SAFE Certified companies are eligible for an annual rebate of their WorkSafeBC (WSBC) assessment through the Certificate of Recognition (COR) program.

After beginning with a five per cent rebate in 2007, the program now offers a ten per cent rebate for the basic health and safety program requirements.  Once you have completed your audit and received your SAFE Certification, the BC Forest Safety Council submits your application for a rebate to WSBC.  WSBC checks that your company is in “good standing” (see definition below) – that you’re up to date on your payments, not currently under penalty and generally not violating WSBC requirements. 

If all of that checks out OK, WSBC sends a rebate cheque directly to you. Rebate cheques are sent out starting in June of the following year.  For example cheques for 2008 certifications will be sent out starting in June 2009.

Coming soon is an additional five per cent rebate that will be available to companies who have a Return to Work program in place.  The Council is working with industry partners and WorkSafeBC to make this part of the program a good fit for the forest industry.

Example COR rebate calculation

Please note that rebates are calculated as a percentage of the base assessment in the payroll of that year of certification. This way, companies with good experience ratings (e.g. assessed below the base rate) don’t receive a proportionally lower rebate.

For example:

1. 2008 Assessable payroll - $2,000,000
2. CU 7030008 base rate - $9.46
3. Approximate 2008 WSBC premiums paid ($2,000,000/$100)*$9.46 = $189,200
4. Approximate 2008 COR rebate - $189,200 * 10% = $18,920

COR rebates are issued by WCB account and classification unit (CU) number; all workers and operating locations in a CU of a single company need to have been included in the SAFE certification activities to be eligible for COR rebates. For example:

• if a company has several operating locations and have chosen to SAFE certify each location separately, all locations need to be SAFE certified for a COR rebate to be issued;
• if a company has 2 classification units and SAFE certification was issued for activities under 1 CU only, COR rebates will be issued based on the assessable payroll of that single CU.