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Amendments to British Columbia’s Workers Compensation Act to take effect next year

VICTORIA, B.C. – As of Jan. 1^, 2024, jobsites and employers across British Columbia will receive more robust guidelines when it comes to return-to-work legislation and compensation practices.

Last year’s Bill 41 established a clear duty for employers to work together with injured workers to keep them employed. Injured workers and their employers, with the supervision of WorkSafeBC, will be required to collaborate in creating a fair return-to-work plan, dictating whether the employee can return to their pre-injury job, a comparable job, or other suitable work in the event that the worker is not fit to perform pre-injury work duties.

Also included in the legislation are stricter rules surrounding proper compensation. New provisions and enforcements have been added explicitly preventing employers dissuading employees from using worker’s compensation, along with requirements for interest to be paid on compensation or benefits that have been outstanding for more than 180 days.

These regulations will apply to employers with 20 or more workers and will result in administrative penalties imposed on behalf of WorkSafeBC should they not be followed.

In 2021, WorkSafeBC received a total of 141,320 work-related injury reports and accepted 49,918 new short-term disability claims, with general construction among the top industries regarding claims and loss of work time.