earnings; or
  • the current earnings are lower due to factors unrelated to the compensable disability 

In these cases, WorkSafeBC considers that current earnings more nearly represent the worker’s actual loss;

• providing that a worker’s original earnings at the time of reopening may be used where a worker is experiencing a potential loss of earnings due to the compensable disability; and
• setting out that the date that a worker first experiences a loss of earnings, or potential loss of earnings, is used to determine whether more than three years have passed since the original injury.

The changes to the policy apply to decisions made on or after June 1, 2010.