INNOVATION July-August 2015

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WorkSafeBC Announces Policy Updates Related to Workers Compensation Act Changes

To reflect recent amendments to the Workers Compensation Act ( Act ), WorkSafeBC has announced the creation of two new interim occupational health and safety policies regarding employer incident investigations, as well as interim changes to the Stop Work Orders Policy. APEGBC members who may be either subject to or responsible for administering occupational health and safety regulations should familiarize themselves with the nature of these changes as well as the new policies. According to WorkSafeBC, changes to the Workers Compensation Act aim “to improve workplace health and safety and strengthen the tools that WorkSafeBC uses to enforce the Act and the Occupational Health and Safety Regulation.” There are two major changes to the requirements for employer incident investigations: • The employer is required to undertake a preliminary investigation within 48 hours of the incident; • The employer is required to submit a full investigation report to WorkSafeBC within 30 days of an incident, unless an extension is granted. For stop work orders, the two changes of note are as follows: • The threshold for being able to issue a stop work order has changed; • The potential scope of the stop work order has been changed. The interim policies and amendments apply to incidents that occur between May 27, 2015, and December 31, 2015, and will be replaced by final policies following public consultation. WorkSafeBC has also made housekeeping changes to other OHS policies to reflect the Act changes. More information on the recent Act amendments are available on the WorkSafeBC website: worksafebc.com.

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