Quick Links
Customer Centres
What employers face in other jurisdictions
In many jurisdictions around the world, workers can sue their employers for damages if they suffer work-related injuries. The damages awarded can be significant and, in some cases, have actually bankrupted otherwise successful companies. See some examples.
That's not the case in British Columbia, thanks to what's known as the historic compromise on which the province's workers' compensation system is founded.
Basically, this means that in return for giving up the right to sue their employers for work-related injuries and diseases, injured workers receive wage-loss and medical benefits and, if needed, vocational rehabilitation benefits, on a no-fault basis from premiums paid entirely by employers.
Employers contribute to an insurance pool through the payment of premiums,
the sum of which is based on the claim costs of their industry. Injured
workers then draw from this pool when a claim is paid out.