Cutting another 235 jobs at Workers’ Compensation will dangerously weaken workplace protections and mean even more delays for injured workers, especially in rural areas, CUPE BC says.
“This huge cut, added to the 150 jobs that are already gone, will hit injured workers hard and increase risk in the workplace,” CUPE BC president Barry O’Neill says. “It will only add more injuries to the insulting way the Campbell government is handling WCB.”
As a result of the cuts, four offices will be closed and others will be merged. An injured worker in Vernon, for example, will be forced to call 1-800 to get help with an injury claim. Face to face contact will be eliminated as will the WCB help line. The remaining offices will be overworked, adding more strain to the system.
“Once again, the Liberals are saying ‘let the fox guard the henhouse,’” O’Neill says. “’Let the employer decide what is safe.’ That is a disastrous course for working families who have a right to expect loved ones to return home safely from work.”