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Injured health-care workers treated inequitably: report

JOHN CHILIBECK

New Brunswick health-care workers are not being treated fairly compared to other provincial government employees and school workers when they’re injured on the job, says the auditor general.

And his findings have already led to one large union representing health-care workers - who suffer higher rates of injuries - promising to bring it up during negotiations for their next contract.

In his latest report released Thursday, Paul Martin examined injured workers’ compensation policies within government.

Injured health-care workers are compensated according to the Workers’ Compensation Act, at 85 per cent net loss of earnings, the same as most other private employees in the province. The maximum an injured worker can be paid is for earnings of up to $74,800 this year.

But other government workers are paid over and above that requirement in law, to 100 per cent of their lost wages. They have made these gains largely through contract negotiations.

The auditor said although the compensation matches up with the law and collective bargaining agreements signed between public sector unions and the Department of Finance and Treasury Board, it doesn’t necessarily make sense that some public employees would be paid 15 per cent more than others when they’re hurt.

The department, he said, has no business case for doing so.

“It’s not our intention to recommend one payment model over another, but to ensure the department has sound business cases to support those models,” Martin told the legislature’s public accounts committee on Thursday morning. “Such documentation should include an analysis of the benefits provided, costs to government, employee equity and program outcomes.”

Health-care workers get hurt more often, even if they’re paid less for being injured on the job. The auditor general’s report noted that in 2022, a total of 1,131 out of 19,357 health-care workers made injury claims. That’s six per cent of the total.

In the rest of the public service, 676 out of 29,205 employees made injury claims. That’s only two per cent.

The injuries came at a steep cost to taxpayers. Because the provincial government is self-insured and doesn’t pay WorkSafeNB assessment rates, it compensates injured workers on its own. For the injured health-care workers in 2022, the province paid $11.6 million in claims. Among other public employees who were hurt, it paid $5.7 million.

But if the province had paid the injured health-care workers the full amount of their earnings, it would have cost about $1.7 million more.

“We agree with the findings of the auditor general and it is something we will be bringing to the bargaining table,” New Brunswick Union President Susie ProulxDaigle told Brunswick News on Thursday. Her organization represents about 4,700 health-care workers.

The auditor general pointed out that the province has been following the same kind of compensation formula for many years, even if it doesn’t have a sound business case for doing so.

Martin said when he recommended it produce one, officials within the department told him they would do the work, but guaranteed nothing would change.

“I expressed my disappointment,” the auditor general said at a press conference Thursday.“If the intent is just to do it for the sake of doing it, don’t bother. Why would you waste your people’s time if there’s no intent to actually look at this?”

The department did not respond to the auditor general’s criticisms on Thursday.

Martin was careful not to say which model was better – paying health-care workers more if they were injured or paying other workers less.

Instead, he stressed that the department must justify why it’s ensuring inequity through a sound business case - or else make changes.

“I really found the department response surprising,” Liberal Deputy Leader René Legacy told Brunswick News.“’We’re going to give you a reason, but we’ve already decided that we are not going to change what we’re doing.’ The problem with the department, and we’re seeing it already, whatever reason they give is going to cause an issue with one of the two groups. The health-care workers will say, ‘if it’s good enough for them, it should be good enough for us.’ And if they go the other way, the other workers will say, ‘why are you dragging us down?’”

Legacy said short of seeing the department’s business case, he couldn’t decide if certain workers should be paid more or less when they’re injured on the job.

Megan Mitton didn’t feel that way. The Green MLA said healthcare workers deserved the extra earnings.

“I would argue for pay equity,” she said.“What we’re seeing here is there’s no justification why some are getting less than others for worker compensation. That absolutely does not make sense, it’s unfair and the government needs to rectify that.”

Mitton said many health-care workers go out on compensation because they are overworked and put at greater risk of injury, such as when hospital orderlies try to hoist a heavy patient without enough available hands.

“They have harder working conditions and it’s unacceptable,” he said.

Why would you waste your people’s time if there’s no intent to actually look at this? PAUL MARTIN

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2023-12-16T08:00:00.0000000Z

2023-12-16T08:00:00.0000000Z

https://tjnews.pressreader.com/article/281621015129934

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