Workers Compensation Board of British Columbia
| Statutory Agency | |
| Industry | Regulatory Agency / Workers' Compensation |
| Founded | 1917 |
| Headquarters | Richmond, British Columbia, Canada |
| Website | www.worksafebc.com |
The Workers' Compensation Board of British Columbia, operating as WorkSafeBC, is a statutory agency that came into existence in 1917, after the provincial legislature put into force legislation passed in 1902. This legislation is known as the Workers Compensation Act.
WorkSafeBC's mandate includes prevention of occupational injury and occupational disease, which WorkSafeBC accomplishes through education, consultation, and enforcement. It carries out workplace inspections and investigates serious incidents such as fatalities. The Workers Compensation Act assigns the authority to make the Occupational Health and Safety Regulation of British Columbia.
WorkSafeBC's authority over occupational health and safety of workers does not extend to:
WorkSafeBC is the exclusive workers' compensation insurer in British Columbia, Canada, covering more than 200,000 registered employers and 2.3 million workers.
There have been numerous Royal Commissions which have examined the effectiveness of Workers Compensation. The commissions have attempted to explain working conditions prior to Workers Compensation legislation where British Columbia’s workforce was largely occupied in fishing, logging, and mining industries. The Royal Commissions conclude that documented injuries are limited, with the exception of mining, and therefore little is known of working conditions before the Workers Compensation Act (WCA). One line from a Royal Commission document reads, "There are no sources to reveal nineteenth century workplace conditions in two other significant B.C. industries, agriculture and fishing". However, this argument ignores the documentation of injuries in early Workers Compensation documents from Canneries. Although Workers Compensation documents do not provide a direct account of the working conditions before legislation the documents do provide incidents which occurred in the workplaces. More precisely, the injuries documented in Workers Compensation documents can be extrapolated as similar, if not identical injuries, to the period before Workers Compensation in 1917. For example, injuries in the fishing industry, controlled largely by Canneries, included finger strain, muscle strains, cuts, infections, burns, and more. Many of these injuries were preventable and happened before the introduction of the WCA and subsequent regulations. The preventability of injuries is evident in several Workers Compensation letters urging employers to follow new and existing safeguards. Employees were also aware of unsafe working conditions as litigation became the primary means of seeking some compensation. Employees believed the employers were responsible for compensating their inability to work. The employees often believed that since they were injured at work the injury and compensation was the companies’ responsibility to pay. Further, employees comments often noted, "unsafe conditions, long hours, and unsanitary working conditions."
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