TORONTO, May 31, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Ontario Network of Injured Workers Groups (ONIWG) and its allies are calling on the provincial government to stop the recommendations from the Value for Money Audit Report by KPMG management consultants on the WSIB compensation system.
The recommendations from the report, if legislated by the Ford government, would change the WSIB’s dispute resolution and appeals process. One of the recommendations would reduce the time limit for injured and ill workers and their representatives to object to a WSIB decision from six months to one month. Another recommendation would reduce the amount of time for injured and ill workers to secure legal representation.
“As an injured worker, it’s really tough to navigate the WSIB because of all the complicated timelines and policies that exist. These damaging recommendations from KPMG, which were accepted by the WSIB, would make it more difficult for injured workers to get benefits,” said Wayne Harris, ONIWG Vice president. “WSIB is proposing to restrict workers’ rights (workers with a disability) to filing an appeal to 30 days; and, this is happening at a time when the WSIB has a surplus of over $7 billion.”
In response to the report, ONIWG and community members held a media conference today at Queen’s Park, Toronto, to call on the Ford government to reject the recommendations, and to consult injured and ill workers on ways to improve the compensation system.
“It can take several months to a year just to get medical reports or assessments for injured and ill workers, and if these recommendations get implemented, then representatives will become time limit machines,” says Maryth Yachnin, Staff Lawyer at the Industrial Accident Victims’ Group of Ontario (IAVGO). “It’s shameful the WSIB is even considering these suggestions from KPMG. Many of the workers we help will be forced into poverty because they can’t appeal unfair decisions in time.”
“It is not unsimilar to when the WSIB manufactured an “unfunded liability” crisis to the tune of 11.5 billion in 2008. And guess what happened just last year? The WSIB announced they had a healthy surplus, and the Ford government happily and swiftly gave those billions of dollars back to employers – not injured and ill workers, whose benefits had been cut throughout the years,” said Janice Folk, Executive Vice-President, Ontario Federation of Labour.
For more information:
Francis Pineda, Injured Workers Community Legal Clinic
647-891-2083 (cell)
francis.pineda@iwc.clcj.ca
