Within the workers’ compensation system, employee absence can effect Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) premiums and adds the potential for further financial surcharges in the form of claim experience rating plans. To counter this, the WSIB proactively encourages employers to set-up return to work (RTW) and stay at work (SAW) accommodations.
But although work at home programs may be a good course of action, there are certain considerations that need to be addressed from a workers’ compensation standpoint before adopting an at home accommodation.
Kevin Lamont, consultant with claims management specialist Crawford and Company, warned that providing transitional duties at home means that the injured employee’s home becomes an authorized worksite, and can potentially increase an employer’s exposure to further workers’ compensation injury claims at the employee’s home with an absence of proper risk and safety oversight.
Given that risk control measures cannot be fully implemented at an employee’s domicile, employees with work-related injuries who are already vulnerable to (re)injury are exposed to the risk of secondary injuries, which may be covered by the WSIB, Lamont said.
With remote workers, there is the challenge of determining whether a medical incident is a result of business activities and might require a workers’ compensation claim to be filed. The line between personal activities and work activities becomes blurred and the work-relatedness of claims becomes harder to confirm. In a July 2015 RIMS Executive Report on “Risk Management and Remote Work Policies,” Carolyn Snow, director of risk management with Humana Inc., said that whenever you have a workers’ compensation claim without a witness – falling down stairs or slipping – it’s not unusual for those to be the more difficult claims. As such, employers can become exposed to unverifiable and even fraudulent secondary injury, recurrence and aggravation claims.
For employees performing transitional duties at home, it also becomes more difficult for supervisors to monitor an employee’s recovery, particularly where medical information has not been appropriately captured, creating challenges in terms of accurate reporting to the WSIB.
Lamont said that ultimately, work at home options are not recommended as a panacea for all accommodation issues. Working towards identifying a successful solution, obtaining detailed information on functional abilities and carefully deliberating transitional work options remains the best course of action for lost time mitigation, regulatory compliance and controlling an organization’s cost of risk.
