• Essentials for managing today’s complex and expensive WSIB claims
• Minimizing organization’s lost time and cost in dealing with claims
• Foundation to bolster competence and confidence in this challenging area

Learn:

• How to Investigate accidents and report claims
• How to deal with doctors
• Develop and implement Early and Safe Return to Work including problems with:
  • Absent, ambiguous, and dubious medical information
  • Self imposed physical restrictions
  • Refusal to work scheduled hours
  • How to handle permanent disability, re-employment, and accommodation
  • How to conclude claims and manage legal hurdles to termination

Agenda

Investigating the Accident and Filing Form 7

• What to do when an accident has occurred
• Information the WSIB wants to see in deciding a claim
• Rules of determining entitlement in a claim
• Categories of a claim: specific accident, recurrences, disablement, occupational disease
• Consequences of failing to file Form 7 or providing misleading information

Early and Safe Return-to-Work Plans (ESRTW Plans): How to Prepare them, What Goes In Them, How They Should be Documented

• Putting together an ESRTW plan that complies with the employer’s obligations under the WSIA and moves the claims process forward towards successful closure
• What to include in an ESTRW plan and why: description of duties, time frames, signatures, and goal
• Documenting the ESRTW plans, who should have input into its contents and who should receive copies
• Employer techniques for enforcing rights in case of employee refusal to cooperate in the formulation of the ESRTW plan
• Obligations on reporting: what should be reported and when

Typical ESRTW Plan Problems (Part I): Medical Information

• Dealing with lack of medical information, vague or ambiguous medical information, conflicting medical information
• WSIB vs. family doctor
• Family doctor vs. the specialist
• Doubtful medical information, exaggerated or unrelated medical opinions

Typical ESRTW Plan Problems (Part II): Worker Non-Cooperation

• Addressing self-imposed, self-described physical restrictions that conflict with medical information
• Dealing with ESRTW plan employee arriving late/leaving early/ refusing to work the hours scheduled
• Worker-dedicated job descriptions and worker preferences
• Failure to achieve goals set out in the plan

Permanency, Re-Employment, and Accommodation

• Duration of the ESRTW plan
• How and when to move the plan from one stage to the next
• In the event of worker not recovering fully or failure to achieve goals set out in the plan

Four Types Of Closure (Part I)

• Accommodating a permanently disabled employee with a job that’s productive
• Four ways to bring a claim to closure:
  • Worker returns to pre-accident job
  • Worker returns to work in another productive job that already exists
  • Worker’s employment is terminated with benefits
  • Worker’s employment is terminated without benefits
• How to bring a claim to closure by keeping in mind this range of objectives

Four Types Of Closure (Part II): Legal Hurdles In Termination

• Common law rules and frustrations of contract
• Recognizing when incapacity justifies termination
• Arbitration and incapacity: when labour arbitrators consider a termination justified
• The Human Rights Code: how the “duty to accommodate” applies to claims management
• Re-employment rights under the WSIA: application, plus NEER and other experience rating implications

Book an In-House or Remote Program

For further information on our training, please call your lawyer at the Firm. If you are not a current client, please contact: