The Saskatchewan Workers’ Compensation Board (WCB) plans to increase its employer premium rate in 2022, the first increase for this rate in 18 years.
The premium rate was $1.17 per hundred dollars of payroll in 2021, while that rate will increase to $1.23 next year, the first increase since 2004. Despite this increase, the WCB pointed out that Saskatchewan’s premium rates remain among the lowest in Canada.
“While the 2022 rate increase will affect most employers covered by the WCB, we are mitigating its impact by setting the average premium rate below the rate model requirement of $1.25,” said CEO Phillip Germain.
“The principal drivers of the 2022 increase are claim costs and payroll. While the number of injury claims has gone down, claim-related costs like health care have increased more quickly than payroll. This difference is reflected in our premium rates.”
What was a positive downward trend in claims experience over the last several years has flattened out and, in some cases, reversed, he added.
The WCB board’s decision to set the average premium rate below the rate model requirement of $1.25 is similar to its decision last year to hold the 2021 rate below the then-required rate of $1.23.
“We recognize that employers are continuing to confront tough economic hurdles due to the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Germain. “By not charging the required premium rate in both 2021 and 2022, we will save employers about $13.4 million in 2021 and $3.3 million in 2022.”
Industry premium rates are affected by how well employers in an industry can eliminate workplace injuries. In 2020, 90 per cent of Saskatchewan employers achieved zero injuries, an increase over the 88 per cent of employers who achieved Mission: Zero in each of the previous three years.
Despite this accomplishment, the number of serious injuries, fatalities and durations has not improved, the WCB said.
For the last several years, serious injuries accounted for about 12 per cent of total injuries but more than 80 per cent of compensation costs. In response, WorkSafe Saskatchewan, the partnership between the WCB and the Ministry of Labour Relations and Workplace Safety, launched its Fatalities and Serious Injuries Strategy in 2019.
Learn more at www.worksafesask.ca/prevention/serious-injuries-and-fatalities/.
The WCB’s Business Transformation Program will also play an important role in reducing durations and serious injuries, the company said. Launched in early 2021, the five- to seven-year program will transform the organization’s major areas, particularly around people, processes, and technology.
Through the program, the WCB will work with customers, employers’ associations, labour organizations and safety associations to improve injury and disability prevention outcomes and customer service. With effective safety and disability prevention programs, employers can help prevent and manage the impacts of work-related injuries.
“It’s heartening to know that so many workers and employers are committed to working together to create safer workplaces in the province,” said chair Gord Dobrowolsky.
“But we still have a stretch to go to reach our goal of zero injuries in 100 per cent of Saskatchewan workplaces. As we head into the new year, let’s redouble our efforts in getting our work done on time, on budget and without injuries.”
