Alberta NDP MLA Rachel Notley said the Workers’ Compensation Board is discriminating against temporary foreign workers and she wants the minister of labour to direct WCB to change its policy.
When a worker is inured, WCB pays out 90 per cent of their salary. When the injury is no longer being treated, and if there is permanent disability afterwards, WCB then sets out to assess a long-term pension. This is where foreign workers a discriminated against, according to Notley.
“They do that by figuring out what kind of job the person can do given their disability and how much would this job pay, and then they take that amount and deduct it from the amount of compensation they used to earn,” Notley said.
“The problem is that it’s not even theoretically possible for him (a temporary foreign worker) to get that job because it’s illegal for him to take any job that he doesn’t have a permit to do.”
Notley said she suspects thousands of foreign workers are affected by WCB’s policy.
