On July 1, 2022, the Yukon government will bring into force new legislation to replace the existing Occupational Health and Safety Act, modernize the Workers’ Compensation Act, and amalgamate them into one piece of legislation — the new Workers' Safety and Compensation Act.
The new act includes:
- Changing the rules regarding coverage for work outside of the territory
- Simplifying the appeal process for workplace health and safety, compensation, assessment, and administrative penalties.
- Allowing the use of administrative penalties as an alternative to prosecution for contraventions of compensation provisions
- Increasing loss of earnings benefits to 100% of pre-work-related injury earnings for low-income workers
The new legislation will also change the name of the Workers’ Compensation Health and Safety Board to the Workers’ Safety and Compensation Board (WSCB).
Details regarding the WSCB changes are available here.