Injured workers group renews calls for review of WCB

An injured workers group is renewing its calls for a broad review of Nova Scotia's workers compensation system, which it says is hampered by foot-draggingand aboard whose decisions are often overturned when appealed.

The Pictou County Injured Workers Association was established in 1992 to help workers make their way through the workers compensation system. It says it now has more than 600 active files.

"The numbers highlight to me that there's a lot of problems in the workers compensation system that needs to be addressed," said the association's vice-president, Larry Maloney.

A similar organization in Cape Breton says it has 400 cases and adds another 20 every month.

The system is comprised of three bodies: the Workers' Compensation Board itself;a workers advisers program; and the Workers' Compensation Appeals Tribunal, which hears appeals when a worker is unhappy with a board decision.

Board response time criticized

In practice it should work smoothly, but Maloney said one of the problems is how long the board takes to respond to rulings by the tribunal that overturn its decisions.

That was the chief issue for forklift driver Kevin Coward, who waited 10 months for the board to implement a tribunal ruling thatordered the board to reconsider hisclaim for benefits for an injured knee.

• Injured worker gets back pay, apology after WCB ignores ruling

He later received an apology, doctor-recommended knee bracesand back pay after CBC News began inquiring about his case.

But his uncle, Rubin Coward, said he doubts his nephew's case simply "fell through the cracks."

"I think I can go out on a limb and say in my humble opinion they are blatantly indifferent and disregarding the well-being of injured workers, knowing full well that financially they're not in a position to advance any argument," he said.

Maloney agrees. He said the board is prompt in responding to decisions that are negative to a worker, such as if a benefit is lowered or overturned, but is slow if the ruling is in the worker's favour.

"We've seen examples here where it takes months and months and months to get things implemented. They're very slow when it comes to implementing," he said.

He said in one recent case his association dealt with it took the board 14 months to implement a tribunal ruling related to claims dating back to injuries from 1982.

WCB says it understands frustration

The vice-president of service delivery for the Workers' Compensation Board, Shelley Rowan, said she understands that injured workers are frustrated when they wait months for an appeal decision and then months longer for it to be executed.

She said the board is able to act quickly on rulings in its favour because its original decision is being upheld and was likely already being carried out.

"For the remainder of those we tend go through the process where we review them and look at what next steps we need to do to implement them," Rowan said.

"If it's relatively straightforward we may be able to do that quickly but the challenge for us at times is that some of them are complex and require more information, more work and sometimes it can take us a long time."

Maloney said the impact is "terrible" for injured peoplewho can't work, may have no income and must deal with the stress that brings. He said some are losing their homes, and in rare cases cases taking their own lives.

Medical advisers questioned

Another issue is the board's use of medical advisers who have never talked to or physically examined the injured worker.

Maloney said numerous tribunal decisions have ruled the medical opinions of treating physicians and specialists are to be given greater weight than the opinion of non-treating board medical advisers and specialist consultants.

Despite this, Maloney said the board "consistently" uses their medical advisers to "provide contrary opinions to those provided by treating physicians and surgeons."

Rowan said the number of cases wheremedical information is in dispute isrelatively small.

"Our medical advisers gave opinions or interpretation on 7,000 claims in 2016, yet we had a few hundred where the medical information was what was in dispute," she said.

She said tribunal hearings could take place a year or two after the board's decision, and it's not unusual that there would be new medical or other information collected during that time.

Appeal rates

Another concern highlighted by Maloney is the number of successful appeals to the Workers' Compensation Appeal Tribunal.

He said a review of annual reports during the last five to six years reveals that, onaverage, 59 per cent of workers who appealed board decisions were successful.

"A significant number of the appeals decisions are based upon the same evidence that was available to the WCB adjudicators," Maloney said, adding this highlights a significant flaw in the board's adjudicative process.

Maloney notes a 2002 review of the workers compensation system by James Dorsey criticized the workers compensation system in Nova Scotia and madeseveral recommendations, including a mandatory review every four years.

Maloney said many recommendations were not implemented and the concerns of his group have been ignored.

"They say, 'Everything's going fine, the system is working great, it's a much better system now than it ever was,'that kind of thing."'