Despite cutting 5 1/2 jobs, the Yukon workers' compensation board is close to doubling the budget for paying its members.

The budget for honoraria for the six members of the Yukon Workers' Compensation Health and Safety Board of directors has increased by $172,703 to $354,600 for 2004.

This comes in the midst of a 10-per-cent chop of the board's administration expenses for 2004. Most of that cut comes from the board getting rid of 5 1/2 full-time positions within the organization.

Board chair Craig Tuton said this week one reason for the increase is the fact the board is anticipating an increase in the daily honorarium rate, which is set by the territorial government.

Currently, the board members receive an honorarium of $200 for each full day the board meets. On top of that, they can also claim $200 a day for preparation for meetings. The preparation time they are permitted to claim is equal to the length of the meeting.

The board chair receives $300 a day. According to the rates set by the government, the chair is permitted to claim up to 50 per cent more than the other board members because of the extra workload. The workers' compensation board pays Tuton $300 for each day's work.

According to Tuton, the other reason for the jump in the honoraria budget is a plan by the board to meet 10 or 15 times more this year than it did in 2003.

'It's not really going up; our workload is going up,' Tuton said of the money for paying board members.

'We've got a lot of work to do, especially in policy,' he said, explaining the additional meetings.

Due to work in other areas, Tuton said, some matters have not been dealt with by the board, which is why more meetings are needed.

'They were just sort of overlooked,' Tuton said of these matters.

The chair noted there are some policies that have become outdated and need to be dealt with by the board.

As well, the board wants to work on injury prevention, in an attempt to reduce claims costs. Benefit payment for injury claims have gone up substantially over the last couple of years.

Tuton said there are issues that will need to be worked on by the board like education for young workers and the issue of indoor air quality at workplaces.

Just because there is $172,000 more in the budget for honorariums doesn't mean the board will use the total amount, said the chair. Tuton said he is a firm believer in overestimating to be safe.

If the rate is not raised by the government, the board will not use the entire amount, since it is based on the $200-a-day figure climbing.

While the money that is being set aside is doubling, the board is at the smallest size it can possibly be.

Early in 2003, there were six representatives of workers and businesses plus the chair and vice-chair on the board, totalling eight members. However, the act says labour and employers can have as many as three representatives each and as few as two.

Peter Jenkins, the minister responsible for the board, chose to not fill an employee representative position earlier this year.

When one of the business representatives resigned at around the same time, Jenkins chose not to fill the slots, leaving the board with the minimum two representatives of each.

If the board met an average of one day a week for the entire year, it would total 52 meeting days. On top of the 52 meeting days the board members would be paid for, they would also be eligible to receive money for 52 preparation days.

For the four worker and employer representatives, along with the board vice-chair, they could charge a maximum of $104,000 in honoraria for 2004, if they met for 52 days a year, under the current rates.

Added to that is $31,200 for the board chair, bringing the total to $143,000, less than half of the proposed budget.

If the honoraria for regular members is hiked to $300 a day, pushing the chair's total up to $450 a day, then the total that could be spent for 52 meeting days would be $202,800.