Financial incentives are an important part of the certificate of recognition (COR) program, so it's necessary for employers to understand the process and criteria they must meet to be considered for an incentive.

If you are an employer who has achieved COR certification and are in good standing with WorkSafeBC, you will be considered for an incentive approval.

It's important to note that incentives and COR certificates are two different streams. You may have a valid certificate and still not be approved for an incentive.

Process

To be eligible for an incentive, there are a number of steps involved after registering in the program.

After completing all required training and meeting other program standards, you must successfully pass your certification audit in order to be considered for an incentive for that year. In each of the following years (years two and three), you must successfully pass your annual maintenance audit to maintain your certification and to be considered for an incentive. In other words, you must have successfully obtained or maintained your certification for the incentive year to be considered eligible for an incentive.

Once your audit has been completed and verified, your certifying partner will update your status with WorkSafeBC indicating you are eligible for COR certification. In the year following your audit, WorkSafeBC will check to see if your company or organization is in good standing. After this verification, you will receive a letter regarding your incentive status and incentive credit amount.

Criteria

To be considered for an incentive, your organization must:

• Be registered with WorkSafeBC and maintain an active account
• Have achieved or maintained COR certification in the previous year (in other words, you conducted and passed an audit that met the certifying partner's verification process)
• Not have any exceptions to COR financial incentive eligibility

You will not be eligible for an incentive if, in the previous year, you have:

• Not reported your organization's payroll to WorkSafeBC. WorkSafeBC will notify you of the deadline to submit payroll for the purposes of the annual COR financial incentive. If you fail to report payroll by this deadline, you'll lose your eligibility for a financial incentive.
• Been convicted of a health and safety violation or received an administrative penalty. You will not be eligible for a financial incentive if a health and safety violation occurred at your organization that resulted in you being convicted by a court or issued an administrative penalty.

For more information about these exceptions, see Assessment policy AP5-247-4.

If WorkSafeBC is considering enforcement action or is investigating a workplace incident involving a certified employer, a decision will not be made on the employer's eligibility for financial incentive until the investigation is complete.

An employer's eligibility for a financial incentive will not be determined until any applicable review and appeal periods have expired or the review and appeal process has been completed.

Overview of timing and scheduling

WorkSafeBC starts considering incentive payments in the second quarter of the year following certification. This is because the beginning of the second quarter is when the Partners Program considers payroll for the previous year to have been stabilized. If the incentive is not paid by the end of the second quarter, the audit is reconsidered for incentive three more times before the next year.

For example, if your organization is certified at any point this calendar year, it will be considered for an incentive as early as the second quarter of the next year. You can expect to receive your confirmation, and incentive credit if applicable, in your assessment account by the end of June. Please contact our office after July 1 if you have not received correspondence related to your prior year's audit/credit.

Incentive amount

WorkSafeBC uses the following calculation to determine the incentive amount:

Employer's reported assessable payroll x (CU base rate / 100) x 10%

Example

Additional details

• You're eligible to receive a financial incentive for each year you hold a valid COR and where none of the exceptions to COR financial incentive eligibility apply.
• Financial incentives are calculated using 10 percent of your organization's base assessment premiums for each classification unit included in your COR.
• The minimum annual financial incentive is the lesser of $1,000 or 75 percent of the premiums you’ve paid for the financial incentive year being calculated. The minimum is calculated at the account level for the classification units that are certified.
• If you would like to request a refund of the remaining COR credit from your assessment account, please complete the Certificate of Recognition (COR) Refund Request form .