This depends on the size of the employer. An employer with 20 or more employees must have an audit performed by a certified external auditor, in year 1 of every 3 year cycle. Maintenance Audits in years 2 and 3 may be performed by trained internal staff. Small employers, with less than 20 employees, may have all audits performed by trained internal staff. Regardless of the size of the employer, an individual certified as an external COR auditor is empowered to conduct both certification audits and annual maintenance audits.

Any employer registered in the Local Government Classification Unit 753004 is eligible to participate in the Local Government COR program. Other public sector employers, also referred to as naturally-aligned organizations (NAO), may apply to participate in Local Government COR, however, must attain approval from WorkSafeBC prior to application.

COR recognizes and rewards employers who go beyond the legal requirements of the Workers Compensation Act and the Occupational Health and Safety Regulation, by taking a best practices approach to implementing safety management systems in Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) and Return to Work (RTW) COR Programs. Employers who implement these systems may be eligible for incentives through WorkSafeBC assessments.

Each organization will establish a contract with an External Auditor and negotiate the cost.

This will depend on the employers’ assessable payroll amount and the current Base Rate for the Classification Unit.

That will depend on the size of the organization. Typically, a municipality with 1,500 employees can expect the on-site audit to take approximately 3 weeks. Auditors have 75 days from the start of the audit, to complete the final report.

Certification is valid for three years. Incentives are provided as long as the organization conducts annual reviews of their safety management systems and follows a process of continuous improvement.

In order to be eligible for incentives under the COR program, employers must successfully complete an audit of their health and safety and/or return to work/injury management programs.

The total annual WorkSafeBC incentive will be calculated as a percentage of the base assessment rate from the previous year, multiplied by the organization’s total assessable payroll reported from the previous year.

CALCULATION: 
Assessable Payroll ÷ 100 X Base Rate X 10% = incentive payment for OHS COR

EXAMPLE:
$60,000,000 ÷ 100 X $1.68 X $10% = $100,800 annual incentive payment