The Ontario government recently announced that the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) will be reducing employer premium rates and distributing over $2.5 billion to eligible Schedule 1 employers in February 2025.
The WSIB maintains an insurance fund to assure the payment of worker benefits well into the future, and has managed that money into a significant surplus over and above the required reserves, triggering the second massive rebate to eligible businesses in the past three years. Schedule 2 employers are not eligible for this rebate since the system used for funding benefits for their workers does not involve the insurance fund.
To be eligible for this rebate, a Schedule 1 employer must meet all of the following criteria:
- have an active account and premium payment obligations as of November 1, 2024;
- have had premium obligations in 2023;
- have not been convicted of a Workplace Safety and Insurance Act (WSIA) or an Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHSA) offence in a Part III proceeding under the Provincial Offences Act, between the beginning of 2024 and the date that the rebate payments are issued in 2025 (or more simply, the "rebate payment date");
- have not been convicted in more than one such proceeding under the WSIA, or have not been convicted in more than one such proceeding under the OHSA, between 2020 and the rebate payment date;
- have not had a traumatic workplace fatality attributed to the organization between the beginning of 2024 and the rebate payment date, or have not had more than one traumatic workplace fatality attributed to the organization between 2020 and the rebate payment date; and
- not be affiliated through common ownership with a business that:
- is ineligible to receive a surplus rebate based on the convictions criteria outlined; and
- has a traumatic workplace fatality attributed to them between 2020 and 2025, up to and including the date the WSIB issues a surplus rebate.
More information will be available in February 2025 and credit amounts will be displayed in eligible businesses' online services accounts at that time.
In addition to the rebate, the WSIB has announced a 5-percent reduction in the average premium rate for Ontario businesses (from an average of $1.30 per $100 of insurable payroll to $1.25) starting on January 1, 2025. This marks the lowest average premium rates Ontario has seen in over 50 years.
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