The Workers Compensation Amendment Act (No. 2), 2015 - more commonly known as Bill 35 - came into effect on Jan. 1, 2016, establishing a number of new requirements for workplaces across British Columbia.
One primary purpose of Bill 35 is to strengthen the Workers' Compensation Board of British Columbia’s (WorkSafeBC) ability to promote and enforce occupational health and safety compliance in British Columbia. This is accomplished by building off of Bill 9, the Workers Compensation Amendment Act, 2015, which came into force last summer.
As part of Bill 35, employers must now do the following:
- Report all workplace fires or explosions to WorkSafeBC that injured or could have injured an employee.
- Provide preliminary and full incident investigation reports to their joint occupational health and safety committee or worker representative within 30 days of an incident. Employers should post these reports at the worksite if a committee or representative does not exist in the workplace. Previously, providing these incident reports was optional.
- Carry out incident investigations with the participation of employer and worker representatives. Under Bill 35, participation can include, but is not limited to, viewing the incident scene, offering advice or taking part in other WorkSafeBC activities.
- Consult with joint occupational health and safety committees when proposed machinery or equipment changes have the potential to impact employee health and safety.
In addition, Bill 35 allows WorkSafeBC to help joint occupational health and safety committees resolve health and safety disagreements more proactively, even if a committee has not formally reported the issue to WorkSafeBC.
Contact a CapriCMW Risk Advisor for more insurance and risk-related information and resources.
