Bill 9 received Royal Assent on May 14 and contains a number of changes to Part 3 of the Workers Compensation Act (Act).

The goal of the changes is to improve workplace health and safety and strengthen the tools that WorkSafeBC uses to enforce the Act and the Occupational Health and Safety Regulation.

To support the changes, the Board of Directors approved the creation of a new interim OHS policy regarding employer incident investigations.   The policy and amendments apply to incidents that occur between May 27, 2015 and December 31, 2015 and will be replaced by final policies following public consultation.

Interim Incident Investigation Policies
(D10-175-1 and D10-176-1)

Bill 9 changed the requirements for employer incident investigations. The major changes are that an employer must undertake a preliminary investigation within 48 hours of the incident and submit a full investigation report to WorkSafeBC within 30 days of an incident. WorkSafeBC may grant an extension for the full investigation report. The investigation reports must be prepared as set out by policy.

The interim policies D10-175-1 (Preliminary Investigations) and D10-176-1 (Full Investigations) identify the required content for each report and provide additional guidance for each.