Workers' Compensation

Government Employees Compensation Act and Regulations.

The Government Employees Compensation Act is administered by the Labour Program at Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC). In 1918, when the Act was first passed, arrangements were made whereby the provincial workers' compensation boards would look after the treatment of injured employees and would adjudicate and pay compensation claims on behalf of the Government of Canada. These arrangements remain in existence today. The Labour Program’s Federal Workers’ Compensation Service at ESDC is responsible for receiving and processing claims through to the appropriate provincial authority. They provide a general advisory service to employees and unions, as well as to employers, on the interpretation and application of the legislation.

The Government Employees Compensation Act provides for employment injury benefits (workers' compensation) to all federal government employees, including employees posted outside Canada, and employees locally engaged outside Canada who are injured in the course of their duties and are not covered under any local legislation. Industrial and occupational diseases are treated in the same way as work-related injuries.

Such benefits include:

• compensation for loss of earnings (if an injured employees is not entitled to injury-on-duty leave);
• medical, hospital, and related services;
• rehabilitation services;
• a pension, if an injury results in a permanent disability; and
• pensions to dependants of employees who are fatally injured in the course of their employment.

The Government Employees Compensation Act also provides benefits to employees posted outside Canada, other than locally engaged employees, disabled by reason of any disease that:

• results from the environmental conditions of a place outside Canada to which an employees is assigned, and
• is a type that would not normally be contracted in Canada.

As the claims are adjudicated and paid by the appropriate provincial workers' compensation boards the benefits payable may vary from province to province.

In the case of locally-engaged employees, levels of compensation are determined by the Labour Program at ESDC, subject to the approval of the Treasury Board.

The cost of the benefits are borne entirely by the federal government and no direct contributions are made by employees.

Employment-injury benefits (workers' compensation) are not subject to income tax.

It is the responsibility of employers to ensure that employees are aware of their rights to workers' compensation. Personnel officers must ensure that all occupational injuries or illnesses involving lost time or requiring medical attention are reported to the Federal Workers’ Compensation Service within three days of occurrence in order that claims may be checked for accuracy and completeness, countersigned and forwarded to the appropriate provincial workers' compensation authority. (For further information regarding the proper completion of the applicable provincial "Employer's Report of Accident" form in relation to occupational codes, please refer to appendix A following this chapter.)

Personnel officers are also responsible for the development and communication to employees of appropriate directives and instructions concerning the details of reporting occupational injuries and illnesses to their employer. First aid records should be maintained in cases where the injury does not require the services of a medical doctor. First aid cases should be reported to the Federal Workers’ Compensation Service only where a doctor's services are required at a later date.

To avoid duplicate payment, it is extremely important that personnel officers indicate on the original injury report whether the injured employee is entitled to injury-on-duty leave, which is provided for in most collective agreements.

As the services of the ten provincial workers' compensation boards are used, injuries must be reported, using the accident report for the province in which the injured person is usually employed.

The report forms are available from the appropriate provincial workers' compensation board.

There are two information booklets available from the Labour Program at ESDC. A handbook entitled "If You Have an Accident" should be provided to all employees, and a booklet entitled "Employer's Guide" should be in the hands of all persons responsible for the reporting of injuries.