aes THE WESTERN CANADIAN LUMBER WORKER ae ¥ rth sue

FROM PAGE SEVEN

reasons from now on. I pre-
fer to leave the matter to the
good faith of the Board.
Should it hereafter fail in its
duty, the legislature will have
to consider incorporating a
mandatory section in the Act
for I know of nothing else
that will achieve the required
purpose. Because of the con-
siderations that would have to

be kept in mind, the section,

would be difficult to draw, but
I think it could be done.”

This organization fully real-
izes that existent legislation
does not make this mandatory,
- but it has been our experience
Since this recommendation
was made by Chief Justice
Tysoe on November 26, 1965,
the recommendations afd in-
tent concerning this subject
matter has in our opinion
been given little or no con-
sideration by the Workmen’s
Compensation Board and
therefore we are recommend-
ing that the present legisla-
ture give serious considera-
tion to the enactment of legis-
lation whereby the intent of
this portion of the Tysoe Re-
port will be implemented by
statute.

Mr. Justice Branca in deal-
ing with some of the afore-

“UNION'S COMPENSATION BRIEF"

mentioned circumstances re
Workmen’s Compensation
Board, Dolly Seuriel case in
his judgment dated August
23, 1965, referred to a Su-
preme Court of Canada case,
1962, 37WWR49, whereby
Chief Justice J. Cartwright
dissented and stated, “In the
particular circumstances of
this case it was in my opinion
the duty of the Board to make
full disclosure to the respon-
dent of every item of evidence
on which it proposed to base
its decision, including the con-
tents of all statements made
to its inspector and the names
of the persons from whom
those statements have been
obtained, and having done so
to give the respondent a fair
opportunity to correct or con-
tradict that evidence.”

UNDUE DELAY

There is no doubt that a
great deal of undue delay has
been taken by the Workmen’s
Compensation Board and its
representatives in the adjudi-
cation and notification to the
claimant, which has in hun-
dreds of instances proven to
have incurred financial and
other hardships on the claim-
ant. There are. many indica-

tions presently on file in the
local unions of this Regional
Council to substantiate that
many weeks and yes, months,
have taken place from the
time of application of the in-
jured workman to a decision
being rendered by the Board.

These types of undue delays
have necessitated in many in-
stances such financial hard-
ships on the claimant that his
representatives have been re-
quested and directed to cease
further appeals to the Work-
men’s Compensation Board,
and direct their representa-
tives to make application for
coverage under the industry’s
Health and Welfare Plan. This
we feel is not only morally in-

correct, but denies the claim-:

ant a proper and just adjudi-
cation on the merits of his
individual case.

Therefore we would strong-
ly recommend that a thorough
analysis and perusal of the ad-
ministrative procedures of the
Workmen’s Compensation
Board be analyzed, with a
view of reducing the time re-
quirements for adjudication,
etc.

REVIEW PANEL

The present review panel is

~ SASK. LABOUR UNDER ATTACK
BY THATCHER'S LIBERAL GOVERNMENT

Labor organizations in Sas-
katchewan are facing another
attack launched by the
Thatcher government to un-
dermine labor’s position in
the province. :

In the present session of the
Saskatchewan legislature the
Liberal administration is
bringing in a bill to legalize
private fee-charging employ-
ment agencies. This type of
operation was prohibited in
the province in 1918 because
of its abuses and shortcom-
ings.

W. G. Gilbey, president of
the Saskatchewan Federation
of Labor, noted that the ap-
proach the government has
taken is one on which the
SFL has recently made rep-
resentations and therefore
“the government is surely
aware of Labor’s opposition.”

The federation president
stated that “the legalizing of
private, profit-making em-
ployment agencies opens the
door once again to the possi-
bility of discrimination in re-
gard to race, religion, colour,
sex, age, politics and attitudes
towards trade unionism.”

This was most regrettable,
he said, in view of the en-
deavours of the federal de-
partment of labor to work to-
wards the elimination of these
forms of discrimination in
Canada.

The Bill, known as Bill 10,
Mr. Gilbey said, “can only be
to undermine and interfere
- with the development of the
Canada Manpower Service,
which is counted to be among

the best of its kind in the
world. There is nothing that
private agencies can or are
likely to do that Canada Man-
power is not already doing,
or cannot do better.”

Mr. Gilbey said that “La-
bor’s position was backed by
local and regional committees

of Canada Manpower’s prede-
cessor, the National Employ-
ment Service, which are rep-
resentative of labor and Man-
agement and have periodical-
ly gone on record as recom-
mending that the public man-
power service should be the
sole replacement service in
Canada.”

SECRET MERGER TALKS

The Fishermen’s Union and United Packinghouse
Workers met in secret in Vancouver recently to discuss
the possibility of the two organizations merging.

LIGHTER SIDE

Two cannibals were having
lunch,

“You know, I just can’t
stand my father-in-law,” said
the first cannibal,

“Forget about him,” said
cannibal no, 2, “and concen-

trate on your vegetables!”
* * *

Pawnshop: a loansome

place.
* * *

Husband: a bachelor whose
luck finally failed.

BROADWAY
PRINTERS

printers and lithographers
since 1911

115 EAST 8th AVENUE
VANCOUVER 10, B.C.

Telephone 876-2101

still subject to the Board’s
policy and as such cannot be
completely objective. We
agree with the Commissioner’s
remarks that the Board per-
sonnel must necessarily oper-
ate within the general policies
of the commissioners, and that
it would be improper for them
as servants of the Board to do
other than reflect the policies
of the commissioners.

As a result of this principle
we would strongly urge the
Committee to recommend to
the Legislative Assembly that
an independent appeal body
be established on the same
principle as the Unemploy-
ment Insurance Commission’s
Court of Referees., and that
this appeal body be a three-
man Board, represented by
government, management and
labour. The procedure before
this committee should be in-
formal. The departmental
head responsible for rejecting
the claim should present his
reasons why the claim was re-
jected, and present all evi-
dence supporting his decision
to the committee.

The workman should be en-
titled to choose his own repre-
sentative, and all proceedings
should be kept simple and
concise rather than the pres-
ent highly technical and legal
procedures which completely
confuse workmen involved in
appeal procedure.

We are prepared to submit
documented cases of appeals
that have been denied on vari-
ous technical grounds and the
unnecessarily long periods of
time between the actual
appeal and the rendering of a
decision by the appeal board.

SECTION 13

This particular section is
continuously being violated
by many employers. Of any
of the methods used which en-
croach upon the worker’s
right to compensation none is
more insidious than the prac-
tice of the workman returning
to work before he has com-
pletely recovered; in many in-

stances this leads to total dis-
ability through the lack of
proper medical care and con-
valescing periods.

Artificially created jobs or
selective employment of non-
productive nature serve no
purpose, are of no benefit to
the worker, and only assist
the employer in keeping his
compensation assessments
low. ;

Section 13 as embodied in
Bill 22 provides no penalty on
an employer who follows the
practices calculated to dis-
courage recourse to Work-
men’s Compensation or to
enforce the reporting of acci-
dents. We give unqualified
support to the submission of
the B.C. Federation of Labour
in their suggestion that a fine
of not less than $500.00 for the
first offence should be levied
on any employer found guilty
of violating this section.

The methods of violating
Section 13 are many and
varied. Cases are on file where
injured workmen receive full
pay while injured, though
they have done no more than
report to the company prem-
ises and in some instances
have remained at home en-
tirely. A workman suffering
a disabling injury should not
be expected to return to work
until he has completely re-
covered and is able to return
to his regular job. Lack of
understanding of their rights
under the Workmen’s Com-
pensation Act and language
difficulties, allow the em-
ployer to intimidate and
coerce employees to refrain
from filing a Form 6 or appeal
forms under-the threat of dis-
crimination or a loss of em-
ployment.

We are prepared to submit
documented cases to substan-
tiate our contentions.

We trust you will give con-
sideration to this most vital
part of the proceedings under
the Compensation Act.

J. A. Moore,
IWA President.

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