901 People In Line to be Repaid $4 Million
New Brunswick’s (Canada) workers compensation board has been ordered to repay close to $4 million to 901 people due to a court ruling that decided it was wrong to claw back injury benefit payments from Canada Pension Plan recipients.
Cases Date Back More Than 20 Years
According to The Canadian Press, the claims, which date back more than 20 years, were identified following a provincial Court of Appeal decision in April, a spokeswoman for WorkSafeNB noted.
Mary Tucker indicated the Crown agency believed its policy of clawing back workers’ compensation payments from people receiving the Canada Pension Plan was in step with the Workers Compensation Act.
“The implications of the Court of Appeal decision have been assessed and case management staff are actively working to implement the directions given by the court and provide redress to those affected,” Tucker stated in an email. “Many have already received payments and others are in process.’”
WorkSafeNB’s Interpretation of the Act Overturned
An appeals tribunal repeatedly turned away WorkSafeNB’s interpretation of the Act and overturned its decisions in individual cases.
The Court of Appeal stood by the tribunal’s position, claiming in its ruling that it “has been right all along.”
Tucker would not detail why WorkSafeNB followed the tribunal’s decisions in individual cases but did not alter its overall policy of clawing back workers’ comp payments.
Author Michael B. Stack, CPA, Director of Operations, Amaxx Risk Solutions, Inc. is an expert in employer communication systems and part of the Amaxx team helping companies reduce their workers compensation costs by 20% to 50%. He is a writer, speaker, and website publisher. www.reduceyourworkerscomp.com. Contact: mstack@reduceyourworkerscomp.com.
WORKERS COMP MANAGEMENT MANUAL: www.WCManual.com
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