The 2024 Workplace Safety and Insurance System (WSIS) annual meeting took place Oct. 10th.
The meeting brings together all of the WSIS partners – WCB Nova Scotia, the province’s Department of Labour, Skills and Immigration, the Workers’ Advisers program and the Workers’ Compensation Appeals Tribunal – to report on system performance and achievements for the previous year.
Co-hosted by WCB Board Chair Saeed El-Darahali and Labour, Skills and Immigration Deputy Minister Ava Czapalay, the WSIS meeting had record attendance, in person and online.
In addition to System performance updates, discussions led by Workers’ Compensation Review Committee chair Doug Reid on the committee’s recent report and the importance of supporting a psychologically safe workplace were the highlights of this year’s event.
Threads of Life speaker Renee Guay gave a moving story on her life-altering experience with workplace harassment and bullying. With gradual onset psychological injury now covered in Nova Scotia, her story was timely and shed a profound light on the importance of cultivating mentally safe workplaces.
Renee’s story was an honest, emotional account of the psychological impact that workplace harassment can cause, and the anguish that comes from a system failing to properly support – or even acknowledge – the needs of assault survivors.
WCB’s Chief People Officer, Marcy Dalton, who emceed the event, spoke of how hearing directly from advocates for workplace wellness like Guay underscores the important work the WSIS has ahead of them to support gradual onset psychological injuries.
As a gesture of gratitude to Guay for sharing her story, WCB will be making a $500 charitable donation to Threads of Life.
WCB leaders said that building off of the recommendations laid out in the committee report was a critical priority for WCB, by improving service through stronger accountability and the board’s new sub-committee that will be focused on evaluating key performance measures.
“The future we envision is one where more workplaces are more protected from the impact of injury than they are today,” said Saeed El-Darahli. I am deeply confident, and I am inspired, by the changes we are seeing.”
Discussions at the event included questions about claim durations, the unfunded liability and getting people back to work sooner after a workplace injury.
WCB CEO Karen Adams spoke of how people in Nova Scotia are off work longer due to injury than anywhere else in Canada, a critical issue identified in the committee report and acknowledged in the WCB’s Protect More Strategic Plan.
“The review report got it right,” said Adams. “They diagnosed the problem: there are too many people off work for far too long in Nova Scotia. And we’re going to change that.”
More Resources:
Gradual Onset Psychological Injury
More info: WCB Nova Scotia