Martin takes aim at WCB Procedure

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Injured workers are being denied justice by a system that drags out their appeals for compensation for as long as nine months, NDP House leader Ray Martin said July 14,2006.

Despite recommendations by the WCB Appeals System Review Committee in 2000 that appeals should take no more than 90 days, Martin said many people are still waiting up to 280 days for their appeal process to be completed.

"By delaying the appeals, the government is denying justice to injured workers," he said.

"The entire WCB system and organization needs to be drastically overhauled. The Conservatives and the WCB should stop congratulating themselves and roll up their sleeves and get to work at fixing the system. They owe it to injured workers."

To combat the problem, more staff has been added, said one government spokesman.

Linda Park of Alberta Human Resources and Employment said officials are working to fix the problem.

"We are aware, and the minister is aware, that there is a bit of a backlog," she said, adding the 90-day recommendation was rejected by the legislature on the grounds it was too restrictive.

"To restrict it to 90 days, frankly, there would be some people who fell through the cracks," said Park.

"We feel everyone deserves the same care and attention and sometimes that might take longer."

Warren Fairhurst, a WCB advocate and former WCB case worker said he thinks an appeals resolution process needs to be implemented.

"In my experience, there is no effective resolution process at the WCB," Fairhurst said.

WCB spokesman Karen Sutherland said the board tries to have its requests for review dealt with in about two weeks.

"We're doing our part to make sure things are getting resolved collaboratively with our case managers and our injured workers," she said, adding the Alberta Human Resources and Employment appeals commission takes it from there.