August 18, 2008 – HALIFAX, NS – The Workers’ Compensation Board of Nova Scotia (WCB) received three communications awards today during the annual conference of the American Association of State Compensation and Insurance Funds (AASCIF) being held in Midway, Utah.
Workers' compensation organizations throughout North America are members of AASCIF and the communications awards recognize the most effective communications programs in the industry.
The WCB's 2007 Annual Report, entitled Little Things Matter, was a first place winner. "Our primary goal is to be transparent and accountable to our stakeholders in our annual report. This year we designed the report around a simple idea that we all need to do something, no matter how small, to prevent workplace injuries and reduce the suffering associated with them," said Mary Kingston, Director of Communications with the WCB.
Competition in this category is tough. Nova Scotia competed against annual reports from places like New York, California and Texas and came out on top. In fact, Canadian WCBs cleaned up in the annual report category.
The WCB received a second place for its efforts to ensure employees had all the information they needed about the WCB’s latest advertising campaign before it went public. Third place honours were awarded for the 2008 Day of Mourning campaign. On April 28 Canadians mark this day by remembering those hurt or killed on the job. The WCB partnered with the Nova Scotia Federation of Labour and Nova Scotia Department of Labour and Workforce Development to produce a campaign including television ads featuring family and friends of Jamie Lapierre, a 21-year-old who died while working on a barge.
"Far too many people die or see their quality of life destroyed because of workplace injuries," said Kingston. "By communicating effectively, we want to inspire Nova Scotians to take action to reduce the human suffering associated with workplace injuries."
About the WCB
The Workers' Compensation Board of Nova Scotia (WCB) is committed to keeping Nova Scotians safe and secure from workplace injury. The WCB provides workplace injury insurance for more than 18,000 employers, representing about 300,000 workers across the province. The WCB sets the standard for workplace injury insurance by informing and inspiring Nova Scotians in the prevention of workplace injury. If an injury occurs, we support those whose lives it touches by championing a timely return to safe and healthy work.