Submission notes that almost all of the benefits outlined in the Independent Living Policy Suite legally (under ss. 32, 33 of the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act) are and should continue to be available to all injured workers – not only those defined by the WSIB as “severely impaired.” Brief also makes recommendations on criteria for admittance, cost and amount of the Independent Living Allowance, timing and review of benefit availability.
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The Injured Workers Community Legal Clinic (IWC) invites you to the Know Your Rights Workshop on October 26, 2022 at 11am. The first workshop of many will focus on an introduction to the Workplace Safety & Insurance Board (WSIB) – we know how complex the system is, and often, leaves injured workers in the dark. Throughout the workshop, we will hear from experts as they guide injured workers on the different procedures, forms, benefits and timelines, after an injury from the workplace.
The workshop will take place after the Ontario Network of Injured Workers’ Groups (ONIWG) has had its general meeting. We will hear from the new ONIWG leadership and injured workers will also have a chance to share their experiences and find a place of solidarity and understanding.
You can attend in person or virtually (zoom). If you plan to attend – online or in person – we ask that you RSVP by clicking HERE or this link: https://forms.gle/AmeyfdtvWE2WYUY86.
The workshop will be at the IWC office: 815 Danforth Avenue, suite 411, Toronto.
If the government follows through with increasing wage loss benefits from 85% to 90% of net lost wages for workers injured on the job who can’t return to work, it would simply be restoring these benefits to their previous levels.
As IWC caseworkers Chris Grawey and Tebasum Durrani explain in a Toronto Star op-ed, “Ontario must increase pay to injured workers”, the cut to loss of earning benefits in 1997 was justified by the government on the grounds that the workers’ compensation system was facing a financial crisis. Yet, at the same time employer-paid premiums, which finance the WSIB, were slashed and continue to be reduced and rebates given while workers have seen little additional financial support from the provincial government or the WSIB….. [read full article]
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The Clinic’s position has long been that the experience rating system is ineffective in improving health and safety, and encourages claims suppression. Until eliminated, submission recommends that temporary employment agencies move to their new applicable premium rate established by the WSIB.
In an online Zoom/Telephone meeting next Wednesday, April 27th at 12:30pm will discuss the WSIB response to inflation that is going through the roof – a small cost of living adjustment that that is well-below the higher costs found in injured workers’ grocery bills. We will talk about how you can help push back against this injustice, and discuss a number of other important in-person and online events that are coming up in the next few months.
“Injured workers are losing out on vital compensation because the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board is failing to apply cost-of-living benefit increases as required by law, critics say…” While Statistics Canada reports costs of living up 4.7% between October 2020 and October 2021, the Board is averaging these costs out, giving injured workers only 2.7%.
As IWC’s Chris Grawey points out, this will only exacerbate and perpetuate the poverty in which many accident victims are living…“It’s time to pay the injured workers what they’re entitled to by law.”
Read full article: Mojtehedzadeh, Sara. 2022 Apr. 14. “It’s just another blow’: why injured workers say they’re losing out as inflation hits.” Toronto Star
