Wilbur:
If I am not mistaken, prior to 1908 if you died on the job your family got nothing, period. You had no option to sue, there were no pensions. From 1908 to 1917, you may think
Wilbur wrote:This approach has several significant flaws. First, you have to prove the employer was negligent, and if you can't you get nothing. Second, the guilty employer can simply go bankrupt and again, you get nothing. Third, if you do get anything the lawyers will take most of it. Fourth, if anything is left for you it will be a lump sum that may run out before your needs do.
but it was better than getting nothing. After 1917, you say
Wilbur wrote:Most significantly, Meredith recommended our current collective liability system and the trade off that worker's gave up the right to sue, but gained guaranteed no-fault compensation regardless of what happened to the employer.
And that is as it should be,
UNLESS criminal negligence comes into play.
Wilbur wrote:This, however, does not mean employers can not face consequences for regulatory non-compliance. The BC Worker's Compensation Ammendment Act, Part 3, Occupation Health and Safety, Division 15 prescribes fines up to $500,000 and $25,000 per day thereafter that a violation continues, and 6 months imprisonment for a first offence. Those penalities double for second and subsequent offences. The WCB has the option of prosecuting both the corporte entity and the individual decision makers involved. Board officers can also impose administrative financial sanctions for violations of the Occupational Health and Safety Regulation.
However, as you concurred:
Although there is a presumption that OHS falls under provincial jurisdiction, the OHS of certain organizations will fall under federal jurisdiction...
While section 108(1)(c) of the Act permits the federal government to submit to the application of Part 3 of the Act, which would give WorkSafeBC the ability to inspect organizations that are under federal jurisdiction, the federal government has not submitted to the application of Part 3 of the Act under this section.
(see:
http://www2.worksafebc.com/Publications ... ionAct.asp)
This is my point. The WCB doesn't have the authority to impose the sanctions you mentioned above on TC regulated industried, and you have a regulator who doesn't regulate consistently with common sense and integrity.
As for:
Wilbur wrote:As well, following the Westray Mine disaster a few years ago, the federal government criminalized neglegence regarding workplace health and safety violations.
As far as the cops and prosecutors are concerned Bill C-45 did nothing to change their ability to actually impose charges, let alone make them stick. And if the regulator won't even look at the case to say whether or not the culprit did commit infractions, or won't admit to it because to do so would also implicate the regulator, then the cops hands are totally tied.
So where does that leave the dead guys family? If I'd taken my car to the shop and the mechanic did something wrong that caused a fatal accident, you better believe the system (and my lawyers) would be all over him.
Why should it be any different just because the fatality was logging, or worse still, working in the skies when it happened?
When you have a situation, such as ours, where somebody did something way wrong that ended up killing your loved one, then you tell me it is OK for the culprit to get away without ANY sanctions.
