Government is moving forward with a comprehensive review process of workers compensation. The Honourable Paul Shelley, Minister of Human Resources, Labour and Employment, today provided an update on the status of the review and the next steps regarding Finding the Balance: The Report of the 2006 Statutory Review Committee on the Workplace Health, Safety and Compensation Act.

Subsequent to the release of the report, Minister Shelley directed the Labour Relations Agency (LRA) to solicit stakeholder feedback as part of an in-depth analysis of the recommendations contained in it. Given the comprehensive nature of the report and stakeholder requests, an extension for feedback was provided to enable them to respond to the report. In reply, government continued to accept feedback, beyond the original August deadline, into early fall.

"I have said from the start of this process that I want to ensure that the public and stakeholders have an opportunity to provide input before government considered its final position," said Minister Shelley. "We need to be flexible, and take the time to get it right. This means exercising due diligence to consider the ramifications of the report recommendations for all stakeholders and particularly injured workers, workers and employers."

In support of this process, Minister Shelley has also engaged stakeholders in face-to-face meetings to ensure that their views are understood by government. As recently as last week, discussions were held with stakeholder groups, more are planned and these will continue as needed throughout the fall.

From this dialogue and the analysis of the LRA, it is evident that there are significant financial impacts contained in the report recommendations for injured workers, workers and employers.

"This is a very comprehensive review process of workers compensation in the province. It contains recommendations for fundamental and important changes, many of which carry financial implications for the system. It is incumbent on government to have detailed costing information arising from the report," said Minister Shelley. "I have asked the Labour Relations Agency to work with the Workplace Health, Safety and Compensation Commission and conduct a detailed financial analysis and costing of the recommendations in the report."

This work will be completed by the end of this year. Government will use this information to determine its response to the recommendations in the report to be released by the end of February 2007.

The report, Finding the Balance: The Report of the 2006 Statutory Review Committee on the Workplace Health, Safety and Compensation Act, is available on-line at www.hrle.gov.nl.ca/lra/publications.

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Media contact:
Ed Moriarity
Director of Communications
Department of Human Resources, Labour and Employment
709-729-4062, 728-9623,
edmoriarity@gov.nl.ca