WSIB, union to resume talks a week after thousands of workers hit picket lines
The Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) and the union representing 3,600 of the provincial Crown agency's workers will be back at the bargaining table on Thursday, a week after employees went on strike over issues surrounding wages and workload.
The WSIB announced the new round of talks in an emailed statement Wednesday morning.
'We are pleased that the Ontario Compensation Employees Union (OCEU) has decided to come back to the bargaining table. The WSIB remains committed to reaching a fair and reasonable agreement that recognizes the needs of people who are injured as our top priority.'
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In a statement of its own, the CUPE-affiliated OCEU confirmed that negotiations had restarted after union executives received a letter from the employer Tuesday evening that WSIB management were preparing 'a narrowed list of proposals' to discuss on Thursday.
Harry Goslin, president of OCEU/CUPE Local 1750, said in the statement that the union had hoped to have discussions on Wednesday.
'If the WSIB truly cares, they would make getting back to the bargaining table a priority without delay,' he wrote.
The union also sent a counterproposal to WSIB management Tuesday evening, according to its Wednesday press release.
A new offer from the OCEU had been a major sticking point for WSIB to return to the bargaining table, vice-president of communications, Aaron Lazarus, previously told the Star. It was not clear whether the counter-offer from the OCEU came before or after union executives received the letter from WSIB management.
News of both sides returning to the bargaining table comes one week after the OCEU entered a legal strike position when the first round of talks stalled ahead of the May 21 deadline to reach a new collective agreement.
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Thousands of unionized employees, along with allies from other Ontario labour groups, have been on the picket lines outside WSIB offices in Toronto, Ottawa and elsewhere in the province since Thursday. A group of employees also marched outside a workplace safety conference in Markham with WSIB senior leaders in attendance on Tuesday.
The union had originally planned to conduct a 'rotating' strike schedule with alternating days in office and on the picket line, but announced Monday that its members would be going into 'full' strike mode after being allegedly locked out from WSIB systems by the employer.
At issue, according to the union, are wages that have not kept up with inflation and concerns over alleged 'dangerously high' workloads that are worsening employee mental health, including depression and anxiety.
The WSIB has continued to operate while unionized employees are on strike, although the agency previously warned of longer telephone wait times and slower responses to non-urgent inquiries and services.
Even with both sides returning to the bargaining table, they seem to be 'still a significant way apart,' according to Steven Tufts, a geography professor at York University who specializes in labour studies.
Tufts pointed to different understandings of the workload issue between the two sides as one area that will make reaching an agreement difficult.
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'It doesn't seem to me like the sides even agree on the extent or the nature of the problem,' he said.
Tufts acknowledged that he is not involved in the negotiations nor familiar with the work environment at the WSIB, but said the fact that the OCEU had never gone on strike in its more than 100-year history before last week suggested there's a lot employees are frustrated about.
Still, he noted that public support for the union might be lower than other labour groups given peoples' frustrations over the WSIB.
'A lot of injured workers have had really, really hard times getting compensation from WSIB, even when it's deserved,' Tufts said. 'So no fault of their own just because of policies and structures in place, but it might be harder to mobilize the support that other unions can.'
More to come.
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