WSIB extends HSEP incentives through 2024
The Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) has announced that it will extend incentives for small businesses under its Health and Safety Excellence program (HSEP) for a further year – to the end of 2024.
The incentives, which were introduced in June 2022 allow businesses with fewer than 100 full-time employees to earn double the rebates for modules completed in the HSEP both this year and next.
Participating employers can also earn $1,000 toward their health and safety plans.
“Extending the additional incentives to the end of 2024 to help even more smaller businesses double their rebates while creating safer workplaces wasn’t a hard decision,” said WSIB’s vice-president of Workplace Health and Safety Services, Rod Cook. “Every business that invests in health and safety means fewer injuries in the long run so it’s important for us to help however we can.”
The HSEP connects Ontario businesses with approved providers in their industry or community who help design a plan based on 39 available health and safety topics.
For each topic completed, businesses can earn a rebate on their WSIB premiums. Since its inception in 2020, the program has distributed over $45 million in rebates.
A 2021 study by the Institute for Work & Health found that employees at small businesses were 44% more likely than those at large ones to experience a work-related injury. The study went on to suggest that much of the greater risk was due to weaker occupational health and safety policies and procedures at smaller firms.
“In statistical analyses, the greater risk of injury in small firms was fully accounted for by differences in OHS policies and procedures,” the report found. “Once these were controlled for, no differences in injury risk remained between small and large firms.”
More information about the Health and Safety Excellence program is available on the WSIB’s website.