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Spirited Programs Mark Ontario Injured Workers' Day 2020 Fighting for Justice for All Injured Workers
The Injured Workers' Day online rally, June 1, was attended by more than 200 registered participants, while others joined on Facebook and YouTube. The current COVID-19 pandemic has brought to the fore the importance to the entire society of the fight for safe working conditions for all workers, and for full and timely compensation for all who are injured or become ill due to their work. Following an introduction by Maryam Nazemi, who brought greetings from the Women of Inspiration vigil, the President of the Ontario Network of Injured Workers' Groups Janet Paterson spoke. Under the conditions of the current pandemic she pointed out, it is all the more important that the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) take up its responsibility to injured workers who agreed to give up the right to sue the employers for workplace injuries and illness in return for just compensation for as long as the injury or illness lasts. Instead, employer premiums have been reduced while fewer and fewer injured workers receive the compensation they are due. In the case of COVID-19, instead of presuming that essential workers have contracted the illness at work the WSIB is adjudicating each case separately which currently leaves more than 4,000 Ontario workers who have filed claims in limbo as they wait for WSIB decisions. This situation must end, Janet stated. A private member's Bill 191 to address this issue has passed first reading in the Ontario Legislature. If passed, should a frontline worker contract COVID-19, it will be presumed to be an occupational disease occurring due to the nature of the their work, unless the contrary is shown. Patty Coates, President of the Ontario Federation of Labour, highlighted the situation of frontline workers during the pandemic. While governments have taken to speaking of frontline workers as heroes, many of them are not receiving the protection they require from their employers she said. It is the responsibility of the Minister of Labour, Coates pointed out, to protect all workers and this is not taking place, leaving workers to fend for themselves.
The rally also received a video message of greetings from Paul Healey, Secretary of the Australian Health and Community Services Union in Victoria, which this year celebrated its first June 1 Injured Workers' Day. Janice Martell, from the McIntyre Powder Project, spoke to the need to change this workers' compensation system which is designed to fail injured workers, a system that is designed to wear them down until they give up or die (video presentation below). For frontline workers who contract the disease at work COVID-19 is an occupational disease, she pointed out, but to call frontline workers "heroes" masks the failure of the government and employers to adequately protect the workers from toxic exposure. The final speaker was Fred Hahn, President of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Ontario. His union represents many frontline workers, in particular in health and seniors care, and has been active in fighting for their safety and that of those they care for during the pandemic. He pointed out that while the pandemic did not cause the problems in the public services, it has exposed them and created public opinion to address workplace health and safety. We need to be able to fully enact our right to refuse unsafe work, he stated. Videos
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The Ontario
Network of Injured Workers' Groups organized two
well-attended online events on Ontario Injured
Workers' Day to celebrate their work and
collective strength in fighting for justice for
injured workers. This year marks 37 years since
the first injured workers' day, June 1, 1983,
when 3,000 injured workers' and their allies
gathered at Queen's Park to make their demands
known to a public inquiry into the compensation
system.
During the rally
a number of injured workers spoke out on their
experiences. Many more participated in putting
together a video for the occasion of Injured
Workers' Day 2020 (see below). One activist with
Injured Workers Action for Justice pointed out
that long before COVID-19 essential workers were
working long hours in unsafe conditions and
facing long waits to get claims for compensation
processed, if they were not outrightly denied,
leaving injured workers with no means of
support. Gabriel, a former migrant farm worker
and now an organizer, spoke to their situation,
which has become all the more dangerous during
this pandemic. Migrant farmworkers do not have
access to EI, or to comprehensive health care,
and if they are injured or become ill they are
repatriated to their home countries, he pointed
out.