Ontario’s Workplace Safety and Insurance Bureau (WSIB) has announced a new rate framework, which comes into effect next year.
The framework is meant to streamline the way businesses are classified for purposes of workplace compensation. The change will also better reflect individual claims experience and help businesses plan for the future via projected rate information, the WSIB said.
Under the new framework, the WSIB will utilize the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS), which is already being used by the Canada Revenue Agency and Statistics Canada. By switching to NAICS, WSIB will streamline from 155 different rate groups to 34 classes/subclasses.
“What we are trying to do is build out a new model that helps people understand in a more simplified way how their business is classified under WSIB and understand how their individual experience, from a claims perspective, factors into their rate, allowing them better control over their rates and the ability to plan in the future,” WSIB vice-president of employer account services Janine Dyck told Daily Commercial News.
Dyck added that not only will WSIB provide businesses with their rate for the individual year, but also the projected rate – which will be calculated based on their individual experience and the experience of the class that they are in.
Businesses will receive their individual and class premium rates for 2020 this coming September, before the changes are implemented January 01, 2020. Dyck remarked that employers will receive a letter that not only outlines the rate framework and the changes to the premium rate structure, but also the business’s updated rate classification under the new model.
“What we are trying to do is really make it more real to people that this isn’t a mythical framework,” Dyck explained. “No different than how your rate is calculated for your car insurance or how your premiums are calculated for your house insurance, this is the same type of thing for your workers’ compensation and coverage for your employees.”
