Injured Workers' Ombudsman Experience:
The "Fair" Practices Commission
- Christine Nugent -
  
March 19, 2014 -
Injured workers and their organizations are discussing
the role of
the Fair Practices Commission (FPC) of the Worker's Safety Insurance
Board (WSIB). The Fair Practices Commissioner is an ombudsman whose
mandate is to receive, investigate and resolve complaints about alleged
acts, omissions and unfair
practices by the WSIB. The FPC's role is to identify complaint trends,
policy matters and systemic issues and make recommendations for
improvements to the Board of Directors of the WSIB. In the context of
Premier Wynne's recent announcement of increasing the mandate of the
Ontario Ombudsman and also
setting up other mechanisms to "have accountable and open" government
in Ontario, while not taking up its social responsibility to recognize
and guarantee the rights of workers, including injured workers, the FPC
of the WSIB most likely will add a layer of bureaucracy to block
injured workers from their right to
just compensation and benefits.
The government at this time is attempting to creating
public opinion
in favour of the use of an ombudsman as seen by the extension of the
power of the Ombudsman of Ontario to include municipalities,
universities, schools and hospitals. This requires discussion as to
whether the arrangements that are being put
in place will solve the problems people are facing in these sectors or
will it lead to further crisis. It requires taking a look at what are
the root
causes of the problems people face. It is clear to workers in these
sectors that it is the anti-people, anti-worker austerity agenda which
is the source of the problems. The government
is not living up to its responsibility to ensure people's rights to
just compensation, a living wage, education, health care, municipal
services and other social services.
The FPC of the WSIB was set up by the government in
2002. When
workers appeal to the FPC, it is often the last desperate attempt to
demand justice as injured workers following a refusal of the Board
or the Workplace Safety and Insurance Appeals Tribunal (WSIAT) to
recognize their rights to compensation.
The work of the FPC is done by individuals and behind closed doors.
Individual complaints are handled on a case by case basis and other
injured workers who are facing similar problems are not made aware of
decisions. Administrative issues are taken up such as wait times,
communication issues, the flow of information
or whether the WSIB or the Tribunal's decision is consistent with WSIB
law and policy. The FPC claims to be impartial; to not take sides in
complaints and to advocate for fair processes. Herein lays the problem.
At this time the WSIB is
determined to remove the so-called unfunded
liability on the basis of denying as many injured workers as possible
their right to compensation for their workplace-related injuries or
illnesses as part of the Wynne government's austerity agenda. One way
this is being done is through the
brutal application of the new benefit policies which exist in draft
form, that has resulted in denial of benefits to injured workers
due to the re-occurrence of injuries, pre-conditions and other factors
such as aging. Injured workers and their allies are calling for these
unjust measures to be abandoned. These
policies have been identified by some legal sources as the WSIB making
legal that which is illegal. The issue is that the Fair Practices
Commission has no power to change the direction the government is
taking and instead has become the gatekeeper of these brutal policies
of the Wynne government and its WSIB.
Individual workers do continue to demand justice and
protest through appeals to the FPC which is seen as a last resort.
For many years injured workers and their organizations
have carried
out actions to demand that governments and their agencies serve the
needs of injured workers. It is through their independent stands and
resistance to these latest attacks that they have and will continue to
keep the initiative in their hands. The
involvement of injured workers in the defeat of the Liberals and
Conservatives in recent by-elections shows that when they are an
organized force in defence of their rights, injured workers are a
formidable force to open society's path to progress. The upcoming
Liberal convention this weekend and a possible general
election are opportunities for injured workers and their allies to
raise their level of political organizing and demand an end to the
austerity agenda in Ontario!.
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