Justice for Injured Workers
Ontario Injured Workers to Rally at Ministry of Labour
After two years
in which injured workers gathered virtually due to the COVID-19
pandemic, the Ontario Network of Injured Workers Groups (ONIWG) is once
again holding its Christmas rally outside the Ministry of Labour at
11:00 am on Monday, December 12. It has been thirty-one years since the
first Christmas rally was held to draw attention to the difficulties
faced by injured workers, difficulties felt particularly acutely at
this time of year. The actions highlight the impoverishment of injured
workers due to the refusal of the Ontario government to ensure that all
workers receive full compensation when injured or made ill at work.
A second rally is taking place at 3:00 pm the same afternoon in Thunder Bay outside the office of the local Member of the Provincial Parliament (MPP). See ad above for details.
This year the theme of the rallies is to make life more affordable for injured workers by meeting the basic demands that injured workers' organizations have been putting forward through their Workers' Comp Is a Right campaign. These demands are that the Ford government keep its election promise to raise benefit rates; stop pretending injured workers are employed when they are not; listen to injured workers' treating physicians; and stop cutting benefits because of so-called pre-existing conditions. As part of the action ONIWG will deliver hundreds of letters reiterating these basic demands collected from injured workers and organizations across Ontario to the Minister of Labour.
One of the main
tools used by the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) to
systematically impoverish injured workers is deeming, the process by
which WSIB reduces injured workers' benefits on the basis of "deeming"
that they are receiving earnings from jobs that are theoretically
available to them, but which they do not have.
A private member's bill (Bill 57) to end this practice sponsored by NDP MPP Wayne Gates was presented to the legislature on December 7 and passed first reading. The previous legislature sat on an anti-deeming bill (Bill 119) for years without putting it to a vote and it died on the order paper when the legislature dissolved for the June 2022 election. Injured workers are demanding the Ford government pass this bill or introduce anti-deeming legislation of its own.
This article was published in
Volume 52 Number 58 - December 12, 2022 - No. 58
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/Tmld2022/Articles/D520581.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca