Evaluation of the Federal Workers Compensation Service Program Summary

From: Employment and Social Development Canada

Evaluation of the Federal Workers Compensation Service Program: Phase I

The Program administers the Government Employees Compensation Act, which provides benefits to employees of the Public Service of Canada who sustain work-related injuries or illnesses. Phase I of the evaluation focused on Program changes made between 2012 and 2017 and whether these changes resulted in improved service delivery.

Key findings

More than 126,000 claims were processed for claimants to receive their benefits between 2010 and 2016.

In fiscal year 2016 to 2017:

• About 16,000 work-related injury or illness claims were opened.
• About half of the claims were reported to the Program by employers within 12 days.
• The average injury or illness reporting time was 54 days.
• 44% of claims were made by Canada Post employees.

Improvements included

• Creation of the Program Integrity Unit in 2012.
• Centralization of the program operations at Headquarters in 2014.

Some agreements with provincial Workers’ Compensation Boards have encountered implementation challenges related to claims processing and data sharing.

The Legacy database is limited in its capacity to collect data to monitor injured employees’ outcomes.

Recommendation

Continue working towards a more comprehensive data management framework to support reporting activities as well as monitoring performance and outcomes.

The full Evaluation of the Federal Workers Compensation Service: Phase 1 is now available.