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Ontario Government to Allow Compensation Board to Distribute All Out to Oppose Attacks on Injured Workers!On October 6, Ontario's Minister of Labour, Training and Skills Development, Monte McNaughton, said that he would be tabling legislation before the end of October that will enable the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) to distribute "surplus" funds to employers. This will be done either by sending them money directly or by reducing their premium rates.
As is the case with the Employment Insurance regime, this so-called surplus was created under the hoax of providing sustainability to the compensation system. Actually it was achieved through drastic cuts to benefits to injured workers, pushing them into extreme poverty, while reducting rates for employers. The result of the distribution of the "surplus" funds to employers through legislation is going to be exactly the same. Injured workers have made it clear that their demands must be met by WSIB and that justice for injured workers must be the aim of the compensation system. They firmly oppose the use of the system as one more scheme to pay the rich at the expense of the workers and people, in this case some of the most vulnerable. All Out in Defence of the Dignity and Rights of Injured Workers!
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This
announcement follows a fraudulent backroom consultation that was held
by the WSIB in the summer with private interests. No information on the
consultation or invitation to take part was provided to injured
workers' organizations. It is only because of their sustained work for
justice and against the suppression of their voices that they
learnt about the consultation and insisted on presenting briefs. They
also held virtual meetings to inform people of the government's plan
and to denounce any mention of a "surplus" without reversing the
decades of cuts to compensation for injured workers by successive
governments.