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4.1 Accidents Per 1,000 Full-time Equivalents (Ftes) — Funded And The Federal Public Sector

In order to identify the impact of cost recovery on the accident rates of the 25 funded departments we compared the number of accidents and fatalities per 1,000 Full-time Equivalent Employees (FTEs) in funded departments with the rest of the federal public sector (excluding the 25 funded departments).

For this analysis, we included only data on the number of fatalities and disabling injuries (excluding non-disabling) as per the advice of staff at HRDC-Labour Research and Analysis. According to staff at HRDC Research and Analysis, employers governed by the Canada Labour Code (employers under federal jurisdiction) are required to report all accidents, regardless of whether there are workers' compensation claims associated with these accidents. HRDC Labour staff felt that it was most appropriate to exclude non-disabling accidents from the federal public sector data since most (but not all) non-disabling accidents would not involve workers' compensation claims. The data collected by the Workers' Compensation Cost Recovery Program include data related to claims for workers' compensation, the majority of which are disabling or fatal, but the data also includes non-disabling accidents. In order to make the two data sources more comparable, the number of non-disabling injuries was excluded from data on federal jurisdiction employers and data on injuries requiring first aid only (no costs), and so generally nondisabling.

Exhibit 4.1 summarizes the results for each funded department and for the rest of the federal public sector. We note that most funded departments have historically had fewer disabling accidents per 1,000 FTEs than the rest of the federal public sector. Some readers may wonder why these departments were included as funded departments. The 25 funded departments were funded under the Workers' Compensation Cost Recovery Program as a result of the total costs of their workers' compensation claims rather than the total number of accidents. In implementing the program, HRDC Labour expected funded departments to control their costs through improved case and claims management, thereby lowering their costs.

As noted in the introduction, data limitations prevent a similar analysis of costs. In addition, results, particularly for fatalities, should be interpreted with caution. Fatalities tend to be random and relatively rare events making it difficult to identify a clear trend using a limited number of data points.

View Exhibit 4.1

4.2 Impacts

4.2.1 Number of Accidents per 1,000 FTEs

Exhibit 4.1 summarizes the number of disabling and fatal accidents per 1,000 FTEs in each of the 25 funded departments and the rest of the federal public sector (excluding non-disabling). If cost recovery had an impact, the average number of disabling and fatal accidents per 1,000 FTEs would have declined from 1998 to 1999 relative to the average number of disabling accidents in the rest of the federal public sector. The average number of disabling and fatal accidents per 1,000 FTEs for the 25 funded departments increased by 2.1 percent from 1998 to 1999, the average for the rest of the federal public sector decrease by 2.8. More years of data are required in order to determine whether this represents a trend. Thus, funded departments were not more or less successful at decreasing the number of work-related disabling injuries than the rest of the federal public sector.

Explanations for the increasing number of accidents provided by respondents from funded departments during interviews included:

• Increased number of FTEs in funded departments;
• Increased awareness of occupational health and safety resulting in increased reporting of accidents;
• Ageing workforce - who tend to be more prone to work-related accidents and illnesses;
• Increased stress and so an increased number of stress-related claims.

Based on data received from Treasury Board and HRDC Labour there has been an increase in FTEs in funded departments of 1 percent. In addition, there is little agreement within the occupational health and safety community with the remaining explanations put forth by respondents from funded departments. For example, studies have shown that young, inexperienced workers are more prone to work-related accidents and injuries than older, more experienced workers. According to the Association of Workers Compensation Boards of Canada the time loss injury rate in 1998 was highest for workers in the 15 to 29 year age group with 2.9 time loss injuries per 100 workers. The incidence rate of time loss injuries decreases to 2.55 per 100 workers aged 30-54 and for those over 55 the incidence rate is 1.91 per 100 workers (HRDC Labour, Research and Analysis, 2000). Many provinces in Canada have work safety program directed at young workers for this reason. Increased awareness may lead to increased reporting but it may also lead to safer work practices and increased vigilance on the part of employees. Finally, Workers' Compensation Boards have tended to question stress related claims more frequently in recent years.

Program data indicates that there was an increase of approximately 3 percent in the number of disabling, non-disabling and fatal work-related accidents and illnesses in funded departments between 1998 and 1999. However, the general trend in funded departments has been a decrease with the total number of work-related disabling, non-disabling and fatal accidents decreasing by 24 percent since 1995. The total number of work-related accidents (including disabling, non-disabling and fatalities) as well as the number of FTEs in each department for 1995-96 to 1999-2000 may be found in Appendix D.

4.3 Summary

The following is a summary of the key findings on workers compensation costs and the number of accidents per FTE.

• There is no conclusive evidence of a positive or negative impact on accident rates as a result of the Workers' Compensation Cost Recovery Program based on an analysis of program data. Reasons for this lack of impact are likely the result of insufficient post-implementation data points.
• Overall, the number of accidents per 1,000 FTEs has declined by 24 percent since 1995 although there was an increase in 1999 over 1998. However, more data points are required in order to identify this as a trend.