The BC Federation of Labour is calling on the provincial government to bring in presumptive WorkSafeBC coverage for essential workers during this COVID-19 pandemic.
Speaking on NL Newsday, President Laird Cronk says under current rules workers have to prove that their illness or injury is work related.
“Without presumption, the onus is on the worker to prove its work related,” he said.
“What we are saying is, if you are a grocery store cashier, and you’ve come down with COVID-19 while you are doing this essential work, you should not have to go through a burdensome process of proving during a pandemic where you are out there in the public that you received it at work, it should be presumed.”
Cronk says its’a pretty scary time for people to go to work, noting that there are workers everyday who have to make that decision. He says if government is likening the battle against the virus to a war – then you don’t leave soldiers behind on the battlefield.
“About a year ago, the provincial government put in place measures to make sure there was WCB presumptive coverage for workers suffering PTSD for example, emergency dispatchers,” Cronk added.
“It’s presumed that if you are doing that type of work, you don’t have to go through a whole burdensome proof if you actually suffer from this diagnosis, and we’re really looking for the same thing here with what’s happening with COVID-19 and our essential workers.”
Asked by NL News, Premier John Horgan says he will leave it to WorkSafeBC to work within existing rules and guidelines when it comes to processing claims.
“WorkSafe on their own initiative is looking at presumptive cases. I’ll leave it to WorkSafe to work with the existing rules and guidelines,” he said. “We want to make sure that no one goes to work ill because they feel like they have an economic imperative to do so.”
There have been 265 COVID-19 claims filed across the province so far, with about half of those coming from outside the health care and social services sector.
– With files from Brett Mineer
