WorksafeNB CEO Doug Jones. (WorksafeNB)
WorkSafeNB has announced the provincial average assessment rate has dropped 9.6 per cent for 2021.
The current rate of $2.40 per $100 of assessable payroll will drop to $2.17 per $100 next year.
WorkSafeNB attributes the drop to fewer workplace accidents, and lower costs for claims and administration.
“We are becoming a safer province,” said Doug Jones, president and CEO of WorkSafeNB. “There’s people paying more attention to their own safety as individuals. Companies are paying more attention to safety in their workplaces because nobody wants to see anybody get injured.”
A release issued by WorkSafeNB said workplace injuries dropped 12 per cent in 2019 from 2018, giving the province its lowest rate of lost-time to injury recorded in the past 10 years.
The number of workers able to return to work within six months of an injury also dropped from 79 per cent in 2018 to 73 per cent in 2019.
Jones said the drop in injuries wasn’t only seen in one or two industries.
“We saw that (drop) across the board, in all segments of the province, including our biggest (industries): construction, retail and healthcare,” Jones said. “That was the biggest driver (of the rate decrease).”
The projected cost of new injuries dropped 9.5 per cent from 2020, while the drop in administrative costs was reduced by 15.5 per cent.
