Program Overview

The Safety Group program promotes health and safety in the workplace. This is accomplished though mentoring, pooling of resource and sharing of best practices between member firms, their sponsor and the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB). Along with improved safety records member firms can receive financial benefits in the form of rebates from the WSIB. To recieve these rebates you must be a schedule 1 firm and attend three mandatory meetings per year.

The Safety Group program is administered by the WSIB. It was first implemented in 2000 and has received high approval rating from participating members.

Workplace Safety North is currently sponsoring a safety group made up of firms from the Forestry sector. In 2000, our total rebate on WSIB premiums was 1,337,167.77, which was shared by 45 firms. In 2001 our total group rebate on WSIB insurance premiums was 906,422.49, which was shared by 68 firms. The total rebate for 2002 was $2,200,000.

How the Program Works

At the start of the year, member firms select five safety elements they will initiate or improve upon, from a list provided by the WSIB; Firms must attend 3 mandatory meeting out of four meeting per year, share ideas and pool resources, learning from each other how to put these initiatives into place. At the end of the year the safety group can receive a rebate, based on the entire group’s success in implementing their safety elements.
If all the firms complete all the required health and safety changes, the group will receive the full potential rebate.