Difference between revisions of "Workers' Compensation Claim Benefits (7:XI)"

Another exception is a “new” worker, defined as when the worker was permanently employed by the accident employer for less than 12 months before the injury.  For this type of worker, section 217 (previously 33.3) of the WCA allows the “average earnings” to be calculated based on what a person of similar status employed in the same type and classification of employment would earn in 12 months.  However, section 217 is not applicable where the worker’s employment is deemed casual or temporary.  

Under section 218 (previously 33.4) of the Act, the Board may also determine average earnings differently in “exceptional” circumstances, if the one-year average would be “inequitable”.  This provision does not apply to cases of “casual” workers or to “new” permanent workers as described above.  Practice Directive #C9-12 states that an exceptional case is one that is “truly extraordinary”, “unusual”, or “irregular”, such that “the worker’s circumstances in the year prior to the injury fail to provide any meaningful measure of their employment history”.  Examples might include a non-compensable illness or injury or maternity/paternity obligations.  Under this exception, an officer has discretion to seek a long-term average earnings figure that better reflects the worker’s real income loss, possibly by excluding a significant atypical disruption (i.e. one lasting more than six weeks) or basing the worker’s “average earnings” on a longer or shorter period of time.