Latest news with #WorkplaceSafetyandInsuranceAct
Business Wire
24-06-2025
- Business
- Business Wire
WSIB Workers Deliver Petition and Letter to Board of Directors as Strike Enters Second Month
TORONTO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--On Tuesday, June 24, 2025, striking members of the Ontario Compensation Employees Union (OCEU/CUPE 1750) will deliver a formal letter and petition to the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board of Directors, demanding urgent action to end the ongoing labour dispute that has left more than 3,600 frontline workers off the job for over a month. If the employer had confidence in its offer, it should table their best offer and allow workers to vote. Instead, it continues to halt the process, exposing a deliberate strategy of delay using workers of this province as pawns. Share The letter, addressed to WSIB General Counsel David Luther, outlines serious concerns with the employer's handling of negotiations, including delays, refusal to table a final offer, violations of the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act (WSIA), and unlawful retaliation against workers exercising their right to strike. It calls on the Board to immediately intervene and hold WSIB leadership accountable. Accompanying the letter is a petition signed by hundreds of striking workers across Ontario, urging the Board to bring negotiations to a fair and timely conclusion. The petition calls on WSIB to deliver immediate workload relief and fair wages, and to respect the collective bargaining process. 'WSIB leadership has failed to bargain in good faith, failed to address dangerous workload levels, and failed to uphold the law,' said Harry Goslin, President of OCEU/CUPE 1750. 'That's why we're taking this message directly to the Board. They have the power — and the responsibility — to step in and stop the damage being done to injured workers, frontline staff, and Ontario's economy.' The letter details: WSIB's refusal to table a final offer or allow workers to vote on the employer's proposal; Widespread delays and service disruptions for injured workers and businesses; Unfair labour practices, including surveillance, intimidation, and misinformation; Workload data showing anxiety and depression rates among staff at more than double the national average; A potential breach of WSIA, due to auto-adjudication practices that bypass proper review; Stagnant wages that lag behind both inflation and comparable workplaces. 'This strike is now in its second month because of deliberate choices made by WSIB leadership and enabled by political interference,' said Goslin. 'If the Board wants to restore trust and integrity to this organization, they must act now.'
Business Wire
15-06-2025
- Business
- Business Wire
NDP MPP Jessica Bell to Join WSIB Strike Picket Line in Toronto
TORONTO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--NDP MPP for University–Rosedale, Jessica Bell, will join striking WSIB workers on the picket line at 200 Front Street West on Monday, June 16 at 11:15 a.m., in solidarity with 3,600 frontline members of the Ontario Compensation Employees Union (OCEU/CUPE 1750). Now entering four weeks on strike, OCEU members are calling for fair wages, safe and healthy workplaces, and an end to the privatization and outsourcing of Ontario jobs to U.S.-based companies. These workers play a vital role in supporting injured workers Share Now entering four weeks on strike, OCEU members are calling for fair wages, safe and healthy workplaces, and an end to the privatization and outsourcing of Ontario jobs to U.S.-based companies. These workers play a vital role in supporting injured workers and ensuring employers meet their obligations under the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act. "WSIB leadership and the Ford government opted to ignore the voices of injured workers and front-line staff, instead outsourcing essential services to the United States. Now, injured workers are dealing with growing delays and backlogs, while employers receive millions in unjustified rebates. Ontario workers deserve better," Jessica Bell, MPP for University-Rosedale, Shadow minister for finance and treasury board. Where: 200 Front Street West Time 10:00 a.m.- 2 p.m. MPP Jessica Bell remarks begin at 11:15 a.m. 'We appreciate MPP Bell's support and her commitment to hearing directly from our members,' said Harry Goslin, President of OCEU/CUPE 1750. 'WSIB workers are proud of the work we do helping injured workers and their families, and we deserve to be treated with fairness and respect.' mb/cope491
CBC
05-04-2025
- CBC
Ontario Human Rights Tribunal dismisses complaint of former Lakeshore volunteer firefighter
The Ontario Human Rights Tribunal has dismissed a complaint against the Municipality of Lakeshore by a volunteer firefighter who says he was terminated after being injured on the job. Because Chris Cadrin filed his complaint of discrimination based on disability more than a year after the alleged discrimination took place and he was no longer employed by the municipality at the time, the complaint was dismissed, according to the decision. "Filing a complaint with the organizational respondent six years after the applicant's employment ends does not resurrect the employment relationship and the duties under the Code," the tribunal wrote in its decision. "Whether the termination of employment was lawful or not, in May of 2006, the organizational respondent terminated the applicant's employment." Cadrin badly damaged his shoulder in 2004 while responding to a multivehicle collision on Highway 401. At the scene of the 2004 collision, a colleague pulled on a fire hose, tripping Cadrin and causing him to fall onto the wreckage of a vehicle, dislocating and damaging his shoulder. He required surgery to repair the injury. He has been living with post-traumatic stress disorder after responding to the deadly pile-up on Highway 401 in 1999. He now receives a partial disability payment from the Workers Safety Insurance Board and has transitioned to working in property management. But Cadrin told CBC last fall that he thought for years he was still employed by the municipality because it was listed as his employer on WSIB forms. He was told he had been taken off the roster of firefighters in 2006 but he interpreted that to mean he was on extended leave, he said. He didn't learn until 2019 that it meant he'd been terminated. He said the municipality owed it to him to offer him a different job. "I never thought that I would be fired from the town of Lakeshore for being injured in the line of duty," Cadrin told CBC after the decision was issued. "That was my mistake." The municipality said in a statement it is pleased with the decision and proud of the members of its fire service. "We are pleased with the decision of the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario (HRTO) and stand by our initial statement that the allegations were historical in nature and do not reflect the culture or practices of the Lakeshore Fire Department or Municipality of Lakeshore," a spokesperson said in a statement. "While the decision did not speak to the merits of the case, we are confident that we complied with our own policies, and the standards and processes set out in the Human Rights Code, Workplace Safety and Insurance Act, and other employment-related legislation." Cadrin says he knew he was facing an uphill battle filing a human rights complaint so many years after the incident. "It's very hard to get past that one year timeline," he said. "I was disappointed with the decision and I don't agree with the decision, but I knew that I had a pretty … high bar to meet to get past the one year timeline." The tribunal's decision comes at a time when Canada faces a shortage of volunteer firefighters as people with families struggle to find the time to commit to training and service. The decision, he said, sends a negative message to volunteer firefighters. "That really frustrates me when I see a politician in the news … saying they have the backs of firefighters," he said. "I want to know specifically what they're going to do when someone's injured, when someone's ill, when someone's dying of cancer. What are they gonna do to have those people's backs?"
CBC
11-02-2025
- Health
- CBC
Injured workers' advocates push to replace Workplace Safety and Insurance Act
Social Sharing Injured workers' advocates in northwestern Ontario are hoping to see new legislation they've developed become provincial law. The Thunder Bay and District Injured Workers Support Group (TBDIWSG) introduced its Meredith Act at a media event in Thunder Bay on Monday. The document is intended to replace the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act. Steve Mantis, TBDIWSG treasurer, said the Meredith Act would address what the group said are problems with the current provincial legislation in a number of ways. "Number one is to move back to a collective liability to make the system similar to OHIP, where there are flat rates that ... corporations pay regardless of their accident frequency rate, Mantis said. "The second is that compensation is available as long as the disability lasts." "Right now there's a number of ways that compensation is reduced, even though people are continued to be disabled and unemployed." "Number three is the role of the treating physician becomes a higher priority," he said. "Now, the treating physician who knows the individual best, oftentimes their opinion is disregarded and their advice is overruled by the people that are doing the paperwork at the WSIB (Workplace Safety and Insurance Board)." The Meredith Act would also allow better tracking of injured workers' cases, "particularly workers with a permanent impairment, over their life course, to see how does it work in terms of improving their lives," Mantis said. Jules Tupker, TBDIWSG secretary, said one of the big challenges is a lack of awareness of the struggles injured workers face in Ontario. "When I talk to workers that aren't injured about the struggles that injured workers are going through, they look at me and they say, 'I don't know anything about that,'" Tupker said. "Or the story is, 'well, I cut my finger and I was in compensation for a week or two weeks, and it was great.'" "But what we're talking about is workers that have got a permanent injury, a permanent disability, a permanent illness caused by chemicals," he said. "We're not talking 50 people or 100 people or 1,000 people. We're talking tens of thousands of people a year in Ontario." Mantis said the outcome of the provincial election will play a big part in what happens next with the Meredith Act. "We work with all the political parties," he said. "We're going to continue regardless of who's in government and who's in opposition, to move forward to both put these issues into the public discourse and then put these issues into the legislative assembly."
