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In Defence of the Rights of Injured Workers Workers and Advocates in Ontario Condemn Plan to Enrich Employers and Impoverish WorkersBefore the end of October, Ontario's Minister of Labour, Training and Skills Development, Monte McNaughton, plans to introduce legislation that will "allow" the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) to distribute the Insurance Fund Surplus to employers when the fund exceeds 115 per cent and to "require" this distribution when it reaches 125 per cent.
The legislation will be based on two of the 25 recommendations of two consultants who submitted an Operational Review Report in November 2020, the Speer-Dykeman Report. The recommendations are that "the government should adopt a regulation that prescribes a sufficiency ratio corridor between 115 and 125 per cent for the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board from 2020 to 2025" and that "the government should prescribe the parameters for surplus distribution -- namely, instructing the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board to consider surplus distribution when the insurance fund exceeds 115 per cent and to require it distributes surpluses if the sufficiency ratio hits or exceeds 125 per cent." Between July 15 and August 10 this year the WSIB conducted a "consultation," the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board Insurance Fund Surplus Distribution Model Consultation. This was not announced publicly. Injured Workers' Groups, advocates and unions were not informed but nonetheless found out and were able to submit briefs. The plan has been soundly denounced by the Ontario Federation of Labour, several unions, injured workers groups across the province, and advocacy organizations. It is a straight-forward scheme to pay the rich with funds stolen from injured workers over the years. Cuts to workers' compensation were justified on the basis of the fraud that the system could not have an "unfunded liability." It is self-serving accounting and propaganda to divert funds to pay the rich. Workers' Forum is reprinting below a summary and excerpts from the submission of the Injured Workers Community Legal Clinic from August 10, 2021.
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Talk of surpluses is bogus to
say the least and at the base of
the fraud the government has perpetrated against the interests of
injured workers. Massive cuts to workers' benefits and other
measures have resulted in what is called the "surplus" in the
insurance fund. Since the "surplus" was created through denial of
claims and cuts to benefits to injured workers, the only
legitimate way to now use those funds is to make immediate
restitution to injured workers who are being pushed into poverty
and desperation. 