Where do you turn when your injuries prevent you from working and you’ve been cut off wage loss benefits from WorkSafeBC?

John Berfelo has had to contemplate this question for months, ever since WorkSafeBC (formerly the WCB) informed him that he was being cut off wage loss benefits. Now on welfare, Berfelo decided to wage a campaign to increase public awareness of the plight of injured workers.

Since April 21, 2007, Berfelo’s rented house, located at 3321 Knight Street, has attracted a good deal of interest. Soon to be demolished, the house is covered with a gaudy display of painted messages and slogans. Aside from attracting a constant cavalcade of gawkers, Berfelo’s hand-painted placards have elicited the support of passing Knight Street motorists who can be heard sounding their horns at all hours of the day.

As part of his campaign, Berfelo recently decided to hold a demonstration in front of his residence. However, on the morning of July 8, 2007, he received a visit from the Vancouver Police department. Apparently concerned by the possibility that Berfelo’s signs and chairs would interfere with passing traffic, police and city officials removed many of his signs and stacked them in front of his residence. According to Berfelo, he was “shut down”.

Despite the intervention of the police, many neighbourhood passers-by took time to visit Berfelo’s home, sign his petition and exchange views on their own experiences with WorkSafeBC. At the time of this writing, approximately 450 people have signed Berfelo’s petition.

Berfelo will be forced to leave his residence in mid-July. His protest, which has drawn notable attention in his neighbourhood, has drawn little attention from politicians, many of whom Berfelo has contacted in the hopes that they would help him in his struggle.

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Once earning $3,200.00 a month, Bertelo now receives $235.00 a month in social assistance payments and his future remains uncertain.

Berfelo, 35, was working as a glazier when he suffered a horrific accident while on the job. On June 23, 2005, Berfelo fell twenty-eight feet from a lift onto a slab of concrete, fracturing his skull, breaking his neck and smashing his teeth. He also shattered his left elbow, broke his hip, and shattered his foot. His injuries did not stop there; he suffered several herniated discs with major nerve impalement. He also has a cervical plate with four self-tapping screws attached to his vertebrae. Today, Berfelo still suffers from headaches so severe that it “hurts to touch his hair”. Berfelo is lucky to be alive, to be sure, but he now suffers from an array of permanent functional impairments.

To deal with his injuries, Berfelo has been on a heavy regimen of painkillers, sleeping pills, muscle relaxants, antidepressants and heart pills. At one point, Berfelo was taking thirty-two pills a day. Despite his medication, he remains in constant pain. On April 26, 2007, his medical specialist confirmed that he is partially disabled and will not be able to work more than five to ten minutes at a time. He also confirmed that Berfelo would never be able to resume his former occupation as a glazier.

Unfortunately, the nightmare does not end there. WorkSafeBC has recognized some of Berfelo’s injuries, but not others. Although WorkSafeBC has accepted seven permanent functional impairments, it has yet to recognize injuries to his ankle (which was recently discovered to contain numerous fractures), wrist, back, and other related ailments. According to Berfelo, WorkSafeBC determined that his back injuries “must have happened somewhere else”.

At the time of this writing, Berfelo has pending appeals regarding his ongoing injuries. In the meantime, he has been cut off wage loss benefits and reduced to receiving social assistance.

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Prior to his election as Premier in 2001, BC Liberal Gordon Campbell declared that he was going to “clean house” at the WCB. True to his word, Campbell’s government rewrote the WCB Act through Bills 49 and

63. Surrounded by controversy, those changes have had devastating effects on injured workers throughout BC. Featuring a decreased calculation of basic wage loss entitlement, the WCB Act was revamped from top to bottom.

In 2003, the Workers’ Compensation Board was rechristened as WorkSafeBC. Along with other controversial changes, pensions for loss of earnings have become rare. If the WorkSafeBC recognizes a permanent functional impairment, a disabled worker may qualify for a functional impairment pension or lump sum payment. However, there is no guarantee of payment. Moreover, neither a functional impairment pension nor lump sum payment adequately represents a loss of future wages.

On June 15, 2007, Berfelo was informed that WorkSafeBC would consider his entitlement to a permanent disability award. Berfelo was advised that the length of time it would take to reach a decision would depend on the “individual circumstances and merits of his claim”. No decision has yet been reached and Berfelo continues to sink into deeper financial straits with each passing day.

Once a permanently disabled worker’s functional impairments have stabilized or otherwise reached a plateau, the next stop on the tour is vocational rehabilitation benefits. Unfortunately, vocational rehabilitation benefits generally mark the end of the line. Injured workers deemed eligible for vocational rehabilitation benefits are offered a twelve-week period of employment counselling and retraining before being quietly taken off the payroll.

In December 2006, John Berfelo was referred for vocational rehabilitation benefits and was told by his vocational counsellor to get a newspaper and start searching for a job. However, Berfelo was cut off vocational rehabilitation benefits in January, before he could even meet with his employment counsellor. According to Berfelo, he was cut off those benefits because his chronic pain and other injury-related symptoms prevented him from performing a job search for eight hours per day. He has been cut off wage loss benefits at a time when his chronic pain and permanent functional limitations prevent him from working and while his other array of injuries remain under appeal.

John Berfelo does not belong to a union. Like many injured and disabled workers, he is alone in his battle with WorkSafeBC. While some non-unionized workers might be able to afford the cost of a lawyer, most injured workers are financially vulnerable and are quickly starved out by the absence of income. The world can be a very harsh place when you have to battle a system that was redesigned to reduce the expense of injury claims.

Whether one is in a union or not, the question that now continually needs to be revisited is whether the Liberal’s WCB overhaul adequately serves injured workers. If WorkSafeBC does not serve injured workers, just exactly who is being represented by our government? There are a growing number of horror stories out there, and John Berfelo may very well become another anonymous face in a crowd of injured workers who have been cast adrift by a system that was supposed to protect them.

When you’ve been cast adrift by the system, perhaps the only thing you can do is fill your yard with signs and cry out with the hope that someone will actually listen.

John Berfelo can currently be reached at

Ken Mooney