‘Broken Promises & Cover-ups’

Author: Thomas Brown 

To date, I’ve seen no evidence whatsoever of such a review by this government (Updated: see "Service Review" here). Furthermore when I re-submitted my concerns to its newly-appointed ‘Minister Responsible for WCB’, he flatly refused to inquire into the Board’s handling of my claim stating: “there are no provisions in the Act that would permit the Minister to initiate an inquiry or review of the decisions made on a claim.”

The SaskParty has however made one significant change to "the Board’s operation". In March of 2008 they announced they had fired the Chair at WCB, and replaced him with SaskParty supporter David Eberle. It’s important to note that Eberle has strong ties to the business community, and is himself a business owner. As such, he’s both an employer, and a stakeholder in WCB. Mr. Eberle is described as being "passionate about reducing the province’s accident rate, and the subsequent cost to employers".

Having said this, it should be noted that the Board at WCB consists of 3 members; an employer representative, a worker representative, and the Chair. The ‘Minister Responsible for WCB’ describes this Board as a tribunal, “with equal representation from employers and workers”. Given a key function of the Chair is to rule on appeals that cannot be mutually agreed upon by the employer and worker representative, and considering the new Chair himself is an employer/WCB stakeholder, clearly workers no longer have “equal representation” at board-level appeals. Given this is the last avenue of appeal for most injured workers, this is obviously cause for concern.  

The second issue I raised with the SaskParty pertains to serious privacy violations on the part of WCB. As evidenced on the adjoining pages of this site, as well as another website I’ve published, WCB has not only breached the privacy of injured workers like myself, it has also breached that of my former employer and co-workers.

The issue involves a financial report that was inappropriately released in conjunction with my injury claim. The report, which resulted from a financial audit of my former employer’s business, was released by WCB without the employer's authorization, or others mentioned in it. The report contains:

• The personal financial information of all employees
• Confidential "sealed tender” bids for government contracts awarded to the employer
• The income the employer received from these contracts

There were in fact 2 unauthorised disclosures of this audit report, the most recent being in November of 2007. Surprisingly enough, it was WCB's privacy officer/solicitor who released this information on both occasions. Given such disclosure contravenes The Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, the SK Privacy Commissioner is currently investigating this matter.

It should however be noted that such disclosure also contravenes privacy legislation found in The Workers’ Compensation Act. Section 171(1) of the Act specifically addresses this issue, while section 171(2) outlines the charge/penalty for any infractions. It was for this reason that I contacted the Board at WCB, insisting these charges be filed against their privacy officer. In response however the now former Chair refused to enforce this legislation, claiming their privacy officer acted “in the performance of his duties under the authority of the Board”.

Next to those pertaining to my injury claim, this is one of the most absurd explanations I’ve heard to date, and it clearly indicates a cover-up on the part of the Board. Obviously it's the duty of their privacy officer to ‘protect’ the privacy of WCB stakeholders, not to ‘violate’ it. Furthermore the financial information of my former employer and co-workers has no relevance whatsoever to my injury claim, and clearly should not have been disclosed in conjunction with it. 3 of these co-workers have written the Board regarding this disclosure and to date, their letters have gone unanswered. This too is clearly indicative of a cover-up.   

In addition to the above officials, I’ve also written the ‘Minister of Crown Corporations’ regarding WCB’s disclosure of confidential ‘sealed tender’ bids on crown contracts. Despite 5 letters to this affect, as well as 4 telephone inquiries, I’ve received no response whatsoever from his office.

And last but not least, I’ve also written Premier Brad Wall regarding this issue. Despite 9 letters to this affect, most of which take direct issue with his cabinet’s handling of this matter, I’ve received no response whatsoever from his office. Given the months that have past since my last letter, it's safe to conclude that the leader of this “more accountable government” will not be responding.

You see in March of 2007, the SK Privacy Commissioner filed a “Breach of Privacy” report regarding WCB’s unlawful disclosure of a worker’s information. Turns out that such disclosure has been common practice with WCB for years, and as evidenced in my case, it can also involve the personal/corporate information of others. Subsequently the Commissioner’s report has prompted civil action against WCB, for privacy violations under The Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FOIP), as well as The Health Information Protection Act (HIPA). Once these civil suits become a matter of public record (as all court proceedings do), there's clearly the potential for hundreds of similar suits, if not a major class-action suit.