Tuesday, March 9, 2021

Labour & Pop Culture: WCB fraud

 

A colleague passed along this Kids in the Hall skit about construction workers jinning up a fake workers’ compensation claim. The premise is that the worker’s job is so bad he’s prepared to experience a disabling (but non-crippling) injury just to get some paid time off and his co-workers actively help him out.

 

This skit is interesting for several reasons. First, while there are lots of examples of blaming the worker for injuries in popular culture, there are relevantly few that deal with workers’ compensation fraud. 

 

Second, there are almost no reports of workers actually injuring themselves (because workers are not stupid!). Rather, what malingering occurs (and it appears to be pretty rare since being stigmatized as an injured worker is awful) tend to result from workers exaggerating the degree or duration of an injury (the supervisor’s back injury in the skit is actually a good example).

 

Third, the skit gives us a chance to ask what is left out. And, much like real fraud detection in workers’ compensation, what is left out is the employer. Employers failing to report payroll accurately and encouraging workers to not file claims is almost certainly a much bigger problem (that no one wants to tackle because employers are powerful) than worker fraud.

 

Finally, there was a joke about the incomplete level of compensation. “Compensation lets you live life to the fullest. Well, 90% of its fullest.” This deeply appeals to the policy wonk in me. Thanks for the tip, Jonathan!

 

-- Bob Barnetson

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