P.E.I. man who nearly lost hand on job spent years and almost $12,000 fighting WCB
KINKORA, P.E.I. — Fred McIver regarded down and noticed his left hand hanging by a thread, blown off nearly solely by the influence of the cast-iron pipe.
It was 1977, and 27-year-old McIver was working as a plumbing apprentice for Inman Plumbing and Heating.
He was down in a gap, attempting to hook up with pipes on the new Eptek Centre in Summerside when an eight-by-six reducer blew. That’s when one of many pipes hit him.
Medical doctors in Halifax managed to reattach the hand, however it might by no means get well sufficient to even maintain a can of beer.
When McIver misplaced using his left hand, he didn’t count on his restoration to be the beginning of one other, life-long combat with the Employee’s Compensation Board of P.E.I.
McIver says he was assessed improperly for staff’ compensation in 1979, with advantages set at 50 per cent of normal revenue for his injured hand (known as the “meat chart” strategy). If he was assessed in accordance with lack of his incomes capability, he says he ought to have been getting 75 per cent of his pay.
“That’s what I ought to have had, was $137.51 (every week), however they solely paid me $130.54. A weekly scarcity of $7.17,” he stated throughout an interview at his residence in Kinkora, P.E.I. on March 22, 2022.
His battle for a day in courtroom and probability to get well that cash would find yourself costing him years of time spent on the case almost $12,000 in courtroom prices.
Lacking advantages
As a younger, married man recovering from a life-changing harm, McIver tried to seek out what work he may and didn’t discover the shortfalls in his compensation cheques for years.
However he has paperwork from Employees Compensation that particularly notice the cash he would have had if he was assessed at 75 per cent.
He stated his sister caught onto the misplaced revenue within the Eighties.
“It wasn’t sufficient (to dwell on). No, no. However my spouse was … a nurse’s assistant. So, she labored on the hospital,” McIver stated, saying the couple needed to get by on her paycheque whereas elevating three kids.
Whereas the hand harm has been McIver’s predominant challenge with WCB, he additionally had an ankle harm on one other job in 1986 and had his pension from the plumbing job assessed the identical as the incapacity advantages, he stated.
Because the Employees Compensation Act modified through the years, the way in which of assessing accidents modified with it, McIver stated.
However he, together with different staff getting advantages underneath the outdated Employee’s Compensation Act, weren’t “fastened up,” he stated.
Carl Pursey, president of the P.E.I. Commerce Federation, says McIver shouldn’t be the one employee to have been shortchanged this manner.
“There’s every kind of stuff like this occurring on a regular basis. It’s been a long-time challenge,” Pursey stated in an interview March 23. “It’s all the time a battle. They all the time attempt to deny individuals, to make them attraction it they usually give all of them sorts of hoops to undergo.”
Authorized struggles
Issue resolving these points led McIver to courtroom in 2006, after which he would face a sequence of hearings that finally led to a call towards McIver and his co-litigant, one other man who was compensated underneath the ‘meat chart’ method.
“(Choose) Gordon Campbell stated … we’re not getting paid proper. However limitation of time is available in,” McIver stated.
Regardless of being shortchanged for years, McIver and his co-litigant needed to cowl their very own courtroom prices.
“My half is $6,831.67. Gordon Campbell ordered me to pay.”
Throughout this lengthy course of, McIver by no means gave up perception that he had been handled wrongly from the start. And affirmative feedback like these of Campbell gave him a purpose to carry his floor.
That willpower took him to courtroom one final time, the place he had a listening to with three judges, a lawyer from WCB and a lawyer from the Lawyer Normal’s Workplace.
However McIver by no means did get the precise trial one of many earlier judges had ordered, and McIver’s lawyer by no means bought to current proof.
The three judges in his remaining listening to additionally ordered McIver to pay courtroom prices — one other $5,000.
He could be paying off $11,831.67 in whole.
McIver says he has been paying that invoice $110 at a time and his remaining cost will likely be popping out of his checking account in December of 2022.
“(I’m) simply telling my story, to let all people on the market understand how they ripped me off (from receiving correct) staff’ compensation. And never solely me, however everybody else.”
– Fred McIver
Vary of feelings
On March 23, SaltWire contacted the Employees Compensation Board for a response to McIver’s story and bought an e-mail from Laura Steeves, senior communications co-ordinator.
“Sadly, because of confidentiality causes, we can not talk about issues associated to staff’ claims,” she stated.
When McIver first started recalling the harrowing expertise of his harm, he turned teary-eyed. However that emotion turned bitter by the point SaltWire requested if he had any parting ideas on the finish of the interview.
“I’m simply so annoyed pondering how a lot cash they stole off me … me, and my spouse and household,” he stated.
Now 72, McIver not expects to see any of the 1000’s he paid in charges, or the a whole lot of 1000’s he says have been withheld through the years.
“(I’m) simply telling my story, to let all people on the market understand how they ripped me off … and never solely me, however everybody else,” he stated. “It’s not solely the employer paying into employee’s compensation. It’s all the cash they withheld from the injured staff.”
Logan MacLean is a reporter with the SaltWire Community in Prince Edward Island.
