Mental Stress 101by WCB of Alberta

( This posting was originally placed May 2011 )

For the past 6 out of 10 years I have had many thoughts pertaining to WCB and their actions, lost many hours sleep due to nightmares or frustration, the mind games that are played by them makes me feel like they are attempting to make me lose control of my thoughts. Why? I think so they can say I am a threat to their safety, as they have done to many other injured workers. I am not allowed to enter their building to pickup cheques, why I don't know? I never threatened them, but they write down what ever they feel at the time. I have found that if I rebuttal any conversation to my claims manager, I am them penalized by slow down of progress of my claim or payments not sent out at scheduled time, but the excuses are constant; waiting on supervisor consent, computer is down on the cheque writer,file is in assistance hands etc; none of this is on paper which is why I no longer communicate via telephone. To many conversations were re-written out of context or not even posted on my file. Managers claiming that their hands are tied yet an assistant is able to accomplish what manager claimed they could not; or stating that they are unable to change another claims managers decision, yet many changes have been made. Mangers refusing professionals or my request's ; 5 years later it is claimed as "offered" though I chose a different path; regardless of what was on file years before; becomes official statement.That pertained to the first academic training, which was I unable to compete in. It was the second academic training, less then a year later, is the reason of my criminal charges.
I attempt to start my own business, only to be told "I know nothing of business", therefore you must go to "Business Administration"! Academically challenged ? need the upgrading in order to compete academically? NO!, pass, fail or dropout we (WCB) are done with you. All that was 5 years ago and I am still dealing with the aftermath. Just now priorities are to catch up with what little I receive, after no financial income for 6 months, which was social assistance. I am again under investigation due to WCB keeping 100% of benefits and informing social assistance that I was in receipt of said benefits: yearly income statement from WCB is less then what we received from assistance monthly. Manipulation of information which caused Zero income for my family, which is under enough hardship due to 2 physically restricted members of the family, one adult , one child.
It is pathetic the way WCB Alberta is allowed to operate, they are like little children allowed to play without parental supervision.

Now I know why the Police will not investigate

After I read this article http://www.thestar.com/printArticle/702444 I now know why I never received any assistance from my local police or Government officials.I am not the only person that has witness this type of corruption as SuperNewf has also made public http://injuredworker.ca/v1/node/34.

With evidence of outright fraud by WCB for monies wrongfully collected, monies re-claimed as owing ( already collected) and payment file information altered on claim, I took the information to the R.C.M.P with a formal complaint, the R.C.M.P will not investigate, instead they advised I retain a lawyer and forensic auditor, each at a minimum of $250.00 per hour, yet when the WCB requests their help they jump on the person with great enthusiasm,I also took this information to the auditor generals office and received a similar answer, that they do not do privet audits to assist in fighting WCB, the office only audits WCB's yearly finances (that are juggled to suit the company), our government allows WCB to do what they wish , when I requested an audit on my claim due to wrongful monies taken from me more then 3 times for the same so called overpayment,after 4 different audits by WCB ( each one was different). Later I was informed by the appeals commission that WCB is not legislated to provide audits to the claimants. Where is our protection from WCB, if it is not our Government or R.C.M.P then who is it? Who is there to protect the public from companies like WCB? If the WCB's of North America all work this this way , then who runs our countries? Who police's them? Why are they not accountable for their crimes? I demand an answer from our so called heads of government why this is allowed to happen.

An Apology and advice to the Alberta Government

Before I go to much into this I want to say that all that has been written in my blog I still standby it.The comments on Government, Provincially and Federally are still responsible for the WCB's across Canada, with that said it has come to my attention (via freedom of information)that the Alberta Government has done somewhat of an inquiry into my situation. The information I supplied to the GoA,in all honesty,pertained to the actions of manipulation of financial and personal information (now it has included medical). The GoA had received responses from the WCB of Alberta and those replies are not answers, as per your questions about my claim;information was withheld by the WCB and only part of the situation was answered. WCB admitted that they did not give all the financial information and passed the blame to the department of Social Services. My main complaint was the double dipping into the finances that was claimed I owed to their department and that when I originally made these accusations, it was due to T-5 tax statements made by the WCB of Alberta for the years of 2003 and 2008, both to the extremes, 2003 claimed I made approximately $24,000.00 more then my benefits; 2008 stated I only made $943.11 when they also claimed that I was paying back $818.00 per month towards overpayments, which they withheld 100% and forced my family to Social Services.
Now how can I make $818.00 per month and yet only receive $943.11 for the whole year; especially when I am being investigated for not reporting the $818.00 per month, of which I did inform the Department of at the beginning of assistance, but a year later am told that I had to report it each month.During that time WCB had been ordered by the Appeals Commission to supply me with regular updates on my claim pertaining to financial interactions, which had obviously not been done. WCB also stated in their communications to the GoA that I did not comply with the Appeals Commission's request to hand over all WCB benefit cheque stubs, therefore I was non-compliant and they did not have to proceed any further. The WCB of Alberta has put the blame on Social Assistance and myself for their mishandling of my claim, but that does not excuse them from everything else that happened,(example; information handed to the Appeals Commission after the hearing that purposely defends the claims manager in the manner of financial mistakes made by "her" not by the payment specialist's). That then creates another matter for investigation,this particular claim needs to addressed directly and not by WCB staff like it has been for the past few years all that does is allow the WCB to keep re-writing information that will reflect accuracy of their financial statements that they have used to remove monies for the same overpayment numerous times. The GoA has been told lies and half truths by the WCB of Alberta pertaining to my situation, as well as the F.O.I.P office has taken a very long time to go through my information before handing it me (as of July 8,2009 I have only received half of it and was ordered in March 2009),with a large amount of information being withheld from disclosure.
I am apologizing to the Government of Alberta for many of things I have said towards your lack of intervention, mainly due to the information that the WCB has supplied back to the Premier and Minister's that did inquire into my claim, was inaccurate, half truths and dealt with the present finances; not directly with the complaints that were originally made to your office .
I would like to offer some advice to the GoA pertaining to the WCB and the claimants that contact your offices on a daily basis, listen to the injured workers and be more thorough on information received from the WCB, when WCB sends back letters advising that they made a mistake on a financial amount and inform you of the "real" amount and it is twice that original amount; then you should question the actions of the WCB and have things investigated immediately. As it says in the F.I.O.P documents that I have received so far; the replying agent for WCB,sends requests for permission and answers from another department before answering your inquiries.
One last piece of advise I would like to add Mr.Premier is that please let the complainants such as myself, be more informed of Government intervention and actions, that will cease any doubts of non-compliance by this Government. A investigation is needed into this organization,WCB is under R.I.C.O investigation in the States http://www.riskandinsurance.com/story.jsp?storyId=185931550&topic=Main ;the main difference here in Canada is that the WCB has judicial protection; the Justice Minister has been claiming to do "GET HARD ON ORGANIZED CRIME" well remember that CORPORATE CRIME is also ORGANIZED CRIME.

Dear Prime Minister Harper and any other Politician that claims to stand for Canadians

After all the searching that has been done by myself and other injured workers, we are curious as to why with the Free Trade Agreement that there is an agreement pertaining to labour, namely the North American Agreement on Labour Cooperation.

PREAMBLE
- protect, enhance and enforce basic workers' rights

Article 5: Procedural Guarantees

"1. Each Party shall ensure that its administrative, quasiiudicial, judicial and labor tribunal proceedings for the enforcement of its labor law are fair, equitable and transparent and, to this end, each Party shall provide that:

(a) such proceedings comply with due process of law;

(b) any hearings in such proceedings are open to the public, except where the administration of justice otherwise requires;

(c) the parties to such proceedings are entitled to support or defend their respective positions and to present information or evidence; and

(d) such proceedings are not unneccessarily complicated and do not entail unreasonable charges or time limits or unwarranted delays.

2. Each Party shall provide that final decisions on the merits of the case in such proceedings are:

(a) in writing and preferably state the reasons on which the decisions are based;

(b) made available without undue delay to the parties to the proceedings and, consistent with its law, to the public; and

(c) based on information or evidence in respect of which the parties were offered the opportunity to be heard.

3. Each Party shall provide, as appropriate, that parties to such proceedings have the right, in accordance with its law, to seek review and, where warranted, correction of final decisions issued in such proceedings.

4. Each Party shall ensure that tribunals that conduct or review such proceedings are impartial and independent and do not have any substantial interest in the outcome of the matter.

5. Each Party shall provide that the parties to administrative, quasijudicial, judicial or labor tribunal proceedings may seek remedies to ensure the enforcement of their labor rights. Such remedies may include, as appropriate, orders, compliance agreements, fines, penalties, imprisonment, injunctions or emergency workplace closures.

6. Each Party may, as appropriate, adopt or maintain labor defense offices to represent or advise workers or their organizations.

7. Nothing in this Article shall be construed to require a Party to establish, or to prevent a Party from establishing, a judicial system for the enforcement of its labor law distinct from its system for the enforcement of laws in general.

8. For greater certainty, decisions by each Party's administrative, quasijudicial, judicial or labor tribunals, or pending decisions, as well as related proceedings shall not be subject to revision or reopened under the provisions of this Agreement".

Pertaining to Article 5 the only enforcement is where the WCB’s and employers are concerned, they are given protection of their Quasi-judicial tribunals, however the injured worker has no protection from the abuse that takes place against their very daily living, from mental stress to poverty ,from denial of medical treatment to being forced into an employment that is in direct conflict with the injury, along with the information manipulation that so many injured workers are forced into dealing with. Degrees of injury re-written months or years later as to a lesser degree, financial information that is re-written so blatantly that any ordinary person can see the fraud and corruption within this organization also personal information written as to the benefit of the WCB’s where have literally charged innocent injured workers of criminal acts and then penalizing the injured more then the courts have already done. There are many types of fraud but this type also reflects the quality of Government across Canada, if this world wide organization is to be an arm’s length of Government (Federal law mandates WCB in each Province, therefore Federal Government should police the actions if the provincial Governments do nothing) with all the powers of Canada within its hands, including Court of Queens Bench status that commits these and crimes against Humanity (yes does qualify) it shows to us that injured workers are disposable which enables abuse towards them in the same manner as physical or mentally handi-capped with the exception they have protection; injured are abuse in the worst possible sense, animals get better treatment. You may ask why does this happen, the answer is simple, WCB’s across Canada have billions in their accounts and are controlled by the employers; Millions of dollars are funneled through the WCB to safety organizations and rebates to employers that have been found guilty of labour violations. To any person that has any intelligence this has the markings of money laundering, does this mean our Governments practice this type of criminal activity? If so then maybe it is time we as Canadians took back our country and jail all those that have been part of the Canada wide corruption as accessories to the fact.

"It cannot be said that the Board is independent insofar as the worker is concerned. It is a Board set up to protect the employers. The Board is funded by the employers, and the Board has a duty and probably a primary duty to protect the employer. In relation to the worker, the Board has an overwhelming wealth of knowledge and experience. It has the financial ability to fund sophisticated investigations involving highly qualified experts and have the material presented to them, guided, orchestrated and propounded by its in-house counsel responsible to the Board and paid for by the Board. The application of any standards under the rules of natural justice would identify such circumstances as being unequal in negotiating ability and unfair. This is not a level playing field, it is not fair, and it offends the basic principles of natural justice."- Justice Maclean - Court of Queen's Bench of Alberta
Wilson v. Medicine Hat (City) [1999] A. J. No. 269 (February 3, 1999)

Government, WCB and computer Viruses

The letters I have received from MLA's in my province of Alberta, all say the exact same reply when asking for help from them pertaining to the workers compensation board; The WCB is an arm's length of government, "We have no say in the day to day workings of the WCB, it is best that you talk to your claims manager or their supervisor pertaining to the problems you are having. I wish you the best of luck with your injury and related problems with it." That same type of reply I received over the past 10 years from different MLA's and my Premier Mr. Stelmach. Why is it that though WCB Alberta is able to commit criminal acts of fraud, medical malpractice, manipulation of information, threats and intimidation; not only to the injured but also the Physician's and anyone that may be assisting the injured in their battles against this organization.
Though the WCB is legislated by Government, that is all the control our Government has over the WCB. With judicial powers,total authority over the injured worker they are continuously over riding the injured workers Doctors, by using their paid physicians, of whom never see the patient, stating medical reports of the person's injury and turning it into fact. Injured workers that request treatment for injuries have been forced to wait months or even years in some cases to get a M.R.I, cat scan or surgery; during these waiting periods the injured worker is healing and by the time that they are able to get help it is to late in some cases as scar tissue has formed an the surgeon is unable to correct it.

At that point the WCB claims that nothing can be done and the injured worker is then "deemed"(made-up)to an employment that they are incapable to succeed at or is directly opposing of their injury, and then the workers benefits are set at that fictitious employment with gradual decreases in wages, until the worker is no-longer collecting benefits ; yet is still unable to gain employment due to injury; I myself was an electrician and WCB Alberta forced me into academics for Electrical Engineering, but would not give me the upgrading to succeed in this course, a letter was written on my behalf by the program head stating I am in need of upgrading in order to succeed in the course; I was then removed from academics but the WCB still "deemed" me as an Electrical Engineer and the wage that an E.E would make was deducted from my benefits, which lowered my benefits to approximately $140.00 per month while still (to my knowledge) charging my employer the full rate of compensation.I was forced to take them to appeals at which time they would again "deem" me at employment that matched the income of an E.E and I would have to appeal that decision again and again.
Now is this the workings of an honest business ? That is part of every working person's life, whether you are injured or not, your employer is forced to make payments for you for every 100 hours you put in, it stays in the back ground like a computer virus until it gets involved and ends up screwing up your life just like it would your computer, slowly the longer it is there the more damage it does until you have lost everything and there is no getting it back cause you have no protection that would avoid the outcome.
( and yes I have had my hard drive wiped out after receiving emails from my WCB supervisor's, 3 separate times)

Provincial Government agencies all work together?

In 1999 was when I suffered my last work related injury ( which reoccurred for the forth time), I was forced into fighting for my claim with the Alberta Workers Compensation Board as my Doctor said enough is enough, to many times I had re-injured my lower back and hips, with over a year off each time; and each time to be cut off by WCB for what ever reason they came up with. This last time was a fight that took almost two years of paper and WCB personal shuffle, living those months I will never forget. First my employer Tracer Canada Inc, which is a company out of the U.S; who's representative had stopped my doctor in the hallway leading up to the examination room I was in. My employer's representative (safety officer) requested to the doctor NOT to list this as a lost time injury, regardless of what had happened; my doctor REFUSED. I then returned to the job site with more medical appointments for chiropractor,physiotherapy and my doctor for the next week. My employer then set me on light duty at work, mainly paper work of schedules and material confirmations. The safety officer for the company informed me that he would be taking me to my appointments so the company would know first hand what is happening with my injury,but when it was time for appointments I was informed I had to find my own transportation to the appointment; without my own vehicle as I car pooled to work, I was forced to walk/ hitch hike 5 miles to town then across town to the doctors office; while re-injuring myself along the way. That had happened 3 separate times and my employer making comments of "Alberta WCB's treatment of the injured worker was to lenient, this would never happen in the states; time to get the WCB laws changed so the workers can't be faking it". My last appointment with the doctor after he received the reports from the chiropractor and physiotherapist stated I could no-longer return to my trade as an electrician, so into WCB's hands I went.After two and a half months of WCB's physical rehabilitation, their answer to everything whether you are physically capable or not, which I wasn't. Due to the pain and immobility they inflicted upon me by their routine of therapy,which after three weeks,I had re-structured myself in order to decrease the pain and increase my mobility to enable myself to be there each day so I wasn't penalized or cut off benefits. It had come to the point of a supervisor making a comment to the therapist "why do we pay you when the claimant sets their own program, which in turn caused me more pain an immobility again to the point of not being able to lift myself out of bed or even to sit and get back up again without a type of mechanical assistance; it was then I was cut off and forced to fight in appeals. During my fight in the Appeals process the department of Child Services came into the picture, they had heard I did not have an income, the children were going without food and that I was abusing the children due to the stress of fighting the WCB. They then decided to monitor our household 24/7 claiming it would only be a few days, it turned out to be 54 days of constant watching, my wife and I were forced to sleep with our bedroom door open as we found a listening device beside it. My WCB files had been gone through as was all the information I had been gathering to enable me to proceed with my appeal, which some of that was copied down into our "baby sitters" daily statements.On the 54th day Social Services took our children into their custody due to my second oldest getting two swats on the butt for putting two rather large holes in the new drywall that had been completed a month before, of which the child had been warned that would happen if there was to be any more holes in the wall, which is why it was redone in the first place. Two years of fighting the department of Social Services, only to find out in the court room that they too practice file manipulation as does the WCB, those two swats on the butt with the flat of my hand were written down as multiple excessive punches upon the child's body. What all this had done to our family was devastating enough, but to have to live in a community that heard what the Social Workers claimed made living there very hard, threats continually, literally having to physically defend myself from others that didn't know me or my wife and friends going to odds with each other over this whole mess. As I was attempting to start my own business and everything else going, on we decided to move to the country so I would could show my determination towards and have less overhead for my business; which I was penalized by WCB for not getting their permission to move to that location ; but if I moved to the city they would have paid for my movers and covered first months rent(according to Rob VanDoesburg clam's manager, who was no-longer my claims manager after I moved)

In the mean time I had won my appeal from the WCB, even with the mis-information from my employer and WCB as I was able to show on file that they had conspired together on manipulation of information in order to have my claim denied and another year and a half later we won our court case against the Department of Social Services; although we now had four very messed up children, so messed up that one child had to be put on medications for behavioral problems (not our choice)that were created from being shifted from foster home to foster home.I found that WCB and Social Services both use improper medical and psychological tactics, even in using the worst professionals that are out there, re-writing information, contradicting themselves and posing a holier then thou attitude, all this just to show that worker or claims manger was always right and everyone else is wrong, to the point of withholding information from the professionals that were hired by my wife and I to assist us in correcting what ever wrongs we may have done; which we found out later in court we had not committed any wrong's.
But again WCB and Social Services have teamed up together, it seems that when they want you and your family to live in poverty they will go to any lengths to keep it that way, as I am once again facing charges from trying to keep my family fed, if I didn't then I would be on charges again for not feeding my family

Judicial powers allow corruption in business

Injured workers across Canada have been the subject of unreasonable wrong doings by the Workers Compensation Board's, they use a clause in their legislated acts that gives them the same powers as the Court of Queens Bench (sec.12 sub(5)), with which they become immune to any court action that any person may have grounds to proceed with (sec.12.sub(1)), as they have their own processes to go through and there is no recourse once they have been completed; neither the Board or any employee are subject to court action (sec12. sub2)).

They hide behind this status while being Judge, Jury and Prosecutor, handing out penalties and disciplinary actions against those that they themselves have unreasonably wronged, including the changing of previous decisions made by other members of the board. (sec12.sub(4))

You can help by signing this petition to prevent such fascist organization's from operating in our country, as it is a free country; except to those that are forced to deal with others that put themselves above the law.
;Online petition - Removal of Court of Queens Bench status from the Workers Compensation Board

" IT WAS WRITTEN IN ERROR "

Claim # March 12th, 2008

To the Appeals Commission Hearing Chair

I would also like to make request of reconsideration of appeal #2008-161 due to the interest that has been charged on the $10,000.00 loan that I received in April 2003, last payment March 2008, interest was included in the payment schedule, then added again on March 29th, 2004, including early payout of loan the interest is way above the agreed amount of 12%.
The monies that were withheld from me in December 2001 with the minimum known amount of $19,568.09 from 2001 that were used (according to the Appeals Commission) towards the over payments from non-attendance (years apart) also the amount of $10,810.33, (unknown issue date) that was withheld to the same non-attendance overpayment, not to mention the amount of $4,439.08 the was removed least three times from claim # and claimed that it has still not been recovered by Ms. Garlinski, though it has been stated by the appeals commission that that was a mistake (Ms. Garlinski has informed me that WCB does not make mistakes), yet non of these were addressed clearly in the audit
Also I would to add that in the 2006 appeals decision that certain examples were used to assist the WCB in completing a proper audit, that’s just what they were “EXAMPLES” just cause they had been included in the audit does not mean it was a proper audit, nor has proper dates and amounts been included in the audit pertaining to information that I had brought forth to the appeals commission , let alone the amount of benefits that are to have been received and explanation of the various overpayments that are claimed to be owed. In that Appeals decision the audit was called upon due to correct all financial matters owing and owed, removed and withheld.
Last but least, pertaining to canceled cheque stubs, WCB has their own copies which to compare too, unless there is a more viable reason that I should be aware of?

Thank you
Sincerely

As of receiving the appeal commission’s decision Dated February 15th, 2008, even with this information above shared with the commission, they found the audit to be correct and true. They therefore ordered I hand over all cancelled cheque stubs to WCB within 60 days of dated letter, to compare to their payment list or I am to forfeit any future claims towards audits. Appeals commission stated that a letter from claims manager June 14th, 2006 pertaining to monies owed from previous claim was written in error and had been recovered in 2001, but this does not explain the other letters from previous claims manager/ payment specialists audit or the deductions that have been removed for the said overpayments. The Appeals commission also makes reference to the information above,” as that they did not receive this information from WCB in the file package”.That letter was never received by me nor was in the information package sent to me by the Commission, I have not to this day received such information that states " IT WAS WRITTEN IN ERROR "

IS IT FINANCIAL MANIPULATION OR IS IT A RETURN TO WORK PROGRAM?

I have been dealing with WCB of Alberta for over 15 years now, the last couple years I have taken WCB to Appeals over overpayments, requesting audits due to overpayments and payments not sent out to me that I was entitled too, the amount involved here was over $ 25,000.00. Through their manipulation of files they had taken me to court for fraud all this was 3 years after I started with the audit to be done, which had been in front of that Appeals commission 3 separate times, the last time the Appeals Commission said that they would only look and see if the Audit was done correctly, not to review information about overpayments or monies owed to claimant. There is much more to this story pertaining to actions of WCB employees with threats and intimidation. To make a long story shorter the WCB of Alberta set me up with a deemed position for which I was to $32,000.00 a year as a sales clerk, in which I was to receive approx. $814.00 per month on my claim, however they were keeping this money due to over payment for $32,000.00 which they were not entitled to remove from me as they already had that money from not giving it to me 4 years before, with no income in our household to pay bills, we were forced to go to social assistance, after about 8 months of assistance I received a phone call informing me that I had not claimed the $814.00 monthly to the social worker and was therefore cut off and file sent to a collection agency. I have just received my T-5 for the year of 2008 from WCB of Alberta, it states that my income from them for the year is $943.11, yet they call social services and inform them that I am making $814.00 per month, causing my family to live below the poverty line and yet they still continue to make discussions on my claim without informing me of these decisions