Estimating the nature and extent of claim suppression in British Columbia's workers' compensation system

11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.

Online

Ron Saunders
Institute for Work & Health

John O'Grady
Prism Economics and Analysis

To what extent are workers in British Columbia pressured or induced to not report or claim benefits for their work-related injuries and illnesses? A study on the nature and extent of claim suppression in B.C. was recently conducted by Institute for Work & Health and Prism Economics and Analysis. The study was carried out using surveys of workers and employers, as well as document analyses carried out by WorkSafeBC staff, who shared anonymized results with the research team. In this presentation, study co-leads Dr. Ron Saunders and John O'Grady share what they found.

About presenter

Dr. Ron Saunders is an adjunct scientist and former director of Knowledge Transfer and Exchange (KTE) at the Institute for Work & Health (IWH). Before joining IWH in 2007, he was with Canadian Policy Research Networks (CPRN), where he was the vice-president of research. His own research at CPRN centred on vulnerable workers, the school-to-work transition, access and quality issues in post-secondary education, and skills development and training. Prior to that, he spent 17 years in the Ontario Public Service, most notably as the assistant deputy minister of Policy, Communications and Labour Management Services in the Ministry of Labour.

John O’Grady is a founding Partner at Prism Economics and Analysis. He is the principal author of more than 50 research reports on human resources planning and related policy issues. John has conducted similar studies on claim suppression for Ontario's Workplace Safety and Insurance Board and Manitoba's Workers Compensation Board. He has also published studies with the International Labour Office (ILO), the B.C. Royal Commission on Workers Compensation and the Economic Council of Canada. He was a long-serving member of the IWH Board of Directors.

About IWH Speaker Series

The IWH Speaker Series brings you the latest findings from work and health researchers from the Institute for Work & Health (IWH) and beyond. For those unable to attend, the recorded webinar of most presentations in the IWH Speaker Series are made available on its web page within a week of the event.