Effective date: January 1, 2011
Application: All claims for casual, part-time and seasonal workers.
Policy subject: Benefits for Workers - Initial benefits
Purpose:
To establish the wage base for part-time, casual, and seasonal workers.
Average weekly earnings, as determined by Section 70(1) of The Workers’ Compensation Act, 2013 (the “Act”), means the greater of:
Gross earnings means the worker’s earnings from all sources of employment, before all deductions, within an industry under the scope of the Act or for which coverage has been elected.
Average gross earnings means the worker’s gross earnings, divided by the number of weeks in a particular period of time.
Regular gross earnings means the daily, weekly, monthly or other gross earnings a worker normally received prior to the commencement of the loss of earnings (e.g., agreement of hire typically requires the worker to work and be paid for 40 hours per week at $25.00 an hour).
Casual worker means a person who works full or part-time normally for a period of less than three months usually to meet peak or periodic demands. Those who work at holiday periods, during stocktaking or on call would qualify as casual workers.
Part-time worker means a person who regularly works less than 30 hours per workweek.
Seasonal worker means a person who works full or part-time for a period of more than three months but less than one year. This typically occurs in such industries as farming, forestry, oil drilling, construction and maintenance for municipalities, towns and villages that are busiest during periods of favourable weather.
Persons regularly employed in the same grade of employment means similar workers in the same industry working under the same terms and employment pattern as the injured worker. In other words, workers in the same job classification working under the same conditions for the same pay and for sufficient time to accurately determine a typical annual gross earning level. Examples are seasonal woodcutters, seasonal grader operators and farm labourers.
Inequitable, in relation to Section 70(4) of the Act, means compensation benefits that do not accurately reflect the worker’s loss of earnings (e.g., seasonal positions where an average of the worker’s earnings over a short period of time does not accurately reflect the amount of long term earnings expected for the type of employment). An equitable earnings loss benefit rate is fair and reasonable in considering all the circumstances of a particular case (i.e., the worker’s employment history, pattern, employment status, etc.). Consequently, it is important that each case is judged on its own merit when determining an equitable compensation rate since many cases will not conform to usual circumstances.
Initial Compensation
Review of Compensation
Recurrence of Injury
The Workers’ Compensation Act, 2013
18, 20, 23, 68, 70(1), 70(4)
PRO 35/2010 Compensation Rate – Casual and Seasonal Employment (Section 70(4))
POL 06/2016 Establishing Initial Wage Base
PRO 06/2016 Establishing Initial Wage Base
POL 28/2010 Compensation Rate – Minimum and Average Weekly Earnings
POL 22/2016 Offset of Canada or Quebec Pension Plan Disability Benefits
POL 05/2016 Compensation Rate – Excluded Earnings
POL 08/2007 Compensation Rate – Where No Earnings at Disablement or Death
POL 07/2020 Maximum Wage Rates
PRO 07/2020 Maximum Wage Rates
PRO 09/2020 Minimum Average Weekly Earnings (Section 70(5))
PRO 10/2020 Minimum Compensation (Section 75)