Critics denounce `farcical' training plan

A Star investigation raised serious questions about the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board's jobs program. After developing severe ashtma at the factory where he used to work, Nelson Fachola was given 18 months of retraining at a cost of $33,000 - but remains unemployed.

Conservatives seek audit of costly classes that don't help workers

Progressive Conservative Leader John Tory wants an immediate audit of a retraining program for injured workers that a Star investigation showed is costly and ineffective.

The Labour Market Re-entry program, run by the Workplace Safety & Insurance Board, sees 5,000 new injured workers each year and cost an estimated $156 million in 2008, up 19 per cent from 2005. Yet the retraining fails to lead nearly half of the participants to jobs.

"These numbers are absolutely offensive and farcical," Tory said. "I think you have a lot of smoke to suggest there's a big fire going on, and we need the auditor to douse the fire. (Ontarians) read the fact that basically half the people either don't finish or don't return to work after all this money is spent, and this is the kind of thing that is driving people crazy."

The Star found in several cases that injured workers were being sent to private schools charging high tuitions so they could get menial jobs as cashiers and attendants.

One worker, Nelson Fachola, was sent to a school that charged $33,000 – considerably more than tuition for a four-year undergraduate degree at the University of Toronto – so that he would find work doing data entry and stocking shelves for $11 an hour. He did not.

Since 1998, the provincial agency has outsourced the program to claims management firms such as Crawford Healthcare Management and Sibley & Associates. These firms are supposed to assess the worker's abilities, decide on a suitable job and the training needed to get that job. A typical program lasts 20 months and the firms periodically meet with the worker to monitor progress while billing the workplace insurance system $80 to $90 an hour for the monitoring service.

"Ninety dollars to supervise?" Tory asked. "People in ... the small towns – they don't have anybody in their business who even thinks about making $80 to $90 an hour doing anything. They say: `Has the world gone mad?'"

While Tory wants an audit, NDP leader Howard Hampton sees no point. "I think the jury's in on this," he said. "This was a bad idea to begin with. Frankly, this was all about allowing a bunch of consultants to make a lot of money off injured workers. It should end now. No need for any further study."

As the provincial agency is funded by employer premiums, the cost of an injured worker's retraining affects the bottom line of the employer where he or she was hurt. One CEO said the costs are "exorbitant" and implored the WSIB to rein in the expensive program.

Since the Star published the story Saturday, scores of readers and injured workers have called and emailed, some with their own stories of costly programs and poor results. One injured worker said his program is costing the workplace insurance system close to $500,000. Others criticized "substandard for-profit schools.

Steve Mahoney, head of the massive, multi-billion-dollar arm of the government that insures two-thirds of all workplaces in Ontario, said he is already trying to fix problems with Labour Market Re-entry, including creating a new group of managers to oversee the program. Those managers are not yet in place. The WSIB said it is in talks with education officials to see if it can send more injured workers to cheaper public schools. The WSIB is also asking unions if apprenticeship programs would be better than academic upgrading for some.

Mahoney also said in Saturday's story that he is considering moving management of the retraining program back in-house.