This Prince George meeting is looking for ideas on worker-centred compensation

Have an opinion on how the B.C. government can improve compensation for injured workers?

The province’s Labour Ministry is hosting a series of public meetings over the next seven weeks, hoping to hear from the public about how they can shift the worker compensation system to one that’s more ‘worker centred’ and how to ‘increase worker and employer confidence.’

A committee will host an eight-hour meeting in Prince George on July 17.

B.C. Labour Minister Harry Bains has appointed retired lawyer Janet Patterson to lead a review of the system for the province.

Back in April, Bains asked Patterson to undertake an independent review in order to assess the following:

• The system’s policies and practices that support injured workers’ return to work
• WorkSafeBC’s current policies and practices through gender and diversity-based analysis (commonly referred to as GBA +)
• Modernizing WorkSafeBC’s culture to reflect a worker-centric service delivery model
• The case management of injured workers
• Potential amendments to the Workers Compensation Act arising from this focused review

Residents can give their input by speaking in-person or by completing an online survey between now and July 19, 2019.

If you’d like to speak to the committee, you’re asked to email Info@wcbreview.ca or call 1-833-633-6790.

However, the half of the timeslots at the hearing are reserved for injured workers, the ministry said.

Prince George’s meeting on July 17 will take place at the Ramada Plaza from 12 to 8 p.m.

More information is available on the Worker’s Compensation Review’s website.

If you can't make the hearing in Prince George, other northern B.C. cities the committee is visiting include Williams Lake (July 2 and 3), Fort St. John (July 15 and 16), and Terrace (July 18 and 19).