May 20, 2010
On Injured Workers Day, June 1, injured workers as well
as unions and other organizations will remind the government that
justice — not poverty — was the primary reason the compensation system
was set up in 1914. Workers gave up their right to sue employers for
workplace injury and illness compensation in exchange for a system that
was supposed to provide fair recompense to injured workers so that they
could continue their lives with dignity even in the face of injury or
permanent disablement.
This year’s Auditor General Report once again highlights
the unfunded liability of the WSIB/WCB. The report shifts the debate
from the poverty of injured workers to the financial situation of the
Board. We’ve seen this old movie time and again.
Not that the financial situation of the Board ought to
be ignored. Even though the WSIB has an unfunded liability, it has
enough resources to meet its commitments for the next 25 years!
If the WSIB wants to improve its funding ratio, it
should do it in a way that maintains the integrity of its system.
Rather than robbing benefits from already poor injured workers for a
third time, why not ask employers to end the assessment holiday they
have enjoyed for more than ten years?
In 1996 employers paid 3.20 per $100 of payroll. Now
they pay 2.26. Employers are earning 2010 dollars and paying 1980’s
prices for workers’ compensation coverage.
Employers’ rates went down during the same time that
injured workers saw virtual elimination of their cost of living
allowances, disappearance of retirement income and slashes to
compensation levels. It is time that injured workers stop bearing the
burden of real or fake WSIB woes.
It is injured workers who need the attention and
protection of the Auditor, the government, the WSIB, and the public. If
injured workers are barred from suing their employers for injury, they
should not receive half measures. Injured workers deserve what the
compensation system promised them in 1914. Compensation should provide
long-term and adequate benefits, truly safe, meaningful, and sustainable
work and cost of living adjustments. End “deeming,” the practice where
workers get categorized into a specific job, whether or not they
actually acquire a job. Stop paying out billions of dollars to
employers in experience-rating programs that focus more on manipulating
stats than on compensating injured workers.
Join us as we pay tribute to the contribution injured
workers have brought to Ontario, and demand justice. Workers deserve
fair compensation and dignity following workplace injury or
disablement.
