PIR, COR, and Benefits
What is PIR & COR?
What is PIR?
Partnerships in Injury Reduction (PIR) is a voluntary incentive program that promotes health and safety through the combined efforts of the Workers’ Compensation Board – Alberta (WCB), the Alberta Government, industry partners, safety associations, employers and labour groups.
A Partner in Injury Reduction is an association, corporation or organization that commits to taking a leadership role in health and safety by entering into a formal agreement with the Alberta government. The government and each Partner sign a Memorandum of Understanding outlining the specific commitments made by each organization.
PIR is designed to encourage injury prevention and the development of effective workplace health, safety and disability management systems. All employers can participate in the PIR program and be eligible for refunds by maintaining a Certificate of Recognition (COR).
What is COR?
A Certificate of Recognition (COR) is awarded to employers who develop an occupational health and safety management system (OHSMS) for their workplace of 10 or more employees. The OHSMS must be in place for at least 12 months prior to going through a Certification Audit. COR is issued by the Alberta Government and co-signed by Certifying Partners like the CCSA.
All employers can participate in a voluntary incentive program Partnerships in Injury Reduction (PIR) and be eligible for WCB rebates for up to 20% by maintaining a Certificate of Recognition (COR).
What is a Certifying Partner?
The CCSA is a Certifying Partner for Long Term Care and Senior Supportive Living facilities as well as other related industries in Alberta. We are funded through a levy on employers’ – with industry codes of 82808 and 82800 – WCB premiums. Other Certifying Partners may operate on a fee–for–service basis.
A Certifying Partner is an association that works in partnership with the Alberta Government and provides training, reviews audits, certifies auditors, and co-signs Certificates of Recognition (CORs). As a Certifying Partner, the CCSA is an organization:
7 Steps to Obtaining COR with CCSA:
Step 1. Contact the CCSA as your Certifying Partner at cor@ab-ccsa.ca.
Step 2. Implement or enhance your Occupational Health & Safety Management System:
- CCSA as a Certifying Partner can help you take these steps
- CCSA has lots of resources and templates in our Integrated Health & Safety Toolkit
Step 3. Register with Partnerships in Injury Reduction.
Step 4. Get an external certifying audit (the CCSA has a bank of certified External Auditors).
- Although not required by Partnerships, the CCSA highly recommends getting a baseline audit before the external audit is done, when first obtaining COR. This baseline audit can help your organization save resources (time, money) on an external audit that you may not be fully prepared for. In most cases, the CCSA can perform a baseline audit at no direct cost to you.
Step 5. Register to complete your audit with CCSA.
Step 6. Once the External Auditor has completed the COR Certification Audit, the written report is submitted to CCSA COR Team for a Quality Assurance (QA) Process. Once the audit has passed the QA process, and the audit has achieved a minimum score of 80% overall, and no less than 50% on each element, you will receive your COR!
Step 7: After that organizations must maintain their COR by ensuring they follow the COR 3-year cycle.
Performance Measures and Benefits
1. Achieving a Certificate of Recognition
2. Improving Your Performance
Your performance is compared to your own historical record. You can earn industry rate refunds if you improve your claim cost performance. You will receive a 1% refund for every 1% that you improve your performance, up to a maximum of 20%. Earning a COR can help you improve your performance and achieve this measure.
3. Maintaining Industry Leadership
Your performance is compared to your industry average. You can earn refunds from 10% to the maximum of 20% if you perform significantly better than your industry average over two consecutive years.
Video Tutorials:
What is COR? What is PIR? Explained
Frequently Asked Questions
No, this is a voluntary incentive program that promotes health and safety in the workplace.
Audits must be completed annually once the employer is certified.
In the Certification or Recertification, the employer is required to hire an external auditor. For the Maintenance years, the employer can certify employees as internal auditors or choose to hire an external auditor.
Annual cost to the members to participate would include:
- Should the employer choose to train an employee to be a certified internal auditor, the cost for training.
- Cost of paid hours for internal auditors to ensure the health and safety (H&S) program is in place and to audit the system in maintenance years.
- Cost of external auditor for the certification and re-certification years (every 3 years). If the organization does not have a certified internal auditor, a certified external auditor would need to be hired for the maintenance years as well.
If your employer WCB industry code is 82800 or 82808, you are automatically a member of the CCSA.
The COR program is more than just documents that are reviewed once a year. As per Part 5 of the Alberta Occupational Health and Safety Legislation, any employer who employs 20 or more workers must establish a H&S program. Employers who have less than 20 workers must also abide by the Alberta Occupational Health and Safety Legislation. The standards put forth by the COR Program meet or exceed the provincial legislation. Therefore, this program is something that should be followed and reviewed frequently.
CCSA can support employers by educating and providing resources. CCSA staff auditors can also complete a Baseline Audit to help identify gaps prior to employers certifying.
- Employers who participate in the COR program are more likely to see a reduction in WCB premiums in addition to receiving the annual WCB rebate.
- On average, employers will see improved productivity, less sick time, higher staff morale and of course most importantly; a safer work environment.
- Involvement in the COR program enables workers to know and participate in health and safety thus fulfilling two of the worker’s rights.