Every injured worker hopes that if WCB gets something wrong, it’ll be fixed. And that once corrected, justice will follow — including retroactive pay. That used to be the norm. But recently, a troubling pattern has emerged: when WCB reduces a worker’s wage-loss benefits based on a so-called “suitable” job — and then that job lead is successfully challenged and removed — WCB doesn’t always reinstate full benefits. Instead, it engages in a kind of speculative fiction: retroactively inserting hypothetical jobs into the past to justify continued denial of full benefits.
This isn’t just unfair. It’s Orwellian. And it’s being done under the guise of administrative prudence, when in reality, it reeks of damage control and liability containment.
I. The “Suitable Work” Shell Game
Here’s how it typically works:
- An injured worker is deemed fit for some kind of work (not their original job).
- WCB selects a job, actual or hypothetical, that they deem “suitable” — even if it’s outside the worker’s skill set, education, experience, or realistic labour market opportunity.
- That job becomes the basis for a projected earning capacity, which is then subtracted from the worker’s pre-injury wage.
- The result? Partial disability benefits instead of total disability wage loss.
Sometimes, the worker appeals. And wins. The job lead is removed. It’s found to be inappropriate, implausible, or totally imaginary.
So far, so good.
But instead of acknowledging that no other work had been identified as suitable at the time of the original reduction, and back-paying the worker accordingly, WCB goes back in time to dream up new jobs that were never identified, never offered, and never scrutinized.
It’s a sleight of hand that protects WCB’s bottom line at the expense of the injured worker’s income security.
II. The Role of ALIS and the Rise of Fictional Jobs
In Alberta and elsewhere, WCB relies on the ALIS database (Alberta Learning Information Service) for occupational data. ALIS is designed to provide general labour market statistics, job descriptions, and wage estimates. It was never intended to serve as an instrument of adjudication, nor as a proxy for real-world job availability.
And yet, when WCB can’t find an actual job that fits the worker’s profile, it leans on ALIS like a crystal ball. It generates a generic job title, attaches an average wage, and builds an entire earning-capacity model around it — with zero regard for:
- Whether that job actually existed at the time
- Whether it was open to applicants
- Whether the worker met the basic qualifications
- Whether it matched their medical limitations
It’s not a real job. It’s data dressed up as evidence. WCB then uses this fiction to deny retroactive benefits when their first “real” job lead is invalidated.
III. How WCB Retroactively Time-Travels to Justify Past Reductions
Let’s say WCB decided in 2021 that you were fit to be a “Logistics Coordinator.” They used this as the basis for reducing your wage-loss benefit. But two years later, you win an appeal showing you were unqualified, had no computer skills, and the role required a post-secondary diploma you didn’t possess.
WCB now has two options:
- Admit the job lead was bogus and pay you full retroactive wage loss for the past two years.
- Go “Back to the Future” — and say: “Ah, well, in 2021 there were also General Clerk jobs available, according to ALIS. So we’ll pretend you could have done that instead. Here’s your partial retro pay based on that fictional job.”
Option 2 is the one that’s increasingly being used.
The worker still loses. WCB still wins. And a dangerous precedent gets normalized.
IV. Case Study: When a Blue Collar Client Got the Job Lead Quashed — But Still Lost
Let’s look at the case of John Doe, a 75-year-old Blue Collar Consulting client.
John had been forced through program after program by WCB. Despite his age, deteriorating health, and lack of transferable skills, WCB repeatedly insisted he could work. Eventually, they identified a job lead, reduced his benefits, and told him to get back to work.
Blue Collar intervened. The job lead was invalidated. The Appeals Commission (AC) agreed that WCB had acted unreasonably. It was a clear-cut win.
But instead of restoring full retroactive benefits, WCB conjured a new job from the past — something John had never been evaluated for, never applied to, and never had a chance of actually obtaining.
There was no evidence that John could have performed this new job, and no evidence it had ever been available.
The result? He received only partial retro pay — based not on what actually happened, but what might have happened in an alternate timeline.
V. Why This Sets a Dangerous Precedent
WCB has a statutory obligation to compensate workers based on the realities of their disability and employability, not on speculative alternatives. When job leads are struck down, it is usually because they never met the test of suitability to begin with.
To then invent a job retroactively is to bypass the fundamental requirement of procedural fairness.
What if the worker could have appealed that second job too? What if it wouldn’t have held up to scrutiny? Too late — it was never proposed in real time.
This is how accountability erodes. WCB avoids responsibility for its first error by inserting a second error after the fact — an error that can’t be challenged because it never existed until now.
And perhaps most importantly: if no other suitable job could be found at the time, then WCB should have paid total disability. Period.
VI. The Psychological Toll on Injured Workers
For injured workers, this is more than just a financial issue. It’s a question of dignity, trust, and sanity.
They’re told to cooperate with WCB. They do. They get assessed. They fight through pain. They engage in rehab. They do everything right.
Then, when they finally get a decision overturned, the relief is short-lived — because WCB simply re-tools the past to protect itself.
This isn’t recovery. It’s institutional gaslighting.
VII. Could It Be Time for a Policy Audit?
Could it be that WCB is no longer using ALIS to supplement its decisions — but instead to replace them?
Could it be that retroactive substitutions of hypothetical jobs violate the spirit (if not the letter) of administrative law?
And could it be time for an external audit of how retroactive job substitutions are being used to avoid liability?
The answer to all three is a resounding yes.
VIII. A System That Was Never Designed for This
The workers’ compensation system in Canada was founded on the Meredith Principles: no-fault coverage, guaranteed compensation, collective liability, and security of benefits. What we’re seeing today in some of these speculative retro-pay denials is an erosion of those foundational values. It suggests that even when the system admits it was wrong, it still won’t make it right. That’s not what Meredith envisioned. And it’s not what injured workers deserve.
IX. What Needs to Change
- No retroactive job substitutions. If a job lead is quashed, full retroactive wage loss should be paid unless a new job was identified at the time.
- Real-world job leads only. ALIS should inform labour trends, not invent employment.
- Independent oversight. An external review body should be tasked with evaluating the frequency and appropriateness of these retroactive earnings assumptions.
- Policy reform. WCB policy must be clarified to ensure that retrospective substitutions are used only in good faith, and never as a tool for circumventing accountability.
The Wrap: If You Don’t Have a Time Machine, Neither Should WCB
There’s a reason we don’t let insurance companies rewrite history. We base compensation on what actually happened — not what could have happened, not what might have been available, not what a database suggests in hindsight.
When WCB begins to speculate about the past, it turns from a compensation board into a fiction factory. And that fiction comes at a very real cost: workers lose money, dignity, and trust in the system. If you’re one of them, know this: you’re not imagining it. This is happening. And it’s time it stopped.
If your earnings have been reduced based on a fictional job lead — and WCB refuses to pay you full retro pay even after the job was quashed — get help. Blue Collar Consulting has seen this pattern before, and we know how to fight it.
Because in the real world, justice shouldn’t require a DeLorean.