The Workers Compensation Board of Manitoba provides a variety of vocational rehabilitation services intended to help injured workers return to employment.

Human Resources

At the time this research was conducted, vocational rehabilitation services at the Workers Compensation Board of Manitoba were delivered by approximately 25 Vocational Rehabilitation Consultants (VRC’s) organized into four service delivery units. One of these units is a “Specialized Services Unit” (also known as “Unit 5”). This unit was established in 1995 and provides vocational rehabilitation services to claimants with particularly challenging disabilities (e.g. head injury, chronic pain, psychological problems) as well as providing support to claimants in crisis situations.

During this study, the Vocational Rehabilitation Department did not have a Director. Two unit supervisors were Acting Director at different times.

Although employment services are part of vocational rehabilitation, the Employment Services department is organizationally separate from the Vocational Rehabilitation department. Eight Employment Specialists and two Facilitators provide job search assistance to claimants.

All Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment Services staff are centrally located at the WCB’s Winnipeg offices. Some travel to other parts of Manitoba to provide services to claimants outside Winnipeg.

Vocational Rehabilitation Statistics

According to the WCB’s 1999 annual report, there were 448 “new entrants to rehab programs” in 1999 and a total of 1,009 “active rehabilitation claims” (WCB of Manitoba, 2000b: 49-50). Vocational Rehabilitation supervisory staff reported that the average caseload of a VRC is approximately 50. Employment Services staff reported that most Employment Specialists have caseloads of approximately 35 claimants. (Employment Specialists who do individualized marketing tend to have smaller caseloads of approximately 10-15 claimants each.)

Vocational Rehabilitation Policy

The WCB’s Policy Manual contains approximately 35 pages under the section of Vocational Rehabilitation, but the core vocational rehabilitation policies are contained in the first 12 pages. ^[14]

Goals and Objectives

WCB policy 43.00 states that “The goal of vocational rehabilitation is to help the worker to achieve a return to sustainable employment in an occupation which reasonably takes into consideration the worker’s post-injury physical capacity, skills, aptitudes and, where possible, interests…Vocational rehabilitation strives to return workers to the salary level they were earning before the accident” (Workers Compensation Board of Manitoba, undated1).

Eligibility

In Manitoba, and in all other provinces and territories except Quebec, vocational rehabilitation services are not an entitlement of injured workers (Association of Workers’ Compensation Boards of Canada, 1998: 5). Instead, these services are provided at the discretion of the Workers Compensation Board of Manitoba. ^[15]

According to policy 43.00, injured workers will receive vocational rehabilitation services if one or more of the following conditions exists:

• they will not be able to work for at least six months,
• they will not be able to return to their previous job without help,
• they are at risk of chronic injury,
• their injuries prevent them from doing their pre-injury jobs,
• they require assistance with the activities of daily living.

Services

The Workers Compensation Board of Manitoba provides five sets of vocational rehabilitation programs. ^[16]

Adjustment Program: Some injured workers experience personal, social, or emotional difficulties that need to be addressed before they can make progress on returning to employment. The Adjustment Program addresses these difficulties, with the goal of minimizing the impact on the worker’s recovery and rehabilitation.

Assessment Program: This program is used to evaluate a claimant’s vocational functioning and potential (i.e. determine what she/he is capable of doing and what she/he is capable of being trained to do). Assessment can include aptitude, interest, and achievement tests, functional capacity assessments, medical assessments, job analysis, situational assessments, and work site assessments. The two-week Career Planning workshop provided by Employment Services may also be part of the assessment phase.

Employment Program: When an injured worker’s vocational rehabilitation plan has a job search component, the Employment Program provides services to prepare the claimant to compete for employment opportunities. The range of services is extensive, and includes interview and job search skills workshops, and individual job search assistance from Employment Specialists who market claimants to employers. This job search assistance may include work experience and work assessment placements, and/or training-on-the-job programs.

Re-education, Vocational and Academic Training Program. This program deals with the identification, choice, and funding of academic or vocational upgrading and training.

Independent Living Program. This program provides services intended to promote, enhance, and maintain the broader non-vocational quality of life of persons who have experienced serious workplace injuries or conditions resulting in significant disability. These services can include modifications to residences and vehicles, as well as clothing and attendants’ allowances.

Individualized Written Rehabilitation Plans

When a claimant begins receiving vocational rehabilitation services, one of the first steps following assessment is the development of an Individualized Written Rehabilitation Plan (IWRP). ^[17] The IWRP is a document which outlines the rehabilitation plan, including its goals and objectives, the responsibilities of the claimant, and the benefits and services the WCB will provide to achieve the plan’s objectives.

Ideally, the plan is developed—and agreed to—by the Vocational Rehabilitation Consultant, the claimant, and, in some cases, the claimant’s employer and/or healthcare practitioner. In cases where the claimant and the VRC do not agree on the content of the plan, the WCB expects the claimant to participate in the plan developed by the VRC. The injured worker may use the appeal process to pursue his/her preferred vocational plan.

Hierarchy of Objectives

WCB Policy 43.00 indicates that Vocational Rehabilitation Consultants use the following seven-tiered hierarchy of objectives when developing Individualized Written Rehabilitation Plans (IWRP’s):

1. return to the same work with the same employer
2. return to the same work (modified) with the same employer
3. return to different work with the same employer
4. return to similar work with a different employer
5. return to different work with a different employer
6. re-training and re-education
7. self-employment

These objectives are pursued in a sequential manner (i.e. each lower objective is pursued only if the higher objectives have been determined to not be appropriate or feasible). Although re-training and re-education is one of the last options in the hierarchy of objectives, re-training or re-education may also be provided where one of the previous options is being pursued. According to Policy 44.101, the final objective—self-employment—is considered only when a claimant cannot participate in conventional vocational rehabilitation programs, or when self-employment is determined to be more likely than other vocational options to allow the injured worker to achieve maximum earnings. WCB staff have also indicated that self-employment is only considered when the claimant approaches the WCB with a feasible business idea. In practice, therefore, it is a six-tiered hierarchy of objectives, with self-employment as an additional option for a limited number of claimants.

Apprentices and Youthful Workers Policy

While not a part of the Vocational Rehabilitation policy (43.00), the Apprentices and Youthful Workers policy (44.80.30.30) includes a provision related to vocational rehabilitation.

This policy acknowledges that young workers can usually expect to see their earnings increase as they gain work experience. A serious workplace injury can bring that earnings increase to a halt. When apprentices or workers under the age of 25 are seriously injured while earning less than the industrial average wage, policy 44.80.30.30 provides a mechanism to gradually increase their wage loss benefits to the amount they would receive if they were earning the industrial average wage at the time of their injuries.

During the first two years of an eligible worker’s claim, his/her wage loss benefits are calculated normally as 90 per cent of net loss of earning capacity. After two years, however, his/her pre-injury earnings are increased 10 per cent each year, until his/her average earnings equal the average industrial wage.

Policy 44.80.30.30 also states that WCB vocational rehabilitation efforts will aim to return an eligible claimant’s earning capacity to the industrial average wage, unless her/his pre-injury earnings exceeded the industrial average wage.

Deemed Earning Capacity

There is considerable debate about whether the goal of vocational rehabilitation services should be to support injured workers until they are actually employed, or until they achieve employability. Currently, the WCB of Manitoba regards employability as the goal. Therefore, some injured workers’ wage loss benefits are concluded or reduced even if they have not managed to return to work. This practice is know as deeming.

Deeming occurs when a Vocational Rehabilitation Consultant makes a decision that a claimant is capable of performing a particular job, and that job exists in the labour market. The claimant is “deemed” capable of earning the wage associated with that job, and her/his wage loss benefits are reduced by this amount, even if she/he is not actually employed in that or any other job.

According to WCB policy 44.80.30.20, “deemed earning capacity will generally be used as a last resort after all reasonable or available vocational rehabilitation/re-employment options have been exhausted” (Workers Compensation Board of Manitoba, undated1).

Relocation

Because Winnipeg and other urban centres tend to have the greatest number of employment opportunities in Manitoba, rural WCB claimants who are receiving vocational rehabilitation services are sometimes asked by the WCB to relocate to a larger community. Policy 43.20.40 states that relocation will “normally be pursued or approved” where there are “few, if any opportunities for suitable re-employment in the community in which the worker lives, and greater prospects for suitable and optimum re-employment exist in another community” (Workers Compensation Board of Manitoba, undated1).

Claimants who decline to relocate for reasons the WCB considers reasonable ^[18] usually receive wage loss benefits for three years. ^[19] After three years, however, they may be deemed capable of earning a wage associated with a job that is available in a larger community. In other words, if a rural claimant is deemed capable of performing and obtaining a job that is available in a larger community, his/her wage loss benefits may be reduced by the wage associated with that job even though it may not be available in or near the community where he/she resides.