1.3 Injury Statistics

The introduction to this chapter noted that there were 245,365 accepted workers’ compensation claims for time-loss injuries in 2012.^[1] As astounding as these annual time-loss injury numbers are, they profoundly understate the true level of workplace injury in Canada. The understatement of injury numbers occurs in a number of ways. First, time-loss injuries are accepted workers’ compensation claims where a worker could not report to work due to the injury.

Not all workers must (or can) report their injuries to a workers’ compensation board (WCB). In fact, only about 85% of workers are covered by workers’ compensation in Canada. So, right out of the gate, we know time-loss claims represent only 85% of all time-loss injuries. Second, WCBs don’t accept every time-loss claim filed by workers. Exact data on acceptance rates is unavailable, but approximately 5% of all workers who submit a claim have that claim rejected and thus those injuries are excluded from the total above. So far, then, the 245,365 claims represents only about 80% of all time-loss injuries. Third, not all workers report their injuries. The best data available suggests that 40% of injuries go unreported.^[3] All in all, this suggests the true number of time-loss injuries likely is closer to 430,000 per year.

Moreover, time-loss claims comprise only a fraction of all injuries. Missing from these numbers are all other injuries where the worker could go to work (albeit with an injury). This includes injuries requiring medical aid only or injuries where the employer was able to modify the worker’s duties to prevent time loss. It also includes injuries where the worker just decides to soldier on, such as burns, cuts, sprains, and strains, as well as injuries where the worker receives benefits from private medical insurance. The true number of workplace injuries is possibly as great as 10 times the reported number of time-loss injuries.^[4] The idea that there might be 2.4 million workplace injuries in Canada each year suggests that state injury-prevention efforts are not very effective.

So why are so many workplace injuries not reported? There are several explanations. Employers may discourage workers from reporting injuries because injury claims can affect employers’ workers’ compensation premiums as well as their ability to successfully bid on some contracts. Employers may offer workers paid time off and private insurance benefits in order to avoid workers’ compensation claims. The risk of this arrangement for workers is that, if the worker is re-injured at a later date and requires workers’ compensation benefits, there will be no record of the original injury and thus the “new” injury may not be fully compensable.