Workers from across the province will be setting up at local MPP offices on Friday to protest what they say is the unfair redistribution of surplus funds to employers via the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB).
WSIB is the compensation board for provincially regulated workplaces in Ontario.
At issue is a $6-billion surplus that the government plans to distribute to employers, says Christine Nugent, co-ordinator of the Barrie District Injured Workers Group.
Locally, Nugent told BarrieToday that workers will be at the constituency offices of Barrie-Springwater-Oro-Medonte MPP Doug Downey and Barrie-Innisfil MPP Andrew Khanjin beginning at 10:30 a.m., Friday, in an attempt hold the government accountable for that decision.
“We sent a letter to MPPs' offices and it outlines the demands of injured workers in Ontario. They have been facing denials, cuts to benefits and (to) lifelong pensions,” she said, adding the announcement that the board is facing a surplus of money provided them with an opportunity to spell out their demands.
Downey said the proposed changes will provide small businesses — which he says are continuing to struggle with the effects of COVID-19 — hundreds of millions of dollars to reinvest in new jobs and technology as well as health and safety protections.
"Under the previous government, the WSIB was on the brink of bankruptcy for years. Now, it is finally in a position of financial strength with a surplus of more than $6 billion," Downey said in a statement sent to BarrieToday.
"There are no reductions to the benefits and services injured workers receive," the MPP added. "It is only employers with a strong safety record who will be receiving this money. Bad actors with a history of injuries will continue to see their premium rates rise."
Nugent also says the injured workers across Ontario are not being treated fairly by the health-care sector.
"Their own medical practitioner's decisions about their injury or illness and how they should rehabilitated is being overridden by doctors that the workers compensation board has within their organization,” said Nugent, who ran for federal office in 2008 and 2011 as a candidate for the Marxist-Leninist Party of Canada.
“We call them paper doctors, because they tend to override anything that the worker’s doctor has recommended and that puts injured workers in the position where they’re being denied benefits or being cut off benefits and being forced to return to work prematurely," she added.
Secondly, Nugent says WSIB has tried to identify injuries and illnesses as part of a pre-condition, and workers are then denied benefits based on that. She says the Barrie District Injured Workers Group’s argument is that the board should not be looking at pre-conditions.
Lastly, and what the organization believes to be the most important of its demands, is Nugent says the board should stop exercising what she said is the unfair practice called “deeming."
“They have an assessment themselves that says, 'OK, you’re good to go back to work,' whether the worker has a job or not. So at the beginning of the pandemic when jobs were closed, they were cutting injured workers off their benefits because they said they should go back to work. That practice of 'deeming' is contrary to what (a worker’s) own medical practitioner says.”
Nugent told BarrieToday she plans to dress up like a “paper doctor," adding she hopes their presence will prompt local politicians to step up and help struggling workers.
“It’s not like these MPPs do not know about these issues. The issue is accountability and that we haven't heard back. There are billions of dollars in surplus being given to employers,” she said. “We want to get their attention and have them raise the issue in the legislature. They’ve decided to give those surplus dollars to employers, and speak nothing of the needs of the workers injured on the job and during the pandemic.”
