Workers comp donation to rights museum rapped - Workers Compensation Board donates $500,000 to the Canadian Museum for Human Rights. Will this donation serve to muzzle the Canadian Museum for Human Rights regarding abuses perpetrated by the workers compensation board against injured workers? The CIWS has submitted a written document outlining how the workers compensation system in Canada violates the human rights of workers disabled by occupation.
McGuinty Reappoints Mahoney Despite Death Rebate 'Embarrassment' - "McGuinty, who first named Mahoney to the WSIB post in May 2006, was under pressure from the opposition Progressive Conservatives and New Democrats last year to fire him after a series in the Star outlined problems at the agency. The paper's Working Wounded series found the WSIB was giving financial rewards to companies that had been prosecuted for worker deaths by another arm of the provincial government. Rebates that ranged from hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars were being paid to firms even though they had been responsible for the deaths of employees."
McGuinty Reappoints WSIB Chair Mahoney Despite Call for Firing Over Deaths - After revelations that the WSIB paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in safety rebates to firms responsible for the deaths of workers on the job, labour organizations and others demanded that Steve Mahoney be fired as chair of the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB). Yet Dalton McGuinty has reappointed him and Mahoney remains as chair of the WSIB. The CIWS sees this action as one that dishonours Ontario's dead workers. It also dishonours all those who have suffered a workplace injury or illness and have been denied compensation by WSIB. Thousands of Ontarians have had their claims and benefits denied and have been forced into poverty, mental and physical breakdown and suicide because of this. By his actions, Dalton McGuinty has demonstrated his disdain for the injured workers of Ontario.
PETITION re: Removal of "tyrannical" Privative Clauses by injured worker calling for removal of the Privative Clauses from all Workers’ Compensation Acts across Canada & United States of America. Privative clauses have allowed WCBs across Canada to break the law with impunity, and to
make their decisions immune to appeal to the courts. In administrative law, a privative clause is a provision in a statute that tries to remove a court’s ability to review decisions of a tribunal (or other administrative agency) such as a WCB.
Privative clauses demonstrate the tension between the power of the legislature and the courts. They are subject to much controversy because on the one hand, Parliament has the elected right to make laws for the electorate, and on the other, the courts have a constitutionally enshrined right to review and account for decisions. Justice William Orville Douglas of the US Supreme Court noted that privative clauses grant "tyrannical power" to administrative decision makers. - PRIVATIVE CLAUSE PETITION (please also sign the CIWS petition)
Letter to Gary Goodyear re: Federal Responsibility - re: The Association of Workers Compensation Boards of Canada (AWCBC) - "It would seem the age old excuse concerning
federal and provincial jurisdictional issues, will not suffice in this instance
because your Ministry (science and technology) sanctions the AWCBC constitution
and by-laws. . . . the
provincial and territorial governments have been allowed by the government of
Canada, to create and enact, unfair WC Acts and subsequent amendments, that,
discriminate and penalize the D/W (disabled worker) and their family, simply because a workplace
injury was suffered and resulted in either a partial or total permanent
disability. Permanently D/Ws with accepted WCB claims, face a barrage of
mental and psychological terror techniques applied by the WCB's, which in some
cases are the cause of extreme secondary injuries i.e.; physical, mental,
psychological and emotional wounding, which if left without proper medical, and
psychological intervention, can and does lead to death and death by suicide. When will you Mr. Goodyear, as Minister of
State (science and technology), begin to carefully scrutinize the activity of
the AWCBC membership and put a stop to harm being brought to Canadian
citizens who have unfortunately suffered an injury resulting in a permanent disability,
just by going to work? . . . when
the WCB's clearly violate the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the
various provincial and territorial Human Rights Codes, what is you Ministry and
the Government of Canada prepared to do to stop this torture of the D/W?" ( The CIWS has pointed out how Canadian WCBs are
increasingly using an insurance-industry business model to delay
and deny legitimate claims in Canada. We are calling for a federal public judicial inquiry into these and other issues.)
NSGEU and CUPE Concerned about WCB Draft Policy - "The Nova Scotia Government and General Employees Union (NSGEU/NUPGE) is expressing concern about a draft Nova Scotia government policy paper affecting workers' compensation entitlements. . . . " The letter from the unions cites the Stanhope Manifesto and states (among other issues) "We are concerned that the WCB
may be seeking to exclude certain types of accidents or conditions. We are
opposed to any listing of circumstances when compensation would not be paid."
(US) Suicide Blamed on Denied WCB Claim - "The employers (WCB) insurance company’s representatives did all they could to minimize and delay Mr. Elliott’s medical care. His pain treatment and rehabilitation were manipulated by “nurse case managers”. . . . After years of battling the pain and inability to support his family Mr. Elliott walked into the office of his psychiatrist and stabbed himself with an ice pick." The CIWS has pointed out how Canadian WCBs are
increasingly using an insurance-industry business model to delay
and deny legitimate claims. Also see SUICIDE and WCBWe are calling for a federal public judicial inquiry into these and other issues.)
Darrell Powell and Dr. Lisa Doupe speak on WCB at the Senate - POWELL: "With workers’ compensation, they are not accepting claims,
period. It is a staggering rate of denial on claims. The medical criteria and
arguments that they use to deny a claim are astounding . . . Workers compensation has changed dramatically
since 2000, especially in British Columbia, which is leading the compensation
systems and is homogenizing it to this new stylized version of compensation,
which is predominantly focused to benefit the employer and the corporate sector. What they will accept is different and the tools that they
use to measure health and disability are for the most part, quite
unconstitutional." DOUPE: "The combative process is often because of the insurance need
to manage numbers, whether it is cost or number of claims, then in the lack of
this coordination and collaborative process, creates extraordinary delays in the
actual processing of people's treatments and claims. The process in itself
becomes an additional barrier to well-being and recovery. . . . I see
this is as an opportunity for the ICF to be integrated as one of the options to
be considered, not only for the compensation system, but also for other
insurance systems."
Doug Stanley, CEO of WorkSafe NB "not doing his job" - "It's been almost five years since a laundry cart fell on Tammy Gray at Fundy Linen, and her pain has only worsened. . . . "The bureaucrats have done absolutely nothing since this decision to provide Tammy with a barrier-free residence," said Bob Davidson, a worker advocate, at LeBlanc's office Wednesday. . . . LeBlanc, Gray's MLA, has been trying to help the single mother for years. "We have bureaucrats out there who are hellbound to not look after injured workers like Tammy Gray," LeBlanc said. The person I'm blaming here, out and out, is Doug Stanley," LeBlanc said, referring to the president and chief executive of WorkSafe NB. "He's not doing his job. . . . "Dollars are being spent from the tax pot that should be spent by the workers' compensation board, and it's keeping their assessment rates artificially low," he said. "The public of New Brunswick are subsidizing the employers' responsibility of looking after injured workers."" ( The CIWS has pointed out how Canadian WCBs are
increasingly using this type of insurance-industry business model to delay
and deny legitimate claims in Canada. We are calling for a federal public judicial inquiry into these and other issues.)
Saskatchewan Worker's Life Worth $8000? - Amongst the Occupational Health and Safety Prosecutions that were hidden by the Sask Party government for almost two years is the case of a company fined $8000 after the death of a worker. Another was fined only $17,250 for a workplace death. (CIWS: When corporations can pay for workplace deaths out of petty cash, does that help promote safety?)
Sask Party Hides Workplace Accidents - "The election of the Sask. Party government in November 2007 and a changeover in officials in occupational health and safety created some questions about disclosure policy. Publication of convictions in news releases and on the government website was formally stopped . . . NDP labour critic Andy Iwanchuk said . . . "It really puts in the question, how serious do they take this? Whatever the reason they have for doing it, it just doesn't cut it. We're talking about life and death,""
Bullying and Medical Malpractice by WorkSafeBC - VIDEO Woman's video series reports on medical malpractice and bullying perpetrated by WorkSafeBC against her seriously injured husband.
Saskatchewan WCB Slapped By Privacy Commissioner - " In virtually all other Canadian jurisdictions, WCB is subject to access to information legislation just like every other public body in those jurisdictions. In Saskatchewan however, the WCB has taken an interesting and, in our view, legally unfounded interpretation of section 171.1 of its enabling legislation to deny applicants access to their own personal information. Unfortunately, our office has no jurisdiction to put this before a court to have the question of interpretation resolved once and for all. In the result, there is a kind of stalemate, with WCB denying access requests routinely unless an appeal has been launched by the worker and the appeal is deemed proper and appropriate." (CIWS: What is the Saskatchewan WCB Trying To Hide By Illegally Denying Claimants Access to Their Files?)
Forced Back To Work On Heavy Medications - VIDEO " . . . Saskatchewan Workers Compensation has placed innocent families lives in DANGER by returning me to work on OXYCONTIN, MORPHINE, and several other drugs that have made my brain fuzzy, disorientated and unable to work safely in my job as a semi-truck driver in Saskatchewan"
Nothing Left to Lose - VIDEO UPDATE - Part 3 - "WorkSafeBC Destroys Families" - June 25, family loses the children - Family loses house and children due to WCB wrongdoing. Follow the VIDEO DIARY of a family who has nothing left to lose.
(US) New York Addresses WCB Physician Fraud - "Some IME brokers (entities) have been caught red handed changing the findings and degree of disability of their own examining physicians. . . .As Dr. Samuels nonchalantly stated on video: "If you did a truly pure report....you'd be out on your ears and the insurers wouldn't pay for it. You have to give them what they want, or your in Florida. That's the game, baby." "
(The CIWS contends that workers compensation boards in Canada are using false medical reports to deny legitimate claims. The CIWS is calling for a federal public judicial inquiry into these and other issues.)
JUNE 2009:
Peter MacKay, Minister of National Defence Champions Mental Injuries in the Workplace - "Not all injuries are visible and we have to be very open about that, to come out of the shadows to embrace the treatment of these very real injuries," said Peter MacKay, Minister of National Defence and Minister for the Atlantic Gateway. "I'm very proud that the Canadian Forces are launching this program to do more, and we will continue to do more."
(CIWS: Is this announcement a step toward addressing Canadian WCBs' discrimination against chronic stress diseases in the workplace? Will this translate into recognizing chronic stress diseases and PTSD in other sectors such as health care workers, firefighters, paramedics, and other high stress occupations? Will this translate into actual compensation for these mental injuries? For more information on chronic stress issues see: DISCRIMINATION - Denying Compensation For Occupational Diseases and MENTAL HEALTH / CHRONIC STRESS:)
(US) US Supreme Court Flooded with Briefs in WCB Racketeering (RICO) Case - "In a RICO case which will have profound impact on the national workers' compensation system, the defense bar has flooded the US Supreme Court with applications to submit amicus briefs. Pending before the US Supreme Court is a petition for a writ of certiorari to review a decision where: the employer, insurance company and their experts were found to have conducted themselves in violation of the RICO Act."
What WorkSafeBC Does to Workers Everyday - "The injured worker must go through the WorkSafe system, there is no alternative. We must rely on the honesty, purpose, and standards of this system, to deliver a future. . . . WorkSafeBC can, and does abuse people and their rights, with great impunity."
US: Depraved Indifference - AUDIO - A Look Inside the Workers’ Compensation System
- Is the Workers’ Compensation system really there to protect us if we are injured on the job? On this Workers’ Comp Matters program, host Attorney Alan S. Pierce welcomes Dr. Patrice Woeppel to take an inside look at the ins and outs of the workers’ compensation system and discuss her new book, Depraved Indifference: the Workers’ Compensation System." - From LegalTalkNetwork
Nothing Left to Lose - VIDEO - "Family loses house and children due to WCB wrongdoing. Follow the VIDEO DIARY of a family who has nothing left to lose."
Is This Where Canadian Workers Are Heading? Or are We There Now?- "A bakery in Spain is accused of turfing out an employee after his arm was ripped off in machinery — and then dumping the severed limb into a rubbish bin. . . .
The bakery owner's son allegedly warned Mr Rilles not to tell doctors where the shocking accident took place. . . .
By the time police located the 33-year-old immigrant's arm in a bin the following day, it was too late for it to be reattached by surgeons. . . . He said he worked 12-hour days at the bakery for the past 18 months, earning under A$40 a day." (Is This Where Canadian Workers Are Heading? OR ARE WE THERE NOW? SEE: "Hiding injuries rewards companies" - Star investigation reveals job safety numbers are under-reported, cutting employer costs. WSIB and labour ministry allow companies to hide dangerous workplaces When the WCB throws an injured worker out onto the street untreated and penniless, is it any different than this? Federal and provincial governments condone it by their inaction.)
North American Agreement on Labour Cooperation. - WHY? - "Dear Prime Minister Harper and any other Politician that claims to stand for Canadians . . . After all the searching that has been done by myself and other injured workers, we are curious as to why with the Free Trade Agreement that there is an agreement pertaining to labour, namely the North American Agreement on Labour Cooperation. . . . Federal law mandates WCB in each Province, therefore Federal Government should police the actions if the provincial Governments do nothing"
Wanted: a moral government - "Tony Vincenzi is a former light house keeper (UCTE) and has been battling WCB and Sun Life since 2004. . . . "Share in this, my reality. Lose every cent that your life of saving and investment have produced. Be forced to live for 23 months with no income whatsoever. Pay a mortgage, feed a family, drive a car, cloth yourself. Live these challenges every day aware of the fact that the pain and medications hinder the thought process you need to survive. Face the fact that your entire future as a family with children, grandchildren and ageing parents has been forever changed. Know that the future you crafted is now controlled by a system that has absolutely no concern or conscience. It’s a system designed to erase the humanity from the obligations that it is entrusted with. Learn to feel the hatred that festers within a person forced to beg on a daily basis for the humanities that all “able bodied” people expect is their right. Sense the fear that you create when you challenge the system to deliver on its peoples’ mandate. Experience the reality of friends that shun your presence, and the self desecration as you gradually come to realize that everything that is happening only fortifies your perception of personal blame. This is the real world for hundreds of disabled workers – people that are your neighbours, your friends and your life partners. The single most astonishing fact that one is forced to accept is that the rights and services we all presumed to meet society’s obligation to injured workers do not exist."
CIWS Submission to the Senate Subcommittee on Cities - Since the Senate's final report that, disappointingly, did not mention workers disabled by occupation, there is a new opportunity to bring the poverty of injured workers' families to the attention of the Senate. The CIWS has made a submission to the Senate Subcommittee on Cities and Darrell Powell is also at the table. Hopefully, the report of this subcommittee will be more encouraging for the hundreds of thousands of affected workers and their families than the last report.
BC Search and Rescue Suspends Operations After WCB Denial ""Recent events have left the directors of Golden and District Search and Rescue (GADSAR) unclear as to the legal support provided by the authority with jurisdiction and the Provincial Emergency Program. . . . "The premise that GADSAR was built on was that the province would provide both Workers Compensation and legal liability to (Search and Rescue) SAR volunteers when it came to training and operational tasks. The current lawsuit against GADSAR and a recent Workers Compensation claim denial of a SAR volunteer in Cranbrook has left this organization questioning what this coverage actually entails. . . . We encourage all search and rescue teams in the province to fully understand what risks they are assuming when responding in good faith. . . . "Our organization would like the provincial emergency program to... answer the following questions regarding coverage for both WCB and liability . . . "
WHEN DID THE BURDEN OF PROOF SHIFT TO THE WORKER? - Why is it that workers must fight for the rights that they were promised by Governments and employers have a guaranteed right that they cannot be sued even if the injury, death or disease was due to gross negligence. It seems that workers rights have been eroded by Governments that have passed legislation that has illegally removed all workers rights that were a part of the historic agreement. For example; workers agreed to give up the right to sue in exchange for not having to prove their case in civil court. Somehow this agreement has been eroded so that rather than the "Board" having the burden of proof relative to causation, the burden of proof has been reversed and it is now the worker who has the burden of proof in proving causation. Even the courts somehow believe that the worker compensation board does not have the burden of proof, they believe that workers compensation operates under the strict rules of civil law rather than administrative law that pertains to workers compensation law. When did the burden of proof shift to the worker rather than the "Board" and when did this take place.
Gerry Miller (long time WCB Critic)
CLC Calls On Provinces to Improve Their WCB Systems " . . . Workers' Compensation Boards are continuously bowing to corporate pressure to make changes that are not beneficial to workers. . . .
The Canadian Labour Congress is calling for changes and supporting efforts to have workers' compensation improved across Canada. . . .
The CLC is calling on our affiliates, federations of labour and labour councils to work hand in hand with injured workers' groups across Canada . . . to pressure governments in Canada to change workers' compensation where it has been clearly demonstrated that injured workers and their families are not being treated with the dignity and respect they are entitled.
"
MEDIA ADVISORY - IMPACTS OF WORKPLACE INJURY RELEASED ( This study was done in Ontario but could apply to all provinces.) Some of the key findings of the report include:
Injured workers experience nearly 4 times the rate of poverty for Ontario.
1 in 5 workers lost their home after injury
Incidence of subsidized housing more than doubled after injury
1 in 5 workers are on social assistance after injury
1 in 5 workers are living in extreme poverty post-injury (less than $10,000 per year) and 41% reported an income of less than $15,000/year.
a 13 fold increase in food bank usage post-injury
¼ of injured workers lost their car
Almost half (46%) reported depression as a result of their workplace injury
¾ of the local group have considered suicide
2/3 report losing friends
18% have lost family due to strained relationships
Canadian Senate Ignores Injured Workers in Report - Despite years of work by the community of workers disabled by occupation in bringing the health and poverty issues of injured workers' families to the attention of the Canadian government, the Senate Committee's final report ignored the injured worker community completely. Despite the exceptional work of Darrell Powell, the Subcommittee on Population Health of the Standing Senate Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology tabled its final report, “A Healthy, Productive Canada: A Determinant Of Health Approach” without mentioning the poverty and health outcomes of workers disabled by occupation even once.
MAY 2009:
US: Insurance Industry Opposes Injured Workers The US insurance industry is opposing and attempting to strike down legislation that would create a National Commission on Workers Compensation. The commission would expose corruption within the insurance industry and shine a light on the routine delays and denials of legitimate injury claims. "This legislation would create a National Commission on State Workers’ Compensation Laws to study and evaluate characteristics of current state workers’ compensation schemes including benefit amounts, “bad faith delays” in benefit payments, provisions ensuring adequate medical care and free choice of physician, rehabilitation, filing periods, waiting periods, compulsory or elective coverage, administration, due process rights, and the relationship between workers’ compensation and other types of insurance (public or private)."( The CIWS has pointed out how Canadian WCBs are
increasingly using this type of insurance-industry business model to delay
and deny legitimate claims in Canada. We are calling for a federal public judicial inquiry into these and other issues.)
"They were drawn together, five broken Atlanta cops, in a shared sense of futility and anger. Four are in wheelchairs. One is brain-damaged. All say the city has brutalized them for the past two years by systematically challenging and delaying services and treatments they need to survive. . . .“The only way it makes sense is they want me to die so they’ll save money,” Ryan Phinney, a 43-year-old paraplegic who was injured when his squad car was T-boned in 1989, said in an interview last week. . . . “This pattern of abuse causes me to raise the question of whether this is due to incompetence, malice, deliberate indifference or a counterproductive attempt … to save money,” Arcangeli wrote." (The CIWS has pointed out how Canadian WCBs are
increasingly using an insurance-industry business model to delay
and deny legitimate claims. We are calling for a federal public judicial inquiry into these and other issues.)
Injured Workers - IT'S TIME TO BE HEARD! Canadian Museum for Human Rights Holding Cross-Canada Public Input Sessions - "Help Write the Story of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights. Over the next 12 months, the Content Advisory Committee (CAC) for the Canadian Museum for Human Rights will be holding sessions across Canada to provide Canadians with the opportunity to help develop the content of the Museum. The aim of these sessions is to identify stories and perspectives that can be incorporated into the Museum, and to receive feedback on how the Museum can establish an ongoing dialogue with Canadians on important human rights issues. "(CIWS NOTE: The CIWS will be submitting a written document outlining how the workers compensation system in Canada violates the human rights of workers disabled by occupation but: SHARING YOUR OWN PERSONAL STORY IS ESSENTIAL to reinforce our message. Please visit the Canadian Human Rights Museum website to SHARE YOUR STORY and consider attending one of the cross-Canada public sessions over the next year.)
------------------------------ WCB PROTEST RALLY: Monday June 15th, 2009 at 11:30 AM - 1:00 PM at WCB of Manitoba Offices, 333 Broadway Ave. Winnipeg, MB. ------------------------------
WCB Act Not Compliant With NAFTA - "Why did the Canadian
government allow the province of Ontario to create the WSI Act 1997 . . . the Act
and the attached Bills are noncompliant with the North American Free Trade
Agreement (NAFTA) and . . . (it) . . . exempts WSI Act 1997 from respecting the Charter of Rights and Freedoms
of Canada (charter) and the Ontario Human Rights Code sections 1 & 5 and by
doing so allows for the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) to
perpetrate age discrimination of the disabled by occupation . . . In essence the D/W (disabled worker) is moved into a
provincial WSIB subculture where human and charter rights are further
disseminated by the WSIB." (CIWS NOTE: This type of age discrimination has been found unconstitutional in the US, yet is widely perpetrated by Canadian WCBs against elderly disabled workers.)
2009 Important New Decision:BC Court Strikes Down Wcb Policy On Compensation For Mental Stress- Finds It Discriminatory Under The Charter "The B.C. Court of Appeal has struck
down the restrictive application and interpretation of mental stress claims in British Columbia. . . In short, the Court of Appeal found that those suffering from mental disability were treated differently from those suffering from physical disability, and that the differential treatment constituted discrimination under Section 15 (of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms). . . The Court
noted that access to compensation and benefits was significantly restricted in comparison with workers suffering physical injuries. . . This important decision broadens the current approach to mental stress claims under workers’compensation legislation not just in British Columbia, but potentially in other jurisdictions in Canada with similar legislation." (CIWS NOTE: This decision does not address "workload" related chronic stress, so, although it is a step in the right direction, it does not go far enough in addressing discriminatory treatment of chronic stress diseases in the workplace by WCBs. For more information on chronic stress issues see: DISCRIMINATION - Denying Compensation For Occupational Diseases and MENTAL HEALTH / CHRONIC STRESS:)
Amputee Abandoned by WHSCC(VIDEO) - "A St. John's woman who lost part of her leg in a workplace accident says she feels stranded and ignored in a home with no ramp. Shirley Ryan . . . has trouble leaving her house because she cannot exit the steep steps to her door. Apart from losing her livelihood, Ryan, who had a below-the-knee amputation on her right leg last month, has been missing therapy sessions because of her lack of mobility. . . Ryan's "safety in and around her home is of paramount concern."
Last Breaths Spent Fighting WorksafeBC After Campbell Cuts(VIDEO) - From video: "I've been dignosed now with asbestosis. . . . I'm wasting away. I've lost about fifty pounds in the last four months" . . . "Asbestosis is the #1 occupational killer in BC today but in 2002 the Gordon Campbell Liberals changed the WCB Act. One of these changes prevents any retiree over the age of 65 from receiving a disability award for any illness, injury or disease. Sadly, an asbestos related disease takes up to 40 years to become detected." . . . "It's an extremely painful and it's a terminal disease . . . Some of them are spending their last years of their lives in extreme pain and extreme agony" . . . "some of them are spending their last breaths fighting a system when they should be spending their retirement with some dignity . . . the employers are getting a holiday from this exposure and the workers are spending their last days fighting it in pain and agony . . ." "Gordon Campbell . . . cut 1/3 of WCB regulations" . . . "They look the other way when people are dying" (Age discrimination by WCB has been found illegal in the US, yet Canadian WCBs are routinely engaging in this type of activity. See WCB Age Discrimination Declared Unconstitutional in US)
Injured Worker Assaulted by WCB Employee(VIDEO) - "After he registered for the meeting, Federko said Taphorn was informed by registered letter that he would not be allowed to attend the WCB AGM in Regina. . . . When asked to leave the hallway outside the convention, he refused to leave. Taphorn said a WCB employee then gave him "two hard pushes,'' causing him to reinjure his back. "I don't like getting assaulted,'' Taphorn said."
(US) Insurance Companies Fight Legitimate Claims While Asking for Bailouts - ". . . insurance companies are now fighting 9/11 workers comp claims harder than ever . . . insurance companies fight legitimate claims with one hand, while asking for taxpayer bailouts with the other. Disgusting!"
Is This Judicial Fairness? - "I have a court date (May 26th) set by the Court of Queens Bench for a Judicial Review via private chambers where I will attempt to have an Appeals Commission decision overturned . . . the Appeals Commission is represented by their own lawyer, Sandy Hermiston who is paid out of the accident fund and the "Board" is represented by Curtis Craig who is also being paid out of the accident fund which legally belongs to workers . . . yet any worker who cannot afford legal counsel are forced to represent themselves . . . Is this judicial fairness when workers are forced to go before the courts without knowledgeable legal counsel because of lack of finances as opposed to the Appeals Commission or the "Board" who use the money from the accident fund in a frivolous manner to intimidate a worker who dares to question the unfairness of the appeals process . . . ? "
(US) 9/11 Ground Zero Worker Battles Workers Comp - "Ground Zero worker Daniel Arrigo, health and home gone, awaits some compensation . . . For 9/11 responder Daniel Arrigo, trapped in a broken body, every day is a battle. A battle to breathe, to make ends meet and to get what he says is his due."
No MLAs to mourn workers - "On the morning of April 28, . . . The Liberal incumbent MLAs, Mary Polak and Rich Coleman, were not there. . . . Our absent MLAs may . . . consider discretion the better part of valour. Maybe they had the good grace to be ashamed of the devastating effect that their 2002 legislative changes to the WCB compensation system have had on the injured workers in our province. Certainly, there would be no plaudits for the Liberals from today's audience who have seen insult added to injury"
APRIL 2009:
Survivors and crew of sunken B.C. ferry still seeking compensation - A BC Ferries worker who barely escaped the sinking Queen of the North ferry says that after three years of struggling with mental and physical injuries, she is now battling a government agency to have her compensation extended. . . . Lynn Cloutier says she has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, which often leaves her shaking and unable to sleep. . . she is also fighting for support, as WorkSafeBC gets ready to end her compensation benefits. . . She said she used to love her job, but now, three years after barely escaping with her life, she doesn't know what she will do if she loses her workers compensation, and she cannot bring herself to return to work once again.
Corporate Board of WorksafeNB "Out of Control and Unaccountable" - "Unions Warn Of More Suffering And Higher Costs - Organized labour is painting a bleak picture for the future of injured workers and employers in the province if the Workers Rehab Center in Grand Bay-Westfield is privatized. In the latest round of the battle -- Canadian Union of Public Employees national rep Mike Davidson says services to injured workers will be cut while employers will pay 15-percent more -- and -- he says it's time for a full debate in the Legislature because the corporate board of Worksafe N-B is out of control and unaccountable. Davidson says the Worksafe N-B board has been working on the deal behind closed doors with consulting those involved -- he says it's time for an open and transparent process."
BC Government WCB changes harm injured workers B.C. Federation of Labour report "shows that controversial changes made by the Campbell government to the Workers Compensation Board (WCB) have resulted in massive cost-savings for employers but has come at a profound cost to injured workers.
“This Report shows the Campbell government’s changes to WCB were based entirely on the false claim that the existing compensation system was unsustainable,” says Jim Sinclair, President of the Federation. “Employers lobbied hard for these changes and they have been rewarded with huge cost-savings that have destroyed the lives of seriously injured workers.”
. . .
“Employers are saving hundreds of millions of dollars because seriously injured workers are being denied the compensation they need while disability claims and workplace fatalities continue to rise,” Sinclair added.
"
International Day of Mourning 2009 Message IWAAC - "It is part of the sad history of the WSIB that continues to this day, that the WSIB does not recognize huge chunks of the industrial cancers that kill many workers. . . . Canadian workplaces are consistently among the worst offenders for killing workers compared to most other industrialized countries. . . . And when we are seriously injured at the workplace the depraved indifference demonstrated to workers and families by the WCB's across Canada is unconscionable, unethical, unreasonable, unprincipled and outdated. So why do our pleas to stop this carnage fall on our governments deaf ears?
"
NATIONAL DAY OF WCB HYPOCRISY "Has anyone in our governments across Canada provincial or federal, taken any time to see if those families were treated with respect from the authorities in charge? . . . Since when have the deceased been able to get out of their graves and tell the truth about how their families were treated by the WCB? . . . If you cannot trust your Governments to protect you from its own creation, (the vultures at WCB), then just who can you trust?"
APRIL 28th International Workers' Memorial Day (National Day of
Mourning)
SIGN THE
PETITION! The CIWS is calling for a federal public judicial inquiry into wrongdoing by workers compensation boards across Canada
"These
are not minor failings - they are festering injustices. . . . Thousands of
workers whose health has been undermined by their work are not receiving any
compensation. . . . a fundamental national rethinking of workers compensation
is required . . ."Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives
Insult to Injury - BCFED recommends sweeping reforms A report released by the B.C. Federation of Labour states that legislative and policy changes to the BC Workers’ Compensation System from 2002 - 2008 have been "dramatic", "universally detrimental to injured workers" and "particularly devastating for those rendered unable to return to their former jobs as a result of permanent disabilities". The report recommends sweeping reforms of the BC workers compensation system.
ONTARIO DISHONOURS DEAD WORKERS - "The Ontario Federation of
Labour (OFL) and other groups demanded that Steve Mahoney be fired as
chair of the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) over revelations that
the province has paid safety rebates to companies prosecuted for the death of
workers on the job. (see articles regarding "experience rating" further
down this list). Since then, Steve Mahoney remains in charge of the WSIB, thus dishonouring Ontario's dead workers on this APRIL 28th International Workers' Memorial Day (National Day of
Mourning). - last year, Gerry Miller, longtime WCB critic said, "Strange
how they can set aside a day to honor the millions of Ontarians whose lives
have been forever changed by a workplace injury, illness or fatality and then
not acknowledge the millions of Ontarians who have had their claims and
benefits denied, forced into poverty, suicides, marital breakdowns. Set aside
one day to honor workers and then back to business as usual for the rest of the
364 days. Talk about hypocrisy." The statement still applies one year later.
NATIONAL DAY OF WCB HYPOCRISY - APRIL 28th International Workers' Memorial Day (National Day of
Mourning) - "Has anyone in our governments across Canada provincial or
federal, taken any time to see if those families were treated with respect from
the authorities in charge? . . . Since when have the deceased been able to get
out of their graves and tell the truth about how their families were treated by
the WCB? . . . If you cannot trust your Governments to protect you from its own
creation, (the vultures at WCB), then just who can you trust?"
WCB Minister Iain Black Ignores Petition "The petition is from thousands of working people who are asking the government to repeal changes that have been made to the WCB laws that have drastically affected benefits and pensions for permanently disabled workers. While the petition was being introduced and read to the legislature, the Minister responsible for these laws, Iain Black, was seen cleaning his desk and then using his Blackberry before walking out of the House, before the presentation was complete."
(US) A World of Hurt - Investigative Series into New York WCB - (VIDEO also available) A World of Hurt
‘Meatball Justice’ -
A New York Times examination of New York State’s workers’ compensation system uncovered a universe of delays, suspicion and questionable rulings. . . . Mary Jeffords, the head of Injured Workers of New York, an advocacy group, says she knows of numerous disabled workers so ground down by the process that they begin to unravel. “I’ve talked to workers that held a gun to their head as we talked,” she said. . . ."One case that seems to exemplify the broad faults is that of Richard Frank, a forklift driver . . . the agency prolonged his case for years, ignoring judges’ orders, according to court rulings. . . . After a September 1995 hearing was adjourned because his employer had furnished illegible evidence, Mr. Frank . . . died of a heart attack. He was 50. For a decade, the agency then contested whether his widow was due death benefits, until an appeals court ruled in 2005 that his death had been caused in part by the agency’s “unlawful coercion” and “disgraceful conduct” in resisting his claim." The series also exposes Independent Medical Examiners (IMEs) falsifying medical records to satisfy insurance companies. (Also see linked VIDEO) (The CIWS contends that workers compensation boards in Canada are perpetrating this type of psychological violence upon injured workers and is criminally using false medical reports to deny legitimate claims. The CIWS is calling for a federal public judicial inquiry into these and other issues.)
MARCH 2009:
Judge Chastises WCAT For Stigmatizing and Attacking Injured Worker Regarding language used by the WCB Appeals Tribunal (WCAT) the judge stated: "This language is incredibly broad and strongly suggestive of a pre-formed opinion, or of a finding of lack of credibility on the part of Mr. X (the worker). It certainly does not reflect the conclusions of Dr. Y, psychiatrist. It is also inconsistent with the conclusions of Dr. Z, none of whom made any allegation of malingering despite each of them having assessed the petitioner numerous times.
. . . I have concluded that it was patently unreasonable and unfair for the Vice Chair in this appeal to have commenced his reasoning with what appears to be an attack on the petitioner’s credibility without any detail or context being provided."
Toronto Star's "Working Wounded" Nominated for Award - The Toronto Star's "Working Wounded" investigative series into WSIB safety rebates to firms where workers died (and other issues) is being nominated for the National Newspaper Awards. The investigative series by David Bruser, Moira Welsh and Andrew Bailey of the Toronto Star resulted in outrage and calls for the firing of the WSIB executive and a complete overhaul of the WCB system in Ontario (which has not yet happened). The 2008 National Newspaper Awards will be announced May 22 in Montreal.
CIWS Submission to Mental Health Commission Highlights WCB's Institutionalized Psychological Violence - "The Canadian Injured Workers Society's submission to the Mental Health Commission of Canada regarding its "Framework For A Mental Health Strategy For Canada states -"The CIWS has evidence that workers disabled by occupation are a vulnerable group of Canadians who experience institutionalized psychological violence, discrimination and stigmatization from workers compensation boards across Canada. Workers compensation boards' discriminatory, stigmatizing and abusive treatment of persons disabled by occupation are "factors that increase risk of mental health problems and illness". It is an example of institutionalized psychological violence and MUST be investigated. . . . If, as the framework states, "the most effective anti-stigma strategies are targeted at specific populations or settings", the CIWS puts forth 'workers disabled by occupation' or 'injured workers' as a specific population that experiences stigma. We also put forth the workers compensation system across Canada as a specific setting where stigma has become an institutionalized norm. This whole area of Canadian mental health is in crisis. If we, as a society, ignore these cases, we are allowing institutionalized psychological violence to occur in our country. Workers compensation boards MUST be investigated and all cases of psychological violence must be exposed."
(US) Supreme Court To Review Workers Comp Racketeering - "Can employers, claims administrators, and workers' compensation carriers be sued under federal racketeering laws for their questionable claims handling practices? . . . Experts from Sedgwick CMS said the case should raise a red flag for employers who meddle with the claims review process. In guidance issued to its clients, the claims management organization encouraged employers to review their patterns of usage of independent medical examiners. . . . it certainly will serve as a lesson and a deterrent for employers and claims administrators who communicate too closely with the doctors they hire to do workers' comp medical exams. If their discussions center on how workers' comp claims can be denied, they may be open to RICO conspiracy litigation." (The CIWS contends that workers compensation boards in Canada are also engaging in this type of criminal activity and is calling for a federal public judicial inquiry into these and other issues.)
Silicosis "epidemic" yet only 7 claims accepted by WSIB - "MPP backtracks on need for silicosis inquiry - Gravelle, who is now Ontario‘s minister of mines, looked seriously flummoxed on a recent CBC television program when cornered about the issue of unresolved silicosis claims at the province‘s Workplace Safety Insurance Board.
Not that Gravelle didn‘t know the file.
In the detailed and passionate letter he wrote to former Tory Labour Minister Bradley Clark seven years ago, Gravelle warned of an outbreak of silicosis cases and pleaded with Clark to call a public inquiry into the disease.
“Please, Minister, call a public inquiry into the silicosis epidemic in the Hemlo gold mines and show your commitment to doing the right thing for the workers of Ontario,” Gravelle (L-Thunder Bay-Superior North) said in the letter.
That, apparently, was then; this is now.
"
Audit slams Ontario workplace safety rebates - "The provincial insurance program that is supposed to promote safe workplaces needs to be immediately fixed and possibly replaced, says a sweeping review that could affect tens of thousands of Ontario businesses. . . . Workers remain at risk unless this and other changes are made "as soon as possible," the review warns. . . . Morneau Sobeco began its look at the program last June, after the Star revealed companies guilty of fatal safety violations received large cash rewards – a practice Premier Dalton McGuinty called "an embarrassment." And around the time Morneau Sobeco started its review, the Star revealed companies were saving money by hiding injuries and rushing the wounded back to work."
"Not Worth The Effort" - Mahoney Denies WSIB Fraud - "Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) chair Steve Mahoney dismissed suggestions Wednesday that far too many companies are cheating a program geared to promoting safe work environments. . . Mahoney responded to an audit released Wednesday that claims many employers are exploiting the WSIB's incentive initiative at the expense of injured workers. . . The review, commissioned by the WISB, claimed a significant number of firms save money by hiding injuries and rushing injured employees back to work. . . . "I don't buy this stuff that there is fraud and whatever fraud there is it's not worth the effort and the money it would take for us to root it out," Mahoney charged."
WSIB needs major makeover, review says - "The provincial insurance program that is supposed to promote safe workplaces needs to be immediately fixed and possibly replaced in the future, says a sweeping review that could affect tens of thousands of Ontario businesses."
(US) Insurers are underpaying injured workers - "Something we have known for awhile: Insurers are underpaying injured workers . . . The Pioneer Press has reported that a recent audit by the Minnesota Legislative Auditor has found that insurers are mishandling a growing number of claims, including paying injured workers less than they deserve. . . The report from the legislative auditor released Wednesday said mistakes are resulting in about $3 million a year in underpaid benefits, and there’s other evidence that insurers are trying to avoid legitimate payouts. . . The report lays part of the blame on what it describes as a lack of oversight resources at the state Department of Labor and Industry. . . The audit also faults the state labor department for shortcomings in the enforcement of laws mandating that employers provide workers’ compensation coverage. " (The CIWS contends that workers compensation boards in Canada are also engaging in this type of criminal activity and is calling for a federal public judicial inquiry into these and other issues.)
Performance Bonuses for Forcing Disabled Workers Back to Work - "For those of you who have wondered if WCB
employees receive performance awards when they send injured workers back to
work, you can now be assured that they do in fact receive blood money for
sending disabled workers back to work when they are not able to return to work.
In many cases a primary care doctor will fill out Form C-050 indicating their
patient is not capable of any work and the Case Manager will obtain a second
opinion from a WCB Medical Advisor who provides a dissenting opinion. The Case
Manager would thus be eligible for a performance award by ignoring the primary
care doctor's opinion and informing the disabled worker that they must return to
work, thus fulfilling her commitment in forcing a disabled worker back to work
when they are not capable of performing any work. Great system we have
eh! - Gerry
Miller"
Deaths are just "the price of doing business" - WorkSafe fines too soft? - Jim Sinclair, president of the B.C. Federation of Labour, says WorkSafe BC’s safety infraction penalties are much too low to provide a deterrence to keep workers safe, and are viewed by some companies as the price of doing business. He was commenting on a WorkSafe report that detailed the 152 penalties it issued in 2008. The largest fine issued in 2008 was $150,000, to Encana Corporation in Dawson Creek after a workplace fatality. TimberWest was fined $67,936 for the 2005 death of faller Ted Gramlich, 52, of Crofton, and Catalyst’s pulp mill in Campbell River was fined $75,000 for exposing workers to asbestos debris.
Workers are paying the ultimate price "Cam was a kind and gentle man and a good friend who suffered much in the end. He paid the ultimate price because he took work to raise his family and in doing so was carelessly exposed to a deadly industrial substance. . . . This is more than a tragedy. The dangers of asbestos were well-known in the years this worker was exposed, but were minimized and belittled by many owners, management, and the peddlers of asbestos alike.
. . . The tragedy of all of this is the Governments also know that workers are exposed on a daily basis to deadly carcinogens, deadly toxins, musculoskeletal disorders that lead to permanent disabilities, yet Governments stick their heads in the sand and refuse to fix a system that is causing grievous harm to workers and their families. They also stand by when these claims are illegally denied by workers compensation boards . . ."
"Chronic Pain" Judge Appointed to Supreme Court Amidst Controversy - Bypassing any and all Parliamentary process, Prime Minister Stephen Harper has appointed Thomas Cromwell to the Supreme Court of Canada. Given that Judge Cromwell's decision in the Chronic Pain case of (Martin, Laseur vs WCB) was overturned by the Supreme Court in 2003, this appointment does not bode well for the recognition of the Charter rights of injured workers. In 2000, Judge Cromwell as judge of the Court of Appeal of Nova Scotia ruled that the WCB Appeals Tribunal did not have jurisdiction to consider the constitutionality of the WCB Act and Regulations. In 2003, the Supreme Court of Canada overruled Cromwell's decision and concluded that he ". . . erred. . ." in that decision and that ". . . the courts must assume that the administrative body at issue was intended to be an appropriate forum for . . . the interpretation and application of the Charter." The significance of this case for all subsequent decisions by WCB Appeals Tribunals across Canada was immense as it reinforced the duty and the responsibility of all WCB Appeals Tribunals (and other Administrative Tribunals) to interpret the Charter rights of claimants when making their decisions.
CBC NEWS VIDEO:WCB Keeps Disabled Man in Poverty for 30 Years - "Thirty years of doing battle with workers compensation has made Fred Palmer a very angry man. He says it's kept him spinning in a viscious circle of poverty. . . Palmer was seriously injured in a railway accident thirty years ago. Among his stacks of documents are any number of letters by doctors declaring him disabled. All he has to show for it is a disability pension of $200 a month. He says all his efforts to get more have run into red tape and slammed doors . . . he feels his right to justice and happiness has been taken away."
MENTAL HEALTH COMMISSION OF CANADA SEEKS INPUT FROM CANADIANS - "The Mental Health Commission of Canada today released a draft framework for the development of a mental health strategy for Canada. It is also asking for input from Canadians. Toward Recovery and Well-Being is the first document to be released for public discussion by the Commission since its creation in 2007." (The CIWS will be submitting input and urges all injured workers across Canada to strengthen our message by submitting their own personal input. We suggest that you describe VERY BRIEFLY how the WCB process has affected you and your family psychologically. The more input they receive, the stronger our message will be. Please refrain from using abusive language that would only harm our cause,)
(US) AMA Guides Not Valid - "California workers' comp has recently experienced an earthquake-type event, the Almaraz decision. . . . may be the most significant workers' comp decision in several years . . . In Almaraz the WCAB . . . found that an impairment rating under the AMA Guides may be rebutted . . ."
“The message is clear – worker’s lives are cheap” - "Workplace fatalities or serious injuries are happening more frequently in B.C. . . . “WCB can levy fines up to $519,000 but their fines have never come close to that amount,” Sinclair said. “In order to protect workers these fines have to be a real deterrent, not a minor item line that is barely noticed by employers. WCB needs to ensure that the owners ... pay this fine. If not, they need to be prosecuted and sent to jail.”"
Illegal Use of CPP Funds by Alberta WCB - "Auditor General Sheila Fraser responds to allegations that ". . . contributions to Canada Pension Plan are being used as a slush fund by Workers Compensation Boards of Canada to illegally provide disability payments to disabled workers . . . "
WSIB decision clears cop's name - Peace, justice at last - "Now, after years of fighting the system for closure through truth, Eddie Adamson's family has finally been told by the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) that it had finally accepted the true cause of Adamson's death.
And it was not suicide.
It was post traumatic stress disorder.
"What we did in pursuing the WSIB was not just for us. It was more to help the widows and widowers of other police officers who may one day take their own life," said Eddie Adamson's daughter, a detective on another police force. "And it was for my father's good name."
(US) Racketeering Charges For Workers Comp Denials - "Forget gambling, drug trafficking and prostitution. The latest organized "crime," according to the 6th Circuit, is conspiring to defraud injured employees of their workers compensation benefits. . . . Employers alleged to have schemed with their insurance carriers and/or physicians to deny workers compensation can now be sued under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. Although RICO originally targeted criminal organizations such as the Mafia and Hells Angels, counsel warn that Brown v. Cassens Transport Co. exposes legitimate businesses to RICO litigation and intrusive discovery into their handling of workers compensation claims. . . . the ruling should "raise a flag of caution" for any self-insured employers, insurance adjusters and doctors who might appear to reflexively deny workers compensation claims. . . The plaintiffs contend that the company deliberately selected doctors who could be relied upon to provide medical opinions supporting decisions to cut off or deny benefits. The defendants vigorously deny the allegations. . . Marshall Lasser, the attorney who represents the plaintiffs in Brown, contends there are doctors who earn six-figure incomes by frequently turning thumbs down on valid workers comp claims. . . . "I believe in Michigan alone there are thousands of workers over the years who have been made to suffer horribly because of the actions of insurance companies in wrongful, fraudulent termination or denial of claims, and fraudulent opinions by doctors," Lasser says. . . ."RICO has very big sticks," Lasser notes. Because plaintiffs must prove a pattern of racketeering, RICO permits "wide-open" discovery beyond the specific claims pleaded, he maintains. And if the case goes to trial, he warns, "I am going to discover every single comp claim that ever existed in the past four years ... so it’s going to open a real can of worms." (The CIWS contends that workers compensation boards across Canada are engaging in this type of criminal activity and is calling for a federal public judicial inquiry into these and other issues.)
Canadian Injured Workers Society PETITION reaches 1001 signatures on February 1st 2009. The CIWS is calling upon all concerned Canadians to sign the petition calling for a FEDERAL PUBLIC JUDICIAL INQUIRY into wrongdoing by workers compensation systems across Canada.
JANUARY 2009:
Critics denounce `farcical' training plan - Conservatives seek audit of costly classes that don't help workers - "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.
"
(US) Suicide, the injured worker, and WSI - ". . . The part that sends many seriously injured workers over the edge is the fact of how they are treated for being injured workers. Many injured workers companies try to write them off as fast as they can if the injured worker can not return to the same job as before. . . Also dealing with workers compensation harassment, worrying about your family, worrying about losing your benefits for “non-compliance”, dealing with pain that many people can not imagine every day. These things might draw an injured workers closer to that cliff, and some over it. . . . WSI concentrates on the fastest way to remove an injured worker from the system as they can, even if it leads to their untimely death. They have as much concern for injured workers as meat processing plants have concern for getting that next cow, or pig through the gate to slaughter.
. . This has become a game of how much money can we save WSI, give back to the employers, while sending seriously injured workers into a job that pays less then $10k a year. Wow, no wonder some think suicide might look so good."
inadequate consultation with Mr. Kang's physicians
inadequate claim management processes
uneducated WorkSafe BC staff
confrontational, confusing letters to Mr. Kang from WorkSafe BC
and other issues outlined in 17 recommendations. Lawyer Craig Paterson who asked for the inquest stated "The WCB has treated him as a cheater and a liar
since he was badly injured in a truck accident in 1998 . . ." The CIWS has pointed out how Canadian WCBs are
increasingly using an insurance-industry business model to delay
and deny legitimate claims. Also see SUICIDE and WCB
Injured worker's VIDEO: (US) Occupational Exposure to Chemicals - DENIED BY WCB - ". . . Ed Abney . . . spent more than 20 years cleaning metal piping with trichloroethene (TCE) at a defunct Dresser Industries plant. . . . He now suffers from Parkinson’s disease, which is pretty clearly linked to this chemical, but he can’t recover anything under Kentucky’s Workers Comp. law."
Concussion's Effects May Linger for Decades - Attention, memory, physical processes affected 30 years later, study finds - ". . . I hope that this study will prompt workers to request reconsiderations based on a denial of their claim for permanent disability due to what would be post concussion syndrome. - Gerry Miller"
(SPAIN) Proof That Privatization of Workers Comp Won't Work - "Some
deaths are not recorded - According to official figures no one dies from an
occupational disease in Spain. . . . This
is really amazing! . . . The experts . . . have estimated that . . . work in Spain killed no
less than about 14,000 men and over 2,000 diseases contracted by women in the
workplace. . . . very serious underreporting has been increasing in recent years. . . a scandalous underreporting. . . why does this happen? . . . To answer those questions, we have to look who benefits and who suffers
from this situation. Start with those who benefit. And very first appear
Employers Mutual . . . Today these
mutual funds are among the most important private money in Spain. Economic and
political power is enormous."
WSIB Labour Market Reentry (LMR) - A Jobs Program That Fails - "A jobs program that fails - Why does it cost more to retrain this injured worker to stock shelves than it would to send him to university for four years? . . . a Toronto Star investigation has found that the $150 million program is running up increasingly high costs while failing to lead nearly half of its 5,000 participants to work. . . . Since 1998, the WSIB has outsourced the LMR program to claims management firms. Companies such as Crawford Healthcare Management, Sibley & Associates and NRCS Inc. . . . None of the companies mentioned in this article would agree to an interview. . . . Shortly after the retraining is done, the WSIB assumes the worker is fit to find the designated job, and often significantly reduces or stops the benefits. Whether the worker finds a job does not matter."
DECEMBER 2008:
(EGYPT) Injured worker on hungerstrike - From todays issue of el-badeel:
A worker at the Kom Ombo Sugar Refinery was on hungerstrike yesterday in protest against the refusal of the company's doctor to approve sick leave after a serious work injury. As a result, the worker has not received his salary for three months. In a petition to the governor of Aswan 150 workers at the company accused the doctor of charging a special fee from every sick worker visiting the company's clinic.
(Note: The CIWS follows these stories as a warning to Canadians that our workers compensation system is deteriorating toward these levels as corporate profit increasingly outweighs the rights of people injured at work.)
NOVEMBER 2008:
Injured Worker Charges Manitoba Government with Misfeasance regarding his WCB claims. Charges include: acting in bad faith, breach of duty to care, differential treatment under the Charter of Rights, physical, psychological and financial damages, interference with physician and medical treatment, breach of the WCB Act and misfeasance. The CIWS will be following this case. (C108-01-58851)
(USA) Injured Workers' Racketeering Charge to Proceed - Injured Workers' RICO Claim to Proceed Against Employer and Insurance Company - (RICO is the US Federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act) "In a landmark decision of immense national significance, the US Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that a RICO claim brought by injured workers against their employer, insurance carrier and employer medical expert could proceed. . . . The allegations included that, ".....Cassens and Crawford deliberately selected and paid unqualified doctors, including Margules, to give fraudulent medical opinions that would support the denial of worker’s compensation benefits, and that defendants ignored other medical evidence in denying them benefits."
NDP Opposes WHSCC Privatization - "WHSCC privatization plan a disservice - The proposed privatization of Workplace Health, Safety and Compensation Commission amounts to the selling out of New Brunswick's injured workers. . . . Shame on them! Privatization of the WHSCC will lead to a staggering decrease in services and accessibility. Privatization will result in fees for service, increased wait times and increased claims periods. It will mean a "cream skim" of healthier patients to avoid the costs that come with treating our injured workers. . . . Privatization will result in a decrease in accountability because of its complete undermining of the Meredith Principles, the cornerstones of worker's compensation." (SEE September 2008 news article: Compensation Privatization Feared)
(USA) California WCB Insurance Fraud - "Are California’s Injured Workers Going to Have to Go to Federal Court to Enforce Their Rights Against Insurer Fraud? - . . . Injured workers for years have accused state officials of simply looking the other way when evidence of these illegal acts has been brought to their attention. Are federal RICO actions the new strategy in our states to hold employers and insurers accountable for their fraudulent and illegal practices? . . . Why can’t those whose job it is to protect us from these vicious predators simply step forward and do their jobs? Now that’s the $64,000 dollar question, isn’t it? . . . What happens to the false statements that these (medical opinion-for-hire) doctors make to support the insurance companies who know that their reports are simply not worth the paper that they are printed on? . . . It’s time for the print, radio and television media to do their jobs as well and expose this rampant fraud and corruption. Too many working Californians are having their lives and the lives of their families destroyed all in the name of corporate profits!" (Note: The CIWS does NOT advocate the privatization of workers compensation in Canada as that would be even worse for injured workers. The decline in service that we see in Canada can be attributed to the misguided adoption of insurance industry business models from the US that should never have been applied to the Canadian workers compensation system. The CIWS advocates complete reform of the system to return it to a fair and responsive service that addresses the needs of injured workers and their families. This can be done without privatization. See WCBs Have An 'Identity Crisis')
WCB discrimination against psychologically disabled workers identified - The Institute of Health Economics conference on depression identified the discrimination of psychologically disabled workers by workers compensation boards at their conference October 17th, 2008. The conference involved a variety of presentations from leading Canadian and International researchers in the field and was led by the Hon. Michael Kirby Chair, Mental Health Commission of Canada. They produced the Consensus Statement on
Depression in Adults which stated "Similarly, employment insurance, workers’ compensation and short and long term disability benefits must ensure equitable access for persons living with a mental or a physical illness." (The CIWS has pointed out how provincial
governments are in a conflict
of interest when they allow the WCB to deny chronic stress claims due to
workload in hospitals and schools. This allows them to understaff their
hospitals and schools without having to face workplace safety inspections. The Final Report of The Standing Senate Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology ("Out of the Shadows At Last" - May 2006), stated:
"The Committee . . . . recommends . . . that the Canadian Mental Health Commission . . . work closely with provincial and territorial governments as well as with Workers’ Compensation Boards, employers and trade unions across the country to develop best practices with respect to compensation for occupational stress-related claims."
(USA) Workers' comp class action filed - "The original petition, . . . alleges that 'workers' compensation insurance is supposed to provide prompt, fair and just compensation for injured employees in accordance with Texas Labor Code §402.021 but the DWC fails to deliver on those goals. . . . In some cases, claimants have waited up to 14 months to learn the results of a claim hearing and have had to turn to Medicare or the Social Security Administration for medical help, Durkin says. 'Dozens and dozens of workers have been bullied out of the workers' compensation system because they need medical treatment,' she says."
Canada Disregards NAFTA Public Disclosure Law The Canadian National Administration Office (NAO) failed to release a public report 120 days after review of Public Communication CAN 2008 1 on labour law matters in the state of North Carolina, USA as required by law. The public communication process under the NAALC allows citizens to voice their concerns to governments about labour law matters arising in the territory of another party, and provides a formal channel for governments to review these concerns. CAN 2008-1 alleges that the United States has failed to meet its obligations under NAFTA surrounding several labour issues including "compensation in cases of occupational injuries and illnesses". The CIWS is concerned that the Canadian government is failing to make this report public in order to evade scrutiny of its own dismal record on workers compensation. The
Federal Government of Canada is under international treaty obligation to ensure
that workers compensation is being provided to Canadian workers. The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)
stipulates that the signatory countries must uphold "high labor standards" and
includes in this, "compensation in cases of occupational injuries and
illnesses" (under its side agreement
NAALC, the North American Agreement on Labor
Cooperation) (see PETITION)
MEDIA RELEASE
- Transcript of "The Election Show" on CFRO Co-Op Radio, hosted
and produced by Darrell Powell where he grilled Jack Layton, Elizabeth May and
Carolyn Bennett on behalf of Stephane Dion - neither Duceppe nor Harper made
themselves available - on their positions on a national health strategy. Powell said: ”The need for a paradigm shift in health, which
must be integrated with social and other federal policies to determine national
standards, should be a significant election issue”. “Insurance Companies and Workers’
Compensation should not be steering the health system and government agendas”, he
said. Health outcomes must be measured by national standards, established by the
federal government based on recommendations by the World Health Organisation and
its position on the social determinants of health. (also hear Darrell Powell's complete radio series at http://www.ciws.ca/articles_bc_worksafe_darrell_powell_coop_radio.htm )
New Brunswick Avoids the "Compensation" Word - The Workplace Health, Safety and Compensation Commission of New Brunswick (WHSCC) has changed its name to "WorkSafeNB" symbolically distancing itself from its compensation function. (Workers disabled by occupation have pointed out a common tactic used by politicians and WCBs who refuse to address the dysfunctionality of the workers compensation system itself. This avoidance tactic has been referred to as the old "bait and switch", where any mention of the failure of the WCB to address disabled workers' 'compensation', is "switched" to a discussion about workplace 'safety' because 'safety' is an issue that no one can argue against. This name change is a reflection of the workers compensation systems' avoidance of addressing fair compensation for injured workers. Other provinces' WCBs have also changed their name to avoid any mention of "compensation". )
(USA) Insurance Industry Sabotages Injured Workers - "Here's how the protected scheme works: . . . insurance companies may retain Utilization Review (UR) companies to review the treatment that has been provided as well as the treatment that is being recommended or prescribed. . . . The AMA and ACOEM cookbooks allow UR doctors who have not interviewed or examined injured workers to review treatment proposals and to delay, deny, or modify treatment. UR doctors are allowed to overrule properly licensed doctors who have spent hours with their patients. . . .
Insurance companies and their compliant utilization review companies may use doctors whose bent is to deny as much care as possible. . . . Governor Schwarzenegger's judgment is that the interests of the insurance industry deserve priority over the interests of injured workers and their pesky doctors. " (Note: The CIWS does NOT advocate the privatization of workers compensation in Canada as that would be even worse for injured workers. The decline in service that we see in Canada can be attributed to the misguided adoption of insurance industry business models from the US that should never have been applied to the Canadian workers compensation system. The CIWS advocates complete reform of the system to return it to a fair and responsive service that addresses the needs of injured workers and their families. This can be done without privatization. See WCBs Have An 'Identity Crisis')
Inadequate Compensation For Comatose Mushroom Workers - "Before the accident, Truong and her husband were already struggling to stay afloat on Tchen's meagre monthly wage of $1,500. . . . Five days after the accident, Chuck Puchmayr, NDP MLA for New Westminster, was shocked to find a homeless Truong virtually camped out in the hospital's intensive care unit. . . . Truong, whose family lives in Toronto, has since moved into a hotel where she is barely scraping by on provincial compensation totalling $1,350 a month - or 90 per cent of her husband's pre-injury earnings."
WCB's Burden of Proof Leads to Worse Health Outcomes - "Compensation may be bad for your health: study - Proving you're ill slows recovery, researcher finds - The workers compensation system . . . may actually lead to worse outcomes for some patients, concludes a new Canadian study. . . . The authors speculate that the process of having to battle for redress may delay some patients from returning to work, and say there is evidence of a similar phenomenon with other types of injury. "Once you make a patient have to prove they're ill, it slows down the recovery process," said Dr. Jeremy Beach, an occupational medicine professor who spearheaded the study. . . . "You have a lot of instances where injured workers don't return to work because of the fact they're worn down, they're depressed, they're stressed." . . . WCB patients were off the job more often because of their fight to be compensated."
(AU) Injured worker's 'plot to blow up Coles' - "A disgruntled Coles worker who planned to destroy a Sydney
supermarket after stockpiling chemicals and explosive devices told
police that he did not intend to hurt anyone, a court has
heard. . . . The court was told the final straw came after a disappointing
outcome at the Workers' Compensation Commission in June, prompting
a "violent outburst", police said." (Note: The CIWS is not interested in sensationalizing
tragic cases and we do not condone or encourage violence, but we report
incidents that may involve injured workers in order to expose the level of
frustration and desperation many injured workers reportedly feel about the WCB
system.)
NEW AUDIO - THE ELECTION SHOW September 24 2008: - Darrell Powell (Senate Witness 2004 Senate Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology) identified the issues of disabled workers to the leaders of the federal parties to get their comments and platform policies for the show which aired on CFRO
102.7 FM Vancouver In Order of Appearance:Elizabeth May (Green), Jack Layton (NDP), Charles Boylan (Marxist Leninist), Caroline Bennett (Liberal) - other main parties invited but failed to attend SEPTEMBER 24 2008 - (high speed) (low speed) (also hear Darrell Powell's full radio series)
WSIB's New Policy Still Gives Rebates to Companies That Kill - "Star investigation prompts WSIB change. Companies where a worker is killed on the job will no longer be eligible for cash rebates from the provincial workplace insurance program. The Workplace Safety & Insurance Board (WSIB) made the change after a Star investigation found the agency paid out millions of dollars in rebates, prompting a sweeping year-long review of the incentive program at the centre of the controversy. Premier Dalton McGuinty called the Star's findings "an embarrassment." . . . "Money speaks volumes," said Heffern, whose husband worked (at) Vale Inco. . . . In the year of Gordie's death, Inco received a rebate of $3 million – nearly 10 times the amount of the fine the company paid after the labour ministry investigated and Inco pleaded guilty for its role in the accident. . . . But the new policy would not have hit Weston's bottom line the way it would have Inco's . . . In devising the policy, the WSIB decided not to go after rebates in the years after a death, during that three-year window in which a claim's cost is tracked. . . . In the three years after Warner's death (an employee of Weston Bakeries), Weston received more than $1.3 million in payouts, far more than the $215,000 it was fined after pleading guilty to not implementing a heat stress management plan."
WCB Wastes Money on Needless Self-promotion - "The CTF cited more than $8,500 spent by Workers Compensation on golf balls and manicure sets . . . The Workers Compensation Board, however, isn't funded by tax dollars but instead by premiums paid by employers, . . . "When you hear of government agencies and Crown corporations handing out golf balls, manicure sets, pocket knives, golf shirts, lip balm and those kinds of things, they're certainly unnecessary. Unlike businesses, Crown corporations and agencies aren't competing with anyone."
"
'PRESS RELEASE - MHADIE - Paradigm Shift' in International Disability presented at European Parliament on 16th September 2008- A new framework for supporting health and disability policy in Europe - Final EU Project's results and Policy Recommendations presented at European Parliament on 16th September 2008 . . . This project's results are of great interest to those concerned with health and disability issues, as well as the larger scientific community. . . "For the first time health and disability issues have been approached not merely from a narrow clinical perspective but from one in which environmental, psychological and quality of life aspects of the total lived experience have been also taken into account.
MHADIE researchers developed a framework to influence and support new European policy guidelines on health and disability . . . and used ICF (International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health) as a cross-cutting universal framework and international standard. The ICF provides a new framework for conceptualizing health and disability.
An important aim of the MHADIE project was a workable and generic definition of disability, one which reflects the view of MHADIE researchers that disability is a universal, human condition, not the distinguishing mark of a separate, minority group. . . "Understanding how to respond to the needs of people with disabilities means understanding how to influence social and economic policies as well as designing specific tools to combat discrimination and promote social integration and participation, thus enhancing opportunities."
(See new CIWS section on INTERNATIONAL DISABILITY STANDARDS - (Disability Standards and the Social Determinants of Health as they relate to Workers Disabled by Occupation))
Self-professed nasty guy battles WCB over his retraining - "Brutal self-candour laudable and refreshing in this self-reverent age - Last week, we received an e-mail from a Delta man named Terrence Norfolk about his fight with the Workers' Compensation Board. We regularly get e-mails from people about their fights with the WCB, but Norfolk's e-mail stopped us in our tracks. . . . It was his admission of his own nastiness that intrigued us . . . He could be, he said when I talked to him in his apartment, a real ass----. . . . It wasn't always so, he said: his work injuries changed him."
Research Action Alliance on Consequences of Work Injury (RAAWCI) is holding a Community Forum
Thu, Sep 25, 1pm – 5pm
at Injured Workers Consultants, 815 Danforth Ave., Suite 400, Toronto, ON (The CIWS has listed RAACWI as an organization that is funded and/or controlled by a WCB and so it is a partially corporate-funded research agency which may or may not be tainted by this funding relationship. The Research Action Alliance on the Consequences of Work Injury is administered through the
University of Toronto and organized by the Bancroft Institiute, an organization that does not reveal its funding structure publicly. RAACWI is also allied with the WCB-controlled Institute for Work and
Health - see Questionable Research and Medicine)
(USA) Californians Injured At Work Goes National, Changes Name To Reflect Their New Direction! - Californians Injured At Work, one of the oldest and largest injured worker advocacy organizations in California has announced that they are now serving not only the injured workers of California, but the injured workers of America thru their newly incorporated non-profit organization, the 'National Organization of Injured Workers, Inc.' (NOIW) . . .
NOIW's primary goal is to aid, assist, educate, empower and organize America's occupationally injured workers, and to keep them from becoming victims . . . To stop the rampant unchecked fraud by committed by insurers . . . America's injured workers have been demonized by the insurance industry for too many years as the ones that cause the high price of Workers' Compensation insurance and that's just plain not true, but it makes great PR spin for the insurance industry publicists. Injured worker fraud by the industry's own admission is less than 1%. And we're just starting to hear about employer fraud . . . The Exclusive Remedy Doctrine' which is the basic foundation of Workers' Compensation systems around America is simply used as a shield against civil and criminal prosecution for criminal acts committed by the insurers that would land them in jail in any other type of scenario. . . . Noticeably missing in print, radio & TV media is any reference to the biggest segment of fraud, the biggest overall piece of the pie, the fraud perpetrated by the insurance companies themselves against occupationally injured workers in the name of reducing their financial exposure, and the total lack of investigation and prosecution of those responsible for it. . . .
The 'Injured On The JobTM' television show is used to visually show the devastation that is occurring to injured workers and their families.
WorkSafe BC Fatality Investigation Questioned - "Inspection cuts linked to farm deaths, says labour leader - The president of the B.C. Federation of Labour says Friday's fatal accident at a Langley mushroom farm might have been prevented if WorkSafeBC had not dramatically cut inspections. . . . Federation president Jim Sinclair is questioning the WorkSafeBC investigation into the accident. "On one hand they're doing the investigation, but they also could be part of the problem at times too, because for many years there they cut back their inspections dramatically," said Sinclair."
Nova Scotia WCB Consultation Sessions - Interested stakeholders are invited to provide input into the development of the WCB’s multi-year plan during one of the consultation sessions.
(TOKYO) WCB Denies Compensation For Workload Induced Mental Injuries - "Japan suicide letters spell out risk of overwork - "Don't go to work" reads a poem written by a Japanese boy for his father who killed himself after suffering from depression caused by working too much. . . The letters are part of an exhibition in Tokyo organised by a mental health organisation to highlight the risk of "karoshi", or death from overwork, in a society that treasures hard work. . . Japan has one of the highest suicide rates in the world: more than 30,000 suicides every year since 1998. Last year, five times more people killed themselves than died in traffic accidents. But less is known about the role of work in those suicides. A Health Ministry report last year notes a strong link between depression and habitual overwork . . ." (The CIWS has pointed out how provincial
governments are in a conflict
of interest when they allow the WCB to deny chronic stress claims due to
workload in hospitals and schools. This allows them to understaff their
hospitals and schools without having to face workplace safety inspections. The Final Report of The Standing Senate Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology ("Out of the Shadows At Last" - May 2006), stated:
"The Committee . . . . recommends . . . that the Canadian Mental Health Commission . . . work closely with provincial and territorial governments as well as with Workers’ Compensation Boards, employers and trade unions across the country to develop best practices with respect to compensation for occupational stress-related claims."
WSIB's New Service Delivery Model (NSDM) Inadequate - It looks like more of the same under a new banner. WSIB's NSDM does not address deeming. It does not address fairness. It does not address adequacy of compensation. It does not address false medical diagnoses. It does not address contentious retroactive cases. It just addresses 'improved timelines', 'service excellence' and 'financial sustainability'. In the past, buzzwords such as those have translated into . . . 'how to get the injured worker off the payroll as soon as possible.' The outcome of this new model in the real world remains to be seen.
Compensation Privatization Feared - Injured workers, Labour official circulating petition that will be presented to legislature - "Injured workers are not for sale . . . Earlier this summer, Workplace Health, Safety and Compensation Commission president Doug Stanley said the Grand Bay-Westfield rehabilitation centre has the chance to become a world class facility, but only if it is operated by private interests. . . . "We don't think that's a good thing for injured workers," says Ron Oldfield, president of the Saint John District Labour Council". . . . "anyone going through the door with a little money could take precedence over an injured worker. That's our biggest fear." (says Leah Logan-Guimond, president of Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 946.
Is the Workers Compensation System Committing Murder? - In light of the recent World Health Organization Report that states "Social injustice is killing people on a grand scale" - Here is a quote from Frederick Engels (1820 - 1895): "When society places workers in such a position that they inevitably meet a too early and an unnatural death, one which is quite as much a death by violence as that by the sword or bullet; when it deprives thousands of the necessaries of life, places them under conditions in which they cannot live – forces them, through the strong arm of the law, to remain in such conditions until that death ensues which is the inevitable consequence – knows that these thousands of victims must perish, and yet permits these conditions to remain, its deed is murder just as surely as the deed of the single individual; disguised, malicious murder, murder against which none can defend himself, which does not seem what it is, because no man sees the murderer, because the death of the victim seems a natural one, since the offence is more one of omission than of commission. But murder it remains." - quote taken from "Engels and the WHO Report" by Susan Rosenthal, author of the book "Power and Powerlessness - Social Power is Necessary for Human Health"
Inequities Killing People on "grand scale" - WHO Report - "Social justice is a matter of life and death. . . Social injustice is killing people on a grand scale. . . All people need social protection across the lifecourse, as young
children, in working life, and in old age. People also need
protection in case of specific shocks, such as illness, disability,
and loss of income or work." from World Health Organization Commission on the Social Determinants of Health - Report of Aug 28 2008 - "Closing the Gap in a Generation: Health Equity through Action on the Social Determinants of Health.
AUGUST 2008:
(AU) WCB Statistics Grossly Under-represent Mental Health Injuries - "Work-Related Depression Affects 21,000 In Victoria - By comparison, 30-times fewer workers receive workers’ compensation for stress-related mental disorders, suggesting that workers’ compensation statistics grossly under-represent the true extent of the problem."
(USA) How to practice medicine without a license - "Doctors not licensed to practice medicine in California are allowed to practice medicine in California as long they restrict their decisions to injured workers who claim on-the-job injuries. This convenient niche is favored by insurance companies and acquiescent utilization review companies retained by the insurance companies. They argue that utilization review doctors aren't practicing medicine. . . . The review doctor has authority to deny, delay or modify treatment. The doctor who does the review may refuse to authorize the MRI even though the review doctor will not have interviewed or examined the injured worker. Under California law, review doctors without California licenses are allowed to overrule treating doctors even though the treating doctor is licensed to practice medicine in California."
New International Disability Standard a 'Paradigm Shift' - Going before the European Union's Parliament Sept 16 2008, the MAHDE recommendations will fundamentally change the concept of disability from ICDH(1980) to the ICF(2001). MAHDE (Measuring Health and Disability in Europe) has brought together international institutions and researchers to demonstrate the application of the ICF model in the collection of health and disability data. ICF, the World Health Organisation's International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health, is a cross-cutting, universal framework and international standard that constitutes a paradigm shift in our understanding of disability. It underscores the need to integrate individual functioning with the complete physical and social environment in order to capture the full lived experience of disability that links health and social policy to promote social integration and increase participation, thereby enhancing opportunities for persons with disabilities. They Identify barriers to recovery and have shown that data currently being collected, nationally and internationally, embody conceptual confusions, inconsistencies and ambiguities about disability and the relationship between health conditions, impairments and environmental factors. MHADIE (Measuring Health and Disability in Europe) - website MHADIE policy recommendations 2008 (PDF) ICF - The
International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health and the ICF Primer
Bullying is a N.B. workplace health issue - "New Brunswickers who have been targeted by a workplace bully say there is nowhere to turn. . . . Harassers, on the other hand, rarely pay a price for their behaviour. . . . the New Brunswick Workplace Health, Safety and Compensation Commission needs to get involved. Bullying is recognized as a health and safety issue in other jurisdictions such as Quebec. . . . While sexual harassment is forbidden by human rights laws, psychological harassment, as bullying is also called, is not covered unless it can be shown to be motivated by the victim's race, sex or one of the other prohibited grounds for discrimination recognized by law."
(South Africa) 'Doc's ditched after undesirable diagnosis' - "When medical specialists diagnosed at least 10 cases of manganese-specific illnesses at a factory in Cato Ridge, KwaZulu Natal, the Assmang manganese company dumped them "like hot potatoes".
They replaced them with a new team of doctors that revised the diagnoses to suggest the sick workers might be alcoholics, drug abusers or victims of Aids. . . . Another 27 workers, also earmarked by doctors as possibly suffering from manganism, were also "cleared" by the new team of medical doctors and some were put back to work.
. . . Tager said she believed it was unethical to send such a patient back to work and be exposed to further manganese toxins. "
WSIB Denies Magna Cancer Victim - "No award for Magna worker - WSIB panel sends cancer victim home empty handed - "Cancer victim Eamonn Murphy says working at Magna robbed him of his health after eight years working at the company with a carcinogen doctors say caused his disease.
A panel of the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board denied compensation to Murphy despite evidence from a WSIB-appointed expert that exposure to benzene caused his illness.
. . . Because Murphy filed a claim with the WSIB, by law he forfeited his rights to sue Magna directly. . . . "I'm on CPP (Canada Pension Plan) and I'll never be able to work again. I have people suing me because I can't pay my bills," Murphy said.
"
Growing concern about accuracy of WCB injury and death statistics - "WorkSafeBC 2007 statistics indicate there were fewer claims for injury accidents and survival benefits per 1,000 employees than ever recorded in the history of the construction industry.
. . . The declining figures — which have dropped since 2004 even as the industry has drawn in thousands of new workers — may be an indication of a flourishing “underground” economy, under-reporting and unreported incidents, Peppard said."
(USA) Workplace Stress Ruled Compensable - "Stress Victim's Family Collects Workers' Compensation For Her Death - The North
Carolina Court of Appeals has ruled that stress can be an occupational disease
which will support a workers’ compensation claim. The case
resulted from the death of a secretary who worked at a high-stress job at Duke University
Medical Center. . . The North
Carolina Industrial Commission awarded the heirs of the deceased secretary full
workers’ compensation benefits because of its holding that the death was caused
by her work-related occupational disease. . . This is one
of the few cases in which workers’ compensation benefits have been awarded to a
non-law-enforcement-officer based upon a stress-related disease."
(USA) Supreme Court rules suicide compensable - "Under a precedent-setting Nevada Supreme Court opinion last week, survivors of workers who commit suicide as a result of an industrial injury won't automatically be rejected for death benefits as they were in the past." . . . "While Nevada state law prohibits benefits if a worker’s death occurs due to a "willful intention to injure himself," this does not apply if a "sufficient chain of causation is established."
Still fighting after 20 years - "According to Valic, the WSCC is not recognizing the financial costs that he has incurred. . . he wants to take his appeal to a federal court.
"
CUPE challenges WHSCC statistics - "Claims are down not because of safer workplaces, but because people are not reporting injuries and are being denied benefits," said Rick MacMillan, Secretary-Treasurer of CUPE New Brunswick. . . . CUPE New Brunswick has told the WHSCC Independent Review Panel that it's time to change the WHSCC and workers compensation system to help the workers, after years of an imbalance towards employers. Benefits, claims and prevention are the areas that need the most attention."
(USA) Workers' compensation enforcers widen focus on employers - SACRAMENTO -- "For a decade, California employers and their advocates in Sacramento complained about the high cost of workers' compensation insurance and condemned abuses of the system by employees, who they said fake claims, exaggerate medical conditions and collect fat disability benefits.
But some data suggest that employers -- not workers -- are the bigger workers' compensation cheaters. And the state is stepping up enforcement against businesses suspected of ignoring the law and endangering workers."
Alberta workers being
financially ruined - " 'How can the WCB have a ‘surplus’
when injured workers are being
financially ruined because they are
not receiving fair compensation for
their injuries?' - Randy Corbett, AUPE Union Rep, WCB (from the Summer 2008 AUPE newsletter)
Minister AWOL on WSIB affair - " Labour Minister Brad Duguid has gone missing in action since the Sun revealed Workplace Safety and Insurance Board president Jill Hutcheon was paid by both the board and the labour ministry for years, Progressive Conservative MPPs said yesterday.
. . 'the McGuinty government has apparently spent more time trying to obscure the salary of the WSIB president than trying to assist injured workers' . . . the WSIB was able to disclose Hutcheon's salary under the province's Sunshine Laws as being much less. Between Hutcheon joining the board and her retirement from the public service in 2006, she was paid $844,000 by the board and $746,000 from Labour. The arrangement "appears to be an attempt to obscure her total compensation," the MPPs wrote."
WSIB President's Pay Raises Eyebrows - "Pay Raises Eyebrows - Tory critic sees 'accounting mischief' . . ."It certainly has the appearance of some kind of accounting mischief," Progressive Conservative finance critic Tim Hudak said yesterday. "I worry that the taxpayers and the premium payers of Ontario are going to be left footing the bill for this very high salary."
Under provincial salary disclosure laws -- the so-called Sunshine List -- the WSIB has reported Hutcheon earned $844,000 in salary and benefits between 2003 and 2006.
But because the labour ministry says she joined the board on secondment from her old job, it continued to pay her a deputy minister's salary for those same years, earning her an additional $744,000.
. . . "Small businesses and manufacturers in (Premier) Dalton McGuinty's Ontario are really getting squeezed and they're going to hit the roof when they see their (insurance) premiums being used for this.""
WSIB president salary 'shady' - "The people who ultimately pay Workplace Safety and Insurance Board president Jill Hutcheon will be outraged when they learn her salary was split in two on the provincial Sunshine List, allowing the board to report it paid her nearly $750,000 less than it actually did, critics charged yesterday.
. . . 'this does appear as if the WSIB was hiding her salary by dividing it between two pots' . . . Senior executives at the WSIB are paid out of insurance premiums paid by employers, while tax money funds the Labour Ministry.
. . Both WSIB chairman Steve Mahoney and Labour Minister Brad Duguid did not respond to requests for interviews yesterday.
"
WSIB President's salary under scrutiny by Conflict of Interest Commissioner - "Double Trouble - There are fears a civil servant being paid by both the Ministry of Labour and the Workplace Safety Insurance Board could undermine Ontario's Sunshine Law - It's a shell game the province's conflict of interest commissioner says is misleading and should be reviewed. The ministry of labour pretended to pay Workplace Safety Insurance Board president Jill Hutcheon for almost four years after she left her job as deputy minister. The ministry continued to list her six-figure salary as coming from government books despite her wages being reimbursed by the WSIB, an arm's-length Crown agency.
. . The arrangement allowed the WSIB to skirt the provincial Sunshine List by disclosing Hutcheon's salary as being hundreds of thousands of dollars less than it actually was. The Sunshine List includes anyone who makes more than $100,0000 while working for the government, Crown agencies or public institutions. It's meant to give taxpayers information on where their money goes and to whom. For example, in 2005, the WSIB reported Hutcheon's salary on the Sunshine List as being $257,623.17. It was in fact much higher, as the labour ministry paid her $200,354.28 in that same year. In the four years between 2003 and 2007, Hutcheon was paid $844,000 by the WSIB. At the same time, the labour ministry paid her an additional $746,000, with both the board and the ministry issuing T4 tax receipts and listing her on the Sunshine List twice in years her two salaries both broke the $100,000 mark. She declined to be interviewed."
JULY
2008:
WHSCC review disappointing - "The New Brunswick Federation of Labour has written a letter to Premier Shawn Graham expressing its disappointment with the WHSCC independent review report . . . We are appalled that New Brunswick will still be one of only three jurisdictions in Canada where injured workers will still face a waiting period for worker's compensation benefits and are extremely disappointed that the review panel did nothing to put an end to this gross injustice. . . . also . . . recommendation 54 in the report . . . is nothing short of undemocratic."
(USA) Deadly Denial - Three Day Series by Rocky Mountain News
- "Ten thousand Navajo men mined uranium for America's atomic bombs. The U.S. government knew early on that uranium could cause lung damage. But instead of warning the Navajo miners, the government decided to study what happened to them.Now those who survived — and the families of those who didn't — are having trouble proving that they qualify for compensation."
Registry for asbestos miners not enough: provincial NDP - "NDP leader Lorraine Michael said in a news release that while she's happy to see the registry announcement, government still has to go further to ensure proper compensation for, and identification of, health issues related to the work. . . . As well, changes have to be made to a compensation policy which eliminates compensation for cancers other than lung or mesothelioma, so that those cancers can be covered."
Baie Verte Miners' Registry "major breakthrough" - "Steelworkers applaud Newfoundland breakthrough agreement for victims of occupational disease: Now the search for former Baie Verte miners across Canada
- A registry that will help identify former
mine workers of the now defunct Baie Verte Asbestos Mine, who may have
developed asbestos-related diseases, is a major breakthrough for workers'
health, says the United Steelworkers union (USW). . . ."We hope this announcement will set the pattern for other
compensation boards and governments across Canada as we continue to strive for
justice for workers and their survivors." . . . "Steelworkers will
continue to work with the WHSCC to see the results of the registry turned into
fair compensation for the Baie Verte miners and their families."
Scathing Critique of WSIB Labour Market Reentry (LMR) - "Labour Market Reentry - The Ultimate Captive Student - When workers are hurt on the job, it may only be the start of their problems. Just wait until the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board sends them back to school. . . . When a worker is injured and can’t return to pre-accident employment that worker’s benefits depend on cooperation with the LMR process. So in order to avoid losing all income and ending up on welfare (a real danger – I’m not exaggerating) the worker may literally be forced back into school. . . I also see gross over-promising at work in the LMR system. . . the students . . ." (are victims of) ". . . inflated systemic assumptions. . . . As soon as a student finishes the LMR process, that student is very likely to be “deemed” at the average income for the job just trained for. No consideration for the difficulty of finding that job, no allowance for the fact that older adults (injured ones, no less) have a harder time securing employment, no allowance for sincere efforts resulting in under-employment. If you’ve been trained to be a refrigerator repairman then as soon as you’re done your course you’d better find work, because you’ll be assumed to earn that average salary anyway. And the “averages” used here look anything but average to me. . . . And by the way, please be careful at work. It’s nice we have a system of workplace insurance, and I trust it’s better than nothing, but I wouldn’t wish dealing with it on my worst enemy."
(USA) Depraved Indifference: The Workers' Compensation System
- new book by Patrice Woeppel, Ed.D. - "What has happened to our nation that has allowed corporations and insurers to throw away the lives, the health of so many without caring, without fear of exposure, without being held accountable? It's called Workers' Compensation: the system we thought was there to protect us if we were injured on the job."
WSIB "is broken and in dire need of repair" - "The system of workers compensation in Ontario is broken and in dire need of repair. . . ." ". . . . The WSIB reward system, experience rating and rebates, must come to an end. . . . Employers should already have safety in workplaces."
WHSCC operates behind "inaccessible barrier of red tape" - ". . . WHSCC is the only department or agency in the province of New Brunswick that does not have a listing of employees, or e-mail accessibility. . . . Now, due to the complete lack of accessible alternative communication, my compensation has been terminated. Yet my disability remains. . . . I can't understand how a government agency can have such little regard for people, making unjustified decisions behind an inaccessible barrier of red tape that could mean the injured employee losing everything! . . . So here I sit, disabled due to a work-related injury, with a wife and four small children, with no means of employment or income."
No Comp for Impact Worker Injured on the Job - Cleaning company washes its hands of responsibility through elaborate
subcontracting scheme - "The Service Employees International Union Local 2 (SEIU) says that the
problems faced by employees at Impact are the product of an elaborate scheme
set up by the company to subcontract work in an effort to avoid its
obligations under the law. SEIU filed a complaint with the Ministry of Labour
on behalf of employees of Impact last month.
The complaint alleges that many of the cleaning contractor's employees in
Toronto are being paid less than the minimum wage and are working without
WSIB, EI or CPP benefits." When WCBs reward companies for having low "lost time" claims, it encourages under-reporting of workplace injuries. See "WCBs Report False Workplace Injury
Statistics" and other stories on the WSIB's controversial "Experience Rating"
system in the 2008 news.
(USA) More States Follow NY and Abandon AMA Guides - "Following New York's rejection of the AMA Guides to the Evaluation of Permanent Impairment for its own workers compensation system, . . . now the states of Utah, Washington and Colorado are not adopting the current version of the AMA Guides. . . . This comes on the heels of workers' compensation expert Dr. John Burton recently labeling the AMA Guides as "hokum" and "not evidence based". Clearly, the tide across the country is shifting away from the AMA Guides as they are exposed for what they really are - an insurance industry tool to lower workers' compensation benefits to injured workers." The CIWS
has pointed out how, in Canada, these AMA guides are still being used illegally
by WCBs to determine impairment ratings.
See Unlawful Use Of Impairment Ratings And AMA Guides
Longtime WCB critic, Gerry Millar states, "The Alberta Guides are worse as they
were compiled by a Dr. Bell in 1960 and no one knows how or why Dr. Bell came
up with the impairment ratings which do not even bother to factor in pain in
any of their impairment ratings as the feeling is that pain is subjective,
therefore pain is not factored in."
JUNE
2008:
". . . WSIB and
labour ministry allow companies to hide dangerous workplaces . . ." - Hiding injuries rewards companies - Star investigation reveals job safety numbers are under-reported, cutting employer costs. - "The provincial government's highly touted campaign to improve
workplace safety is rewarding companies for hiding injuries and rushing
the wounded back to work. . . . The
provincial agency's plan says that the faster a company gets an injured
worker back to work, or off what is known as "loss time," the lower the
insurance premium. Shortening this loss time or avoiding reporting it
altogether can be lucrative, possibly leading to a rebate cheque from
the WSIB. . . . The Star found that at least 11,000 worker
injuries were downplayed or improperly handled over a seven-year
period, . . . The Star found the WSIB's policy around
"early and safe return to work" is loosely defined - companies often
get to decide which jobs are suitable. . . Steering companies down the WSIB's profitable "Road
to Zero" injuries is a cottage industry of consultants who teach how to
work the system. . . . The Star
shared its findings with three Ministry of Labour inspectors, including one high-ranking inspector, and others with knowledge of workplace safety issues in Ontario, and none was surprised. The inspectors,
who requested anonymity for fear of losing their jobs, say the WSIB and
labour ministry allow companies to hide dangerous workplaces and cut
costs at the expense of injured workers."
"Dismal Enforcement" by Worksafe B.C. - Farm workers relegated to second-class status: CCPA study - "At
the mercy of a complex and confusing system that exploits, threatens and silences them while putting their lives in danger. . . . A new study of farm work in British Columbia reveals systematic violations of employment standards and health and safety regulations, poor and often dangerous working conditions and dismal enforcement by B.C. government agencies. . . . Since 2001, inspection reports by Worksafe B.C. in the agricultural sector plummeted by 62% and prevention orders dropped by 73%. Not a single participant recalled any visit to a work site by Worksafe B.C."
Liberals Unable to Ignore Injured Worker "killed by
the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board" - Paul Miller, Ontario NDP MPP, tried to pin Minister of Labour, Brad Duguid down to a firm commitment for a meeting about an injured worker's death.
On February 10, Jeff Thompson died of "a bleeding ulcer due to severe stress. But according to those who knew him, Mr. Thompson was killed by
the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board."
(see "WSIB Blamed for Man's Death - Stress of fight to prove injury claim blamed for man's death").
Thompson's sister, Colleen Mathers, attended the legislative assembly June 17th along with
Darrell Powell (official witness to the Senate Subcommittee on Population
Health representing disabled workers) and Peter Clare (critic of the WSIB who asked for a meeting of the minister with the WSIB chair,
Steve Mahoney). Labour Minister Brad Duguid sidestepped the issue.
WCB
defies order to release list of least-safe workplaces - "The Nova Scotia
board responsible for on-the-job safety has refused to release a list of
workplaces with the highest number of employee injuries in the province. . .
.In doing so, the Workers’ Compensation Board defied a decision of the
province’s top freedom of information watchdog. . . . The Chronicle Herald
will respond by taking the board to the Nova Scotia Supreme Court in an attempt
to force Workers’ Compensation to comply with the ruling. . . . "Our
position is this is a matter of great public interest and we have a
responsibility to get this information and deal with it as clearly as
possible," said Dan Leger, this newspaper’s director of news
content."
Halifax
Newspaper Taking Workers Compensation Board to Supreme Court - Nova Scotia
WCB Disobeys Freedom of Information Officer - Refuses to Release Safety
Information - "The Chronicle-Herald is taking the Workers' Compensation Board
to court over its refusal to release information about safe workplaces. . . .
Managing Editor Dan Leger says this is a matter of "great public interest" and
the paper will do what is necessary to make the information available to the
public."
ACOEM
Guidelines "Highly Controversial" for WCB Pain Claimants - “Acceptance
of ACOEM Guidelines will have a devastating and far reaching impact on Workers
compensation claimants . . . Workers May Be Denied High Quality, Cost-Effective
Pain Care . . . "I was deeply disturbed by the draft I reviewed of the new
ACOEM guidelines” said . . . President of the American Society of
Interventional Pain Physicians. . . . If these guidelines are utilized by their
target audience, workers compensation insurance carriers, the injured workers
in this nation will be denied some of the most effective pain treatments
currently available. . . . ACOEM’s process of guideline development is not
consistent with accepted practices for evidence-based guidelines and these
guidelines are highly controversial among physicians and workers.
Implementation of these guidelines for interventional pain management may not
be applicable for patient care due to numerous deficiencies.""
(The CIWS has listed the ACOEM (American College of
Occupational and Environmental Medicine) under "Possible Sources of Biased
Research and Information" on our page outlining our concerns about
Questionable Research and Medicine. The CIWS is concerned
about false medical reports being performed and questionable research being
done by medical practitioners and academics who are being paid by insurance
companies and/or workers compensation boards.
(USA) Legal Battle with Wal-Mart Over Injury Benefits Broke Elderly
Store Greeter’s Spirit - "On the face of it, you might think that an
employer of any size, much less a mega-corporation that registers a profit of
about $20,000 a minute, at least would have been willing to pay for the cost of
Teague's emergency room services, where the bill for stitching him up came to
about $3,500. . . .But Wal-Mart — whose famous slogan is "Save money, live
better" — declined to give Teague even one cent in workers' compensation
benefits for the injuries he suffered on the job. . . . Kilfoy (Teague's
lawyer) and others who knew Teague well say the protracted battle with the
mighty Wal-Mart after his spill broke Teague's spirit. By the time he died,
Teague had incurred about $200,000 in medical bills unrelated to his Wal-Mart
head injury that Medicare wouldn't pay while awaiting the outcome of the
workers' comp case." (The same things are happening in
Canada as provincial WCBs increasingly
use a US-style insurance-industry business model to
delay and deny legitimate claims sending thousands of families into poverty and
despair annually.)
(AU) WCB
Stats Grossly Underestimate Mental Injuries - 21,000 Victorians suffer from
work-related depression - "Almost one in six cases of depression among working
Victorians are caused by job stress, amounting to more than 21,000 cases of
preventable depression in Victoria each year, a new University of Melbourne
study shows. . . . This translates to 21,437 working Victorians suffering from
preventable depression caused by job stress; By comparison, 30-times fewer
workers receive workers’ compensation for stress-related mental disorders,
suggesting that workers’ compensation statistics grossly under-represent
the true extent of the problem."
Speakers
School adds authority to injured worker's message - 91.5 FM News - Several
of Thunder Bay's injured workers are better equipped to fight for their rights
thanks to an innovative new program that gives them and their plight, a clearer
voice. Nine people recently graduated from Speakers School, a 12-week course
that preps them on problems facing injured workers and teaches how to
effectively present their issues to the public. Graduate Robert Laroque says
the course was an eye-opening experience and said " it enlightened"
him.Graduates of the program will participate in an ongoing group for public
speakers representing injured workers.
MAY 2008:
Senate Subcommittee on Population Health --Have Your Say (Friday, 16 May 2008) - The Senate
Subcommittee on Population Health, led by the Hon. Wilbert J. Keon and the Hon.
Lucie Pépin, would like your opinion on the
federal government's role in the development and implementation of population
health policy for Canada. Your comments will be taken into
consideration in the Subcommittee's next report, which will contain
recommendations on how the federal government can implement pan-Canadian
initiatives to reduce health disparities. The Subcommittee has issued four
reports on the multiple factors and conditions that contribute to the health of
Canada's population. These reports are available at
http://www.parl.gc.ca/39/2/parlbus/commbus/senate/popu.htm
under "Reports." Contact - Please share your views on this important issue
before June 30, 2008 by sending your
comments to Barbara Reynolds, Clerk of the Senate Subcommittee on Population
Health at [email protected] or
by mail at Committees Directorate, Senate of Canada, 40 Elgin Street, Ottawa,
ON, K1A 0A4.
(AU) Study Reveals Substantial Under-compensation of Psychological
Injuries - "Job strain and associated depression risks represent a
substantial, preventable, and inequitably distributed public health problem. .
. job strain is an important contributor to mental health inequalities . . .
there is substantial under-recognition and under-compensation of job
strain-attributable depression"
IWAAC ("Injured Workers All Across Canada")
requests input from injured workers into their
new POLL.
World Congress on
Pain Submission Blasts Workers Compensation Board - " Campbell-Taylor takes
issue with the definition of chronic pain used by the Nova Scotia Worker’s
Compensation Board, saying it’s not used anywhere else in the world . . .
“The bit that they have added themselves is the part that is used most
often to deny claims for chronic pain,” she said. “When you find that
more than 70 per cent of claims are denied, well, that’s statistically
impossible. . . . They started about a year ago by randomly selecting 1,500
compensation appeals tribunal decisions . . . they . . . found medical data was
often misinterpreted. . . . There seems to be universal assumption that those
complaining of chronic pain are cheating, Campbell-Taylor said, although
literature shows that is a small number.""
WSIB Boss, Steve
Mahoney, "Grilled Over Free Steaks" at Swanky Bar - "Critics say lobbying
event 'inappropriate' use of public funds" . . . "They went to the swankiest
bar in all of Ottawa, the Martini Ranch at Hy's Steakhouse, so Mr. Mahoney
could show off what a big man on campus he was to his former Liberal friends,"
Mr. Hudak said. "It was an inappropriate use of funds that were supposed to be
for injured workers."
WSIB Blamed
for Man's Death - Stress of fight to prove injury claim blamed for man's
death - "As the pain in Mr. Thompson's knee persisted, and he was unable to
stand, sit or sleep comfortably, his WSIB adjudicator threatened to stop his
benefits. . . . The adjudicator threatened to end his benefits when Mr.
Thompson didn't comply with the "labour market re-entry plan," which required
him to attend classes in London, 120 kilometres from his home. Mr. Thompson was
taking morphine daily, and found that driving aggravated his pain. . . . The
burden of defending the severity of his injuries and the financial strain of
living off his shrinking benefits seemed to age her brother overnight, she
said. . . . The day after Mr. Thompson died, a letter from the WSIB arrived at
his home. It was notification that his benefits had been cut by 50 per
cent."
(AU) Green Party
Filibuster - Heroic Defence of the Rights of Injured Workers - "Greens MP
Mark Parnell's oratory marathon - aimed at delaying a Bill he opposes - may
well be the longest filibuster in a state parliament. . . . Debating changes to
the WorkCover workers' compensation scheme, Mr Parnell got to his feet in the
SA Legislative Council yesterday morning and, except for breaks for lunch and
dinner, held the floor until late last night. He was followed by independent MP
Ann Bressington, who spoke for five hours, before debate on the Bill was
adjourned at 4am (4.30am AEST) today. The pair had teamed up to stall a vote on
the WorkCover changes, which would cut payments to some injured workers, and to
get union and worker concerns on the public record. . . Unions today hailed Mr
Parnell's efforts as heroic and a staunch defence of the rights of injured
workers. "
Cancer
Victim Gets Runaround From WorkSafe BC - "Frustrated at getting “the
runaround” on his medical condition from the Workers’ Compensation
Board of British Columbia, Ronald Barrow, an Algoma Steel Inc. retiree, boarded
an aircraft for Sault Ste. Marie earlier this week. “My daughter told me
that the union was organizing a clinic for anyone who suspected they were
exposed to toxic chemicals or substances while working at the plant and I saw
it as an opportunity to finally get some answers,” said Barrow, an ASI
maintenance millwright for 37 years who now resides in Westbank, B.C., near
Kelowna. . . . The Workers’ Compensation Board denied his claim about a
year ago, he alleges because of the mere reference to his being a smoker.
“It didn’t matter that I had quit smoking 22 years ago, that I was
never a heavy smoker, but the simple fact I had smoked was the reason for my
health problems,” he said. . . . He worked mainly in No. 1 steelmaking.
“Pollutants were everywhere, asbestos was everywhere,” and
standard-issue protection was hardhats, safety glasses, earplugs and gloves,
later coats and pants for protection from molten steel splashes. "
NDP wants WSIB program
scrapped - "The McGuinty government is being asked to scrap a controversial
workplace insurance program that gave financial rewards to companies guilty of
fatal safety violations. The New Democratic Party has put forward a motion,
scheduled to be debated at Queen's Park next week, that also calls for an audit
of the so-called "experience rating" program that critics claim entices
companies to hide injuries and rush injured workers back on the job. . . NDP
Leader Howard Hampton says he wants to know how much money went to undeserving
companies, adding that he has no faith the McGuinty government will attempt to
make any serious changes as part of the review already underway."
See more stories on the controversial "Experience Rating"
system below in the April news..
Regina doctor says thousands not treated properly by
Saskatchewan WCB - "A Regina doctor says thousands of injured workers
haven't been treated properly by the Saskatchewan Worker's Compensation Board.
. . . He said 20,000 to 30,000 workers with back injuries have not received the
treatment they deserve over the past years. "
SUICIDE - John
could take no more WCB abuse or intimidation - ". . . he resorted to taking
his own life, all because he could no longer take the cruel treatment of the
Workers Compensation Board. His widow told me the abusive WCB process was worst
than the pain from his injuries, she said it was constant intimidation . . .
"
(USA) New York
State Rejects AMA Guides - ". . . the AMA Guides were rejected by the New
York State Insurance Department as a basis for determining impairment and/or
disability in claims before the New York Workers' Compensation Board. . . .
Hopefully, this will start a trend in other states to banish these hurtful
Guides that have been labeled "hokum" and "not evidence based" by renowned
workers' compensation expert, Dr. John Burton." The CIWS
has pointed out how, in Canada, these AMA guides are still being used illegally
by WCBs to determine impairment ratings.
See Unlawful Use Of Impairment Ratings And AMA Guides
Longtime WCB critic, Gerry Millar states, "The Alberta Guides are worse as they
were compiled by a Dr. Bell in 1960 and no one knows how or why Dr. Bell came
up with the impairment ratings which do not even bother to factor in pain in
any of their impairment ratings as the feeling is that pain is subjective,
therefore pain is not factored in."
(USA) WCB Claims
Illegally Rejected - ". . . the consultants’ review found 14 of 84
denied claims were inappropriately rejected." The CIWS
has pointed out how, in Canada, the same things are happening - the culture of
denial, the misuse of so-called "independent" medical examiners, the
adversarial bureaucracy, the inappropriate rehabilitation or training programs
and the downloading onto other social programs. See
"What's Wrong With Workers Compensation?"
Don't put
smokescreen over occupational cancer, OFL urges - "It has been hard not to
notice the strong focus cancer organizations have put on smoking in recent
decades, said Irene Harris. "This is good, but why aren't we applying that to
the other 50 carcinogens that we know are in workplaces?""
Canada is
unsafe because government not enforcing laws - "The numbers are
mind-boggling . . . (Canada is) killing and injuring . . . more per capita than
almost every industrialized country in the world.. . . companies are saving
millions through a . . . (WSIB) rebate program. . . . the courts in the case of
a killed worker fined one company . . . $150,000. The rebate, or reward, from
WSIB was $318,000. Another company was fined $100,000 and was rewarded
$329,000. Isn’t this sad? In reality, it is not at all hard to explain.
Governments and employers can talk the talk, but they refuse to walk the walk.
They love to talk about great laws and regulations on the books or great
internal policies they have in the workplaces. But what some are not saying is
they are not committed to enforcing any of the written word. It’s just
words. "
APRIL
2008:
Needless Deaths and Frustration with the WSIB - Needless
deaths and injuries continue to take place on job - "Wayne Samuelson, president
of the Ontario Federation of Labour, spoke of his frustration with the
Workplace Safety and Insurance Board's flawed "experience rating system," which
has resulted in millions of dollars in rebates going to companies, even after
they were fined for safety violations that led to death or serious injuries.
Samuelson said he's been telling the board about the problems for
years."
NEW AUDIO -
April 28 2008
- INTERNATIONAL DAY OF MOURNING - AFFIRMATIVE ACTION SPECIAL - Darrell
Powell with Charles Boylan on CFRO COOP Radio
NATIONAL DAY OF WCB HYPOCRISY - "Has the media ever
spent time talking to the families of those fallen workers? Has anyone in our
governments across Canada provincial or federal, taken any time to see if those
families were treated with respect from the authorities in charge? . . . Since
when have the deceased been able to get out of their graves and tell the truth
about how their families were treated by the WCB? . . . If you cannot trust
your Governments to protect you from its own creation, (the vultures at WCB),
then just who can you trust? Maybe those who cozy up to the WCB pretending they
care about our fallen brothers and sisters?"
ONTARIO WSIB
HYPOCRISY - The Ontario WSIB is holding a
public ceremony to observe the National Day of Mourning on
April 28, 2008 at 10:10 a.m. at Queen's Park (in front of the Legislative
Building) Toronto, ON. Yet "The Ontario Federation of
Labour (OFL) and other groups are demanding that Steve Mahoney be fired as
chair of the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) over revelations that
the province has paid safety rebates to companies prosecuted for the death of
workers on the job." (see articles regarding "experience rating" further
down this list) - Gerry Miller, longtime WCB critic says, "Strange
how they can set aside a day to honor the millions of Ontarians whose lives
have been forever changed by a workplace injury, illness or fatality and then
not acknowledge the millions of Ontarians who have had their claims and
benefits denied, forced into poverty, suicides, marital breakdowns. Set aside
one day to honor workers and then back to business as usual for the rest of the
364 days. Talk about hypocrisy. I wouldn't attend this hypocritical show if Mr.
Hargroves was giving away free cars."
WCB Downloading Costs Onto Taxpayers - A"WCB is not only a
Provincial disaster, it is a national disaster that must be addressed by the
Ministers in charge of Provincial Health Care Services, Provincial Income
Support Programs and the Provincial WCB systems to ensure that taxpayers are
not paying for services that are the sole responsibility of WCB. . . . This is
done all over Canada with Alberta no worse than any other Provincial WCB
system. "
Lost Time Claim Rate Artificially Contrived - Alberta
workplaces claimed 154 lives in 2007, up 24 per cent - "Kevin Flaherty,
executive director of the Alberta Worker’s Health Centre, a not-for-profit
society that focusses on workplace health and safety, says that means that
Alberta workplaces just aren’t getting safer. . . . too much emphasis is
put on the lost-time claim rate. . . . We’re only counting the people as
defined by Workers Comp, so it’s underestimated. Just workplace-related
cancers alone would push fatalities over 500 a year in Alberta. So there needs
to be a much better, more serious look at all those statistics. . . . The basic
reason is that the lost time claim rate is artificially
contrived.”"
RADIO
SHOW - INTERNATIONAL DAY OF MOURNING
- AFFIRMATIVE ACTION SPECIAL- DARRELL POWELL WITH CHARLES BOYLAN on
"Wake - up With Co-op" April 28th, 2008 on
CFRO 102.7 FM
Vancouver and Ch 845 on Star Choice. * * * AUDIO
WILL BE AVAILABLE SOON * * *
WHSCC No Longer Able
to Hide Causes of Workplace Deaths - N.B to make workplace fatality
inquests mandatory - Minister says amendments to coroner's act designed to
improve worker safety. . . . "Public Safety Minister John Foran introduced
legislation yesterday that will make a public inquest mandatory when someone
dies suddenly or unexpectedly in certain workplaces. . . . "We want to make
sure for the workers of this province and the people of this province that all
the facts come out on deaths.""
Open
Letter to Premier Dalton McGuinty (re: WSIB Experience Rating program) -
Letter: McGuinty: dig deeper - "Unfortunately, you are only looking at the tip
of the iceberg. While the WSIB has been giving big businesses hundreds of
millions of dollars each year in rebates, injured workers are falling into
poverty. . . scrap the present experience rating program and restore the WSIB
to a system that really helps workers with serious long-term injuries." - by
Steve Mantis
SICKO! (USA) Doctors feel
push to downplay injuries - Group tells OSHA of pressure by companies - "A
leading group of occupational doctors is taking the unusual step of speaking
out publicly against pressure from companies to downplay workplace injuries. .
. . They're also planning to testify before Congress. . . . "Our members feel
they are being methodically pressured ... to under-treat and mistreat,"
"...This is a grave ethical concern for our members. It's a grave medical
concern." . . . Workplace injury and illness rates . . . have been declining
nationwide in recent years. But some experts suspect that's partly because . .
. employers are "vastly underreporting" the extent of workplace injuries. . . .
Doctors become popular with companies if they rarely order time off work for
injured employees, or if they seldom recommend costly treatments or conclude
injuries are work-related . . ."(The CIWS is concerned
about
biased medical reports by WCB funded medical practitioners.
We feel that most medical professionals are ethical and would never become
involved in this type of manipulation of medical evidence. However, injured
workers are reporting that this type of unethical, and possibly criminal,
activity is occuring in relation to their WCB claims.)
(USA) Senate panel to examine state's worker comp system -
Hearing to review reports of years-long waits by thousands of employees - ". .
. Sarlo said he is convening the May 5 hearing in response to a series of
articles in The Star-Ledger that showed how bureaucratic delays, politics and
poor state oversight have left thousands of injured workers waiting years for
the relief promised by the compensation system."(The CIWS
is disappointed that, in Canada, despite
many articles and series in major newspapers nationwide,
legislators still turn a blind eye toward the abuses being perpetrated by
workers compensation boards against disabled workers.)
Does WSIB
Release Disabled Workers' Info to "Dimitri the Lover"? - The SECOND OPINION
Medical-Legal Consultants Group Inc. states on their website that they do,
"Forensic background medical investigations for WSIB/STD/LTD abuse."
They
state that "The Medical Investigator would also contact the WSIB and
other insurers to confirm that the job applicant has never submitted any
significant claims to them." Yet the owner of Second Opinion was
"stripped of his license to practice more than a decade ago after being
criminally convicted of sexually assaulting female patients." and now,
according to the Toronto Sun, "James "Dimitri the Lover" Sears
has hung out a new shingle: Sex guru. "Dimitri the Lover" insists
he can teach men who attend his Toronto Real Men meetings and workshops how to
make women "worship" them. "
Only in a sick
system such as WCB would a human life be worth $8000.00 - License to injure
or kill - Commenting on Toronto Star article, "WORKING WOUNDED - When companies get rewarded for
mistakes", longtime WCB critic for Alberta states, ". . . people who
have been fighting the system for decades know exactly what the system is all
about. Injured and disabled workers have to fight to have their claims accepted
and even if they are accepted they then have to fight years for benefits while
WSIB and other WCB systems provide rebates on an annual basis as a reward for
injuring and killing workers. . . . In Alberta the death benefit for a single
worker with no dependents is $8000.00 . . . Only in a sick system such as WCB
would a human life be worth $8000.00 "
Miller
demands immediate WSIB overhaul - "NDP MPP Paul Miller today demanded that
the McGuinty government take immediate action – including the immediate
removal of the chair and board – to fix the glaring problems at the
Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB). . . . “This is appalling
and shameful. Workers are maimed and killed, yet irresponsible employers are
rewarded,” said Miller . . . “The Chair and Board Members knew
that this system was flawed, they heard about it from many labour
representatives and yet they ignored calls to fix the problem. They should no
longer be in a position to oversee the health and safety of Ontario’s
workers.”"
Injured Workers' Rep Calls for Federal Inquiry into WCB -
Calling on the Canadian Parliament and Senate - "I and many other injured
workers request that all Workers Compensation Boards be investigated inlight of
the finding by the Toronto Star Staff Reporters Moira Welsh David Bruser on
April 5, 9 relating to the WSIB scandal over rebates to companies found guilty
of unsafe workplaces. We would also like an audit done on injured workers files
who have been denied benifits, it is my understand that even though claims were
not being hououred by the Nova Scotia WCB, money was being paid out to unknown
persons."
MORE
Ottawa Complicit in the WCB Experience Rating Rebate
Program - Calling on the Canadian Parliament and Senate - "The Federal
Governments Website Entreprises Canada, is a propnent of the Experience Rating
Rebate programs run by the WCB Boards in Canada. It is without question, that
the Canadian Government are a complicit stakeholder with all Workers
Compensation Boards and tacitly endorse the actions of all their partner WCB
Boards, therefore the Federal Government is breaching it's own Charter of
Rights and its own Human Rights Laws. The Federal site ... (
HERE ) Injured workers across Canada would like the Federal
Government, through the Federal Minister of Labour to call for a committee to
be struck, to investigate the many acts of Bad Faith demonistrated by their
partners, the Workers Compensation Boards within Canada."
MORE
SICKO! Alberta WCB Appeals Commission 'Goofs Off' on Charter
Responsibilities - "In the
Martin decision the Supreme Court determined that Appeals
Tribunals have jurisdiction in determining questions of law relative to the
Charter. It now appears that the Alberta Appeals Commission will not hear
questions of law relative to the Charter. . . . If the Appeals Commission have
forfeited their rights to hear questions of law relative to the Charter, are
they doing so because they do not feel they are competent or knowledgeable
enough to hear questions of law relative to the Charter. . . . Does any one
have any idea why the Alberta Appeals Commission would be forfeiting their
jurisdictional rights given to them by the Supreme Court relative to questions
of law involving the Charter. Is there any other Canadian WCB Boards that have
forfeited their rights to hear questions of law relative to the Charter and if
so what is the reason or is this one of these things that no one really
knows."(The CIWS has pointed out how Canadian WCBs are
increasingly
using an insurance-industry business model to delay
and deny legitimate claims. Reneging on their constitutional responsibilities
as quasi-judicial boards, WCBs are further eroding the intent of the original
workers compensation legislation - *** see
CONSTITUTION AND CHARTER VIOLATIONS)
Senate Focuses on Socio-economic Health Problems - In this
Fourth Report, (Population Health Policy: Issues and Options) the Senate
Committee has focused on socio-economic staus as the major social determinant
of health and recommends a federal population health strategy along with health
impact assessments of government agencies (such as WCBs). "Fifty per cent of a
person's health is determined by their social and economic environment, while
only 25 per cent can be directly attributed to the health-care system,
according to the report, Population Health Policy: Issues and Options."(The CIWS has pointed out how the failure of WCB is a major
influence on the socio-economic status of Canadians disabled due to occupation
and their families.)
WSIB rebate
embarrassing, premier says - "McGuinty says flawed program needs changing
but won't call for chair of safety agency to resign. - Premier Dalton McGuinty
said he will not heed calls to fire the embattled chair of the provincial
workplace safety agency, but branded its flawed rebate program an
"embarrassment" that needs to be fixed. McGuinty's comments came as labour
groups held a news conference at Queen's Park yesterday morning, demanding he
fire Steve Mahoney, chair of the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board, who has
said he was unaware his rebate program was defective."
Labour leaders want WSIB chair fired over 'death' rebates -
"Companies prosecuted for worker fatalities awarded safety rebates - The
Ontario Federation of Labour (OFL) and other groups are demanding that Steve
Mahoney be fired as chair of the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB)
over revelations that the province has paid safety rebates to companies
prosecuted for the death of workers on the job."
Labour
groups want WSIB chief out - "Star series spurs advocates to demand new
board for safety agency, but chair calls plea disappointing. Ontario labour
groups are asking Premier Dalton McGuinty to fire the chair and executive board
of the provincial workplace safety agency in the wake of a Star series
on its flawed safety rebate program."
WSIB's 'dangerously' mixed message - "When it comes to
workplace safety, the Ontario government has been sending dangerously mixed
messages. . . The WSIB admits a company sometimes qualifies for a rebate even
if it has been held responsible for an on-the-job death. . . Until this
loophole is closed, Ontario workers have every right to question the
government's claims that it takes workplace safety seriously. "
Lawyer
Recommends 'Fundamental Changes' to WSIB - "Ontario workers pay the price -
Re: 'When companies get rewarded for mistakes' . . . Without fundamental
changes to the system, it will remain possible to receive millions in "safety
rebates" without a safety inspector ever setting foot in the workplace. The
current system of financial incentives is a sick joke at the expense of workers
maimed and killed through the negligence of employers. It is no substitute for
genuine enforcement of the laws on workplace safety." (also see the CIWSPETITION calling for a federal public judicial inquiry into WCB
wrongdoing.)
Legal Clinic
Receives Thousands of Calls from Injured Workers - "WSIB must get to work -
Re: 'When companies get rewarded for mistakes' . . . Imagine how much more
could be done if the board wasn't taking billions of dollars out of the
accident fund and giving it to employers. . . Our legal clinic has received
thousands of calls from injured workers whose employers are fighting their WSIB
claims, or insisting they return to work right after an injury to do a
concocted, meaningless job so the employers can report them as a "no lost time"
injury. . . All of this goes to show that workers' compensation claims
statistics tell us very little about health and safety practices in the
workplace." (also see
"WCBs Report False Workplace Injury
Statistics")
Star series
prompts a sweeping review of payouts to firms where workers died -
Workplace safety rebates probed. "The Star's "Working Wounded"
probe has revealed that one arm of the provincial government has been giving
financial rewards to companies that have been prosecuted for worker deaths by
another arm of the government. . . . A Star investigation has found
that the workplace insurance agency has given tens of millions of dollars in
rebates to companies that have been prosecuted by the provincial government and
found guilty of safety violations leading to deaths, amputations and other
gruesome injuries. . . . That analysis unearthed 75 instances since 2001 that
dramatically illustrate the problem. . . . The offending companies were fined a
total of $14 million by the province yet received payouts totalling $42 million
from the WSIB. . . . Speaking about their own experience at the monolithic
Front St. office, they (WSIB workers) said Mahoney's proposed changes will be a
hard sell because companies have a long history of influencing board
decisions." The workers "would not go on the record because they both work in
the system and fear retribution." (Contrary to the stance
taken by WorkSafe BC, in response to this article, the CIWS believes that WCBs
should have NO jurisdiction over workplace safety OR penalties due to their
potential conflict of interest in being funded solely by employers. It is too
easy to deny claims to save money, then just ignore the hazard that caused the
injury. The CIWS believes that the organization that metes out compensation
should not be the same as the one in charge of workplace safety. WCBs have a
dismal record of workplace injury prevention - just glossy PR and gory videos
with little substantive effect. Occupational Health and Safety departments
should take over ALL responsibility in these areas from WCBs and be given the
full power of investigation, regulation and penalty administration.SEE HOW WCBs HAVE BEEN LOBBYING FOR MORE
POWER)
WSIB Rewarded Workplace Deaths For Years - " . . .the Star
found that the insurance agency (the WSIB) has given at least tens of millions
of dollars in rebates to companies that have been prosecuted by the provincial
government and found guilty of safety violations leading to deaths, amputations
and other gruesome injuries. . . .While the WSIB has known about the practice
for years – labour groups have repeatedly complained about it – it is
now searching for solutions after the Star started investigating. . . . The
Star found the WSIB issued payouts that were often double, sometimes quadruple
the penalties levied after the province took companies to court, allowing
businesses to recoup their financial losses."
SEE 'WORKPLACE VICTIMS'
United Steelworkers Inviting Media to Press Conference -
"Due to the high rates of cancer and disease . . . United Steelworkers Local
2251 is offering a free and confidential Occupational Disease Intake Clinic.
Current and former ASI employees, retirees, family members and widows/widowers
are urged to attend. . . . United Steelworkers Local 2251 is inviting the media
to a press conference to discuss this important issue and provide information
to the public."
Injured Workers Call On Business Organizations, like
CFIB: -
"Injured workers in Nova Scotia and across Canada appeal to the membership of
the Canadian Chamber of Commerce and The Canadian Federation of Independent
Small Business to return to injured workers their rights, that they have had
taken away by "your" insurance provider, the Workers Compensation Boards in
Canada. . . . This legislation places injured workers at a major disadvantage
and has resulted in far too many suicides because of the frustration these WCB
Boards impose upon us. The WCB system is a denial program, forcing many injured
workers into poverty. In the weeks ahead, I will explore the cause behind
suicide within the injured worker familiy and in time, the families affected
will speakout. The pain and hurt must stop and stop now."
FULL REPORT AND LARGER VIDEO
Disabled Worker's Victory Came Too Little Too Late - "If
the painful hearing and sound disability didn't drive him off the deep end,
years of WorkSafe's stubborn, willfully blind, callous insistence that he
didn't have a permanent disability and wasn't entitled to wage loss and rehab
sure did. . . . The arbiter, like many others, had completely ignored the
medical reports that made it clear Finlayson was in no shape to return to his
old job and likely never would be. But WorkSafe's officers weren't about to let
the facts get in the way -- even when provided by some of the country's top
neurootologists. . . . It wasn't until Finlayson's file ended up on a review
division officer's desk that his fate began to change. . . . Robert Bal's
14-page decision last month cited major flaws in the previous work of the board
disability claims adjudicator, case manager, disability awards officer and
vocational rehab consultants."
Committee to study compensation for soldiers - "Casson,
speaking from Ottawa, was responding to published comments by NDP MP Peter
Stoffer, who criticized the military amputee and injury compensation as
inadequate. . . Casson said the committee is about one-quarter into its study,
after which recommendations will be made to government."
MARCH 2008:
(AU) Workers says new WorkCover Bill is disgusting - "More than
1000 construction workers are expected to protest, demanding the State
Government abandon its plans to change the WorkCover system. The rally is part
of a targeted campaign against the State Government's WorkCover Bill, which
unions say is unfair to injured workers. The proposed amendments, which reduce
employers' responsibilities for injured workers, have infuriated the
unions."
Free
Cancer Clinic for Algoma Steel (ASI) Employees - ". . . Sault Ste. Marie
has four times the provincial cancer rate . . . United Steelworkers Local 2251
is offering a free and confidential Occupational Disease Intake Clinic. Current
and former ASI employees, retirees, family members and widows/widowers are
urged to attend."
SICKO! (USA) Insurer Fraud Is Not a
Victimless Crime - "Insurers have found and/or developed ways to circumvent
the law and have intentionally bastardized, convoluted and corrupted the very
system designed to provide desperately needed benefits and medical care to the
injured workers of California and across the United States."
(The CIWS has pointed out how Canadian WCBs are
increasingly
using an insurance-industry business model to delay
and deny legitimate claims.)
WSIB Reduces
Access for the Disabled - "Murdoch mad over WSIB policy . . . A new
Workplace Safety and Insurance Board policy reduces accessibility to medical
equipment and supplies."
Toronto Transit
Financial Penalties on Injured Workers - "ATU Local 113 President Bob
Kinnear said . . . we have to finally resolve the injustice of our members
being financially penalized when they lose time because they have been
criminally attacked or otherwise injured in the course of their duties.
"
PEI Disability
Advocate Quits Provincial Committee - "When they take away your ability to
act, and then take away your right to speak, you have nothing," said Stephen
Pate after leaving his post on the Disability Services Review Committee, which
is supposed to reform the province's disability support program. "
New WSIB
Construction Return-to-Work Regulation - "Ontario’s new Construction
Return to Work (RTW) Regulation will come into effect on Sept. 1. The
regulation will require that all contractors, regardless of size, be
responsible for providing suitable re-employment to their injured workers. The
period of re-employment will be up to two years after the date of the injury
and for a one year duration after the worker is medically able to perform the
essential duties of the pre-injury employment." (The CIWS
is concerned about inappropriate and forced return to work of an injured
employee. Workers Compensation Boards have focused on fast return to work
rather than on an appropriate medical recovery model and we have received
reports of re-injury due to inappropriate forced returns to work. This saves
corporations and WCBs money, but downloads the social and medical costs onto
taxpayers and the familiy of the injured worker.)
No Confidence in
Alberta Appeals Advisor - ". . . these people work directly for WCB and are
either afraid to make waves or they have been instructed to only go so far to
make it look like they are helping when in fact they are not . . . over 70% of
workers surveyed had no trust or confidence in the Office of the Appeals
Advisor. "
(UK) Landmark ruling -
Employer liable for injured worker’s suicide - "Companies will have to
take action to look after the mental health of workers who suffer a physical
accident at work, following a landmark ruling on employers’ liability in
suicide cases."
First Report of the Subcommittee on Population Health of the
Standing Senate Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology - "A
major difficulty affecting the implementation of population health policy is
that responsibility for health is divided among governments, in our case
between the federal government, the provincial and territorial governments, and
municipal governments, as well as a myriad of private stakeholders, all of whom
carry different levels of responsibility for some of the many and varied
determinants of health. This requires the establishment of effective
interdepartmental, intergovernmental and intersectoral mechanisms that to date
have eluded discovery in Canada. Political and societal commitment to tackling
health disparities is essential. The broad public must
perceive health disparities as a serious, even desperate problem and finding
solutions to it must become imperative to politicians."(also
see Darrell Powell's series on the WCB as a negative social determinant of
health)
(USA) Workers' comp surplus to be studied by legislative panel -
"An attempt by legislators to increase premium rebates to employers recently
failed when worker advocates persuaded some lawmakers to look into whether
injured workers were getting sufficient compensation. . . Employer and employee
advocates are both seeking more analysis into the program and details of the
surplus."
(USA) Court favors
worker with aggravated pre-existing condition - "The Arkansas Court of
Appeals ruled 3-0 Wednesday that the Arkansas Workers’ Compensation
Commission unfairly denied disability benefits to a Home Depot worker who
aggravated a pre-existing back condition at work."
CUPE Calls
for Reinstatement of Occupational Health and Safety Commission - and calls
for changes at WHSCC to help workers, "after years of an imbalance towards
employers . . .Claims are down not because of safer workplaces, but because
people are not reporting injuries and are being denied benefits," said Rick
MacMillan, Secretary-Treasurer of CUPE New Brunswick."
REVOKE
REBATES OFL CALLS ON WSIB - "The announcement today that the Workplace
Safety & Insurance Board (WSIB) has called for a review of the flawed
'Experience Rating Programs' is good news, but it doesn't change the fact that
tens of millions of dollars have been drained out of the WSIB's accident fund
each year by employers who have learned how to play the game of 'experience
rating'," said Wayne Samuelson, president of the Ontario Federation of Labour.
. . ."Experience rating reduces claims - not injuries," Samuelson said." (more
info at -
WCBs Report False Workplace Injury Statistics)
Risky
workplaces face cash penalty - "Ontario's workplace safety agency has
launched a review of the controversial payouts it makes to companies where
workers have died on the job. . . . For years, many unsafe companies that
caused deaths or injuries have received substantial payouts that were supposed
to reward businesses with golden safety records. . . . WSIB payouts are often
double or quadruple the fines levied against the companies by the Ministry of
Labour, allowing dangerous businesses to recoup their financial losses by the
very system that was created in 1915 to protect the rights of injured
workers."
WSIB Announces Review of Experience Rating Program - After
calls from labour, economics think tanks and disabled worker groups, Steven
Mahoney, CEO of the Ontario WSIB announced that it is conducting a review of
its Experience Rating program. However, Mahoney does not seem to be going as
far as these groups want - a total elimination of the system. Mahoney
states that "The Experience Rating program should raise
the bar by rewarding excellent results in health and safety, prevention and
return to work," yet critics state that "most researchers have been
cautious about crediting experience-rating for lowering overall actual injury
rates, because experience-rating provides incentives for injury under-reporting
. . . and undesirable employer activities, such as the contracting out of
hazardous activities and excessive claims management . . . " (more info at
- WCBs Report False Workplace Injury Statistics)
HMCS Chicoutimi Submariners' Compensation Claims Rejected -
"Three and a half years after a fatal submarine fire, surviving crew of HMCS
Chicoutimi are falling ill with debilitating conditions – severe enough to
force some of them out of the navy. . . .Many of the men and their families
have battled bureaucrats over pension entitlements and had documented
compensation claims rejected."
Systematic Genocide of Injured and Disabled Workers -
Alberta - "Mr. Ed Stelmach . . . I have produced the hard evidence to support
my accusations of systematic genocide of injured and disabled workers by
denying legitimate claims, reducing or eliminating benefits, which you cannot
deny."
Concerns voiced
about WCB system - "The WCB's denial of medical treatment and care has
become one of the main negative social determinants of mental health in Canada
. . . The mental/psychological damage caused by the WCB process itself, which
has been cited as being adversarial from the beginning of a claim, is the main
cause for the secondary wounding to the compensable injury, which has a far
deeper, longer lasting effects than the original injury. . . In 2008, the
Senate Subcommittee on Mental Health will be . . . showing evidence of the
horrific practice and the further psychological/mental damage the WCB
perpetrates on the injured workers of Canada."
Long Time WCB Critic
Proposes Solution - "Everyone but the claimant derives some monetary
benefit from the never ending culture of denial. . . . One of the proposals of
Meredith was to have workers pay a proportion of their wages into the system
along with the employer. . . There would be no need for an Appeals Commission,
Decision Review Boards, Adjudicators, Case Managers, Medical Services, Legal
Services, Appeals Advisory Boards, Directors of these Boards etc. The
bureaucracy could be reduced by more than 80% with employers premiums being
reduced significantly. "
WSIB is a nightmare - 3/4 of disabled workers in poverty -
"Approximately three quarters of injured workers are chronically unemployed and
living under the poverty line . . . while 42 per cent said their income is from
welfare . . . "WSIB is a nightmare . . . The system is totally, totally broken"
"
JANUARY 2008:
TTC Drivers
Suffer Severe Stress, No Compensation - "When people are injured, I mean
certainly city workers, police officers, there's an expectation that if it's
not their fault, which it isn't, that they should be compensated for it."
WHSCC data security breach alarming - A security lapse
involving Newfoundland and Labrador's workers' compensation agency files is
unacceptable, an advocate says. . . . "There's no way that any worker should
have to fear that their personal information is shared or in the hands with
someone else. There should have been measures so that it would never
happen."
WCB
SHIELD - "If there was ever an Alberta disadvantage crying out for change,
the WCB shield would be it."
Pain progress
comes slowly - "The stigma attached to chronic pain includes the attitude
that people making this complaint are wimps, malingerers or fakers. . . . Even
now, complains Mary Lynch, MD, one of Nova Scotia’s leading pain
specialists, WCB policies on chronic pain lag behind medical science on such
issues as sensory abnormalities, or nerve damage, which can cause pain to
linger long after the injury appears to have healed. “As a clinician in
the trenches treating the survivors of work-related injuries,” she
wrote recently, “it has been a desperately sad process to
witness.” . . . Court decisions in Nova Scotia, in 1993 and last
month, put the force of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms behind the
entitlement to compensation for chronic pain caused by a workplace injury.
These decisions are expensive to employers, more than $200 million in total for
some 7,400 claims opened for review. But the answer to high workers’
compensation insurance rates is better workplace safety, not the denial of
fairness and justice."
DECEMBER 2007:
There's no gain when government nickels-and-dimes long-term
pain - "Subsequent to Martin, the insult continues in a different guise.
Now patients must be found to exhibit no objective findings, or to exhibit pain
that is out of keeping with, or unusual, in light of the injury or findings, in
order to qualify for access to compensation for chronic pain. These statements
smack of patient-blaming and fly in the face of research regarding chronic
post-traumatic pain, much of which is related to a neural response to tissue
injury . . . Many of those left with chronic pain will not be able to recover
loss through the tort system and the costs will come back to our health care
and social assistance systems."
Depraved Indifference: The Workers' Compensation System - A
new book by Patrice Woeppel, Ed.D. to be released in May 2008, "Depraved
Indifference represents over five years of research and interviews. It lays
bare a Workers’ Compensation system that cavalierly exposes workers to
severe injury, toxic exposure and death; while throwing the major cost unto the
family and the taxpayer, without fear of lawsuit, prosecution or even public
outcry. It is a call to action . . . Almost a century after the introduction of
Workers’ Compensation; workers, their families, communities – all pay
the price for the devastating human and environmental consequences of this
failure to hold corporations accountable for their actions."
Rehabilitation Expert
Responds to WSIB's Letter of Defense of their Shocking TV Safety Ads
- WSIB CEO, Steve Mahoney wrote
a letter in
the National Post defending the WSIB's gory and shocking TV safety ads and
Dr.
Lisa Doupe, rehabilitation expert, responds saying "Yes, safety does not
take a holiday. Safety and prevention of occupational injuries and illness are
good. I would like however draw to your attention to another area of the WSIB
process. This concerns workers disabled by occupation and now further disabled by the process of an insurance
system. . . . If Mr. Mahoney and the WSIB were truly interested in the safety
and well being of Ontarians during this holiday season he need go no further
than the expertise in Ontario-The Honorable Monique Begin, Canada’s
Commissioner to the World Health Organization on the Social Determinants of
Health as well as Jerome Bickenbach (Queens University) who has been seconded
to the World Health Organization for the further development of a system that
has already being implemented in Europe –
The
International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health
(ICF)."
100% of Workers' Advocates
have had clients who have committed suicide - from "Comments for the
INDEPENDENT REVIEW PANEL On the WHSCC of New Brunswick Submitted by the Office
of Workers’ Advocates November, 2007" - "All of the advocates have had
clients who have committed suicide while on a claim."
(Show cancelled indefinitely) December 12 2007 - CIWS
President, Beth McQuinn Nixon will appear on "The Verdict" at 9 p.m. ET/PT on CTV Newsnet. The CIWS will
archive the video for future viewing. (From The Verdict website: "The
Verdict with Paula Todd is Canada's first and only daily news series dedicated
to crime, justice and legal affairs. It originally launched at the start of the
Conrad Black trial and has since become the must-see program for Canadians who
follow the drama and excitement that surrounds criminal justice and legal
news."
CUPE and ONIWG
rallies address injured workers' poverty - Injured workers 20 per cent
behind in compensation; Province needs to act before more fall into poverty
- "It's time for the Ontario government to reverse the effects of a law that
has caused injured workers to lose 20 per cent in compensation earnings over
the last decade while providing savings and reward payments to employers, says
the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Ontario. . . . "Like much of what
we see in today's economy, this law has shifted the burden of employment and
social responsibilities from corporations onto the backs of workers in this
province," said CUPE Ontario Secretary-Treasurer Fred Hahn at a rally held in
front of the Minister of Labour's Toronto offices. "If the McGuinty government
is truly committed to poverty reduction, it must act on behalf of those workers
who have sacrificed their health in workplaces to build Ontario and its
economy."
(USA) US Court throws out
WCB decision as age discrimination - "Court tackles age-discrimination
claim in workers' comp . . . "The ACLU, AARP and other groups had challenged
the board's decision, saying it was wrong to side with the insurer, the State
Compensation Insurance Fund, in using an asymptomatic medical condition that
often accompanies aging to reduce benefits for a job-related injury."
Man, Paranoid of WCB, Charged with Murder (NS and Nfld) -
Paranoia led father to stab her boyfriend, woman tells jury - "Penny Lockyer
told a Corner Brook courtroom on Thursday that her father, Neil Lockyer, had
become paranoid after suffering a brain injury in an industrial accident in
1989. She told the jury that her father thought that her boyfriend, Frank
McKay, was a spy for the workers' compensation system, and that officials were
trying to cut off his benefits. Neil Lockyer was charged with second-degree
murder in the February 2006 stabbing death of McKay. ."(Note: The CIWS is not interested in sensationalizing such a
tragic case and we do not condone or encourage violence, but we report
incidents that may involve injured workers in order to expose the level of
frustration and desperation many injured workers reportedly feel about the WCB
system.)
Time
to change WHSCC to help workers, says CUPE - CUPE New Brunswick has told
the WHSCC Independent Review Panel that it's time to change the WHSCC and
workers compensation system to help the workers, after years of an imbalance
towards employers. Benefits, claims and prevention are the areas that need the
most attention.
(USA) US Congress Bill
demands parity between mental and physical health benefits - "Mental Health
Parity: Not in Workers Comp" - "There is
a bill pending in the US Congress to require parity between
mental and physical health benefits. . . . the pending bill prepared by the
National Alliance for the Mentally Ill . . . provides full parity for all
categories of mental disorders . . . Parity is an important concept, but one
that simply does not exist in the workers comp system. Comp carriers habitually
reject any claims for benefits based upon work-related mental disability (post
traumatic stress syndrome, stress in general, depression, etc.)."
NDP MLA Chuck Puchmayr
calls for public inquiry into WorkSafeBC - WorkSafeBC under fire from MLA,
others - - "Puchmayr said that, on average, he gets one case a day where
someone's claim has been denied or where someone has found out that they are
not getting the compensation they think they deserve."
NB WHSCC
Independent Review Panel seeks public input - "The Independent Review Panel
for New Brunswick's Workplace Health, Safety and Compensation Commission
(WHSCC) system is launching its public consultations. The panel invites the
public to share their opinions, views and suggestions on how to improve or
strengthen the province's current system."
(USA) LAW - WCB case one of Top 100 Opinions for 2007 - ". . .
unsuitable job was inadequate reparation for her injuries . . . ruling is
expected to set an important precedent for vocational rehabilitation and
compensation cases"
OCTOBER
2007:
Health concerns extend beyond shipyard workers, council
told - "A community group exploring the effects of exposure to toxins and
chemicals on employees at the Marystown shipyard believes workers aren't the
only ones who should be concerned. . . . Earlier this year, the Marystown
Shipyard Families Alliance brought 39 claims for occupational disease before
the Workplace Health Safety and Compensation Commission (WHSCC) for review.
Since holding an intake clinic in June, Bennett said, the group is working on
at least 50 more cases. . . . few are aware the provincial government, which
had owned the facility, hired environmental consulting firm Jacques Whitford to
carry out a four-year assessment and cleanup of the shipyard area, as agreed
when the province sold the operation . . . we think that people in that area
are still at risk, have been and are showing the effects of it."
The CIWS has pointed out how provincial governments are
in a conflict of interest when WCBs refuse compensation to provincial
government employees for occupational diseases. For more information see:
DISCRIMINATION - Denying Compensation For Occupational
Diseases
Nfld
Supreme Court upholds compensation for cancer-stricken miner - "The Iron
Ore Company of Canada had argued that the cancer . . . was not related to his
work . . . Earlier this month, the United Steelworkers called on the
Newfoundland and Labrador government to intervene in what the union calls
attempts by IOC to tie up cancer-related workers' compensation cases in red
tape."
Another WCB Evacuation - "A number of downtown streets were
closed early Friday afternoon as police looked into an incident at the Workers
Compensation Board head office at 333 Broadway."(Note:
The CIWS does not condone or encourage violence but we report incidents that
may involve injured workers in order to expose the level of frustration and
desperation many injured workers reportedly feel about the WCB
system.)
(USA) 1.3 billion days
of work lost annually to mental disorders- "Mental disorders account for
about one-third of all sick days, roughly equal to those caused by back pain,
according to the most comprehensive report yet on the effect of illness on
disability. "It is ironic we spend the least on musculoskeletal disorders and
depression when they have the most impact on people's lives and disability,"
(*** NOTE*** The CIWS has pointed out how provincial
governments are in a conflict
of interest when they allow the WCB to deny chronic stress claims due to
workload in hospitals and schools. This allows them to understaff their
hospitals and schools without having to face workplace safety inspections. (See
Workplace Safety Inspections - 'Out of
Synch'). The fact that WCB denies stress claims is not only
discriminatory, but it also harms Canadian society by contributing to chronic
understaffing. Understaffing has been implicated in the increasing injury rates of workers and in the
deaths of patients due to medical errors.
Chronic understaffing also contributes significantly to
increased wait times in Canadian
hospitals.)
New
Brunswick Review Panel seeks public input - Oct. 17, 2007 - The
"Independent" Review Panel for New Brunswick's Workplace Health, Safety and
Compensation Commission (WHSCC) system is launching its public consultations.
The panel invites the public to share their opinions, views and suggestions on
how to improve or strengthen the province's current system. The schedule for
the public consultation meetings are as follows:
Monday, Nov. 5 - Château Edmundston, 100 Rice
Street, Edmundston
Thursday, Nov. 22 - Future Inns, 40 Lady Ada Boulevard,
Moncton
Winnipeg WCB Bomb Scare. "Why do you think I did
this?" - "Disgruntled worker who sparked Winnipeg bomb scare avoids
criminal record . . . The compensation board rejected his claim, forcing Wood
into an even deeper funk . . . Wood spent three nights sleeping in his truck,
then hit the highway to Winnipeg in a desperate bid to have his voice heard.
"Why do you think I did this? CN and the Workers Compensation Board have
been screwing us CN workers for years. Make us work injured. I'm just trying to
get some attention. I want something done about this."
(Note: The CIWS does not condone or encourage violence
but we report incidents that may involve injured workers in order to expose the
level of frustration and desperation many injured workers reportedly feel about
the WCB system.)
(USA) Few lawyers
willing to represent injured workers - ". . . lawyers say it's difficult
for injured workers to get anyone to represent them. . . . In 1991, the state
rule was changed from no attorney fee limits to a cap of $12,250 per case. . .
. most attorneys were rejecting injured worker cases due to the financial
limits, lawyers said. There are only a handful of attorneys who actually take
injured worker cases, they said. . . . Hayashi said she is concerned about the
"fairness issue" with fee caps applied only to attorneys representing injured
workers. "
The Canadian Injured Workers Society would like to recognize
Andrea Horwath, NDP MPP for Hamilton East in her recent re-election in the
October 10 2007 Ontario provincial election. Andrea Horwath introduced
Bill
162 - new non-reduced indexing factor - retroactive to 1994 (Workplace Safety
and Insurance Amendment Act (Indexing), 2006). The Bill amends the Act to
remove the reduced indexing factor. The Bill also provides retroactiviity to
1994. If any payment made to a person on or after that date was less than the
amount that would have been paid using the unreduced indexing factor, the Board
must pay the difference to the person. (The CIWS is a
non-partisan organization. We do not advocate any particular party or political
ideology. However, we do recognize any Canadian politician who has taken
concrete action to improve the workers compensation system for disabled
workers.)
The Canadian Injured Workers Society would like to
recognize Jennifer F. Mossop, LIB MPP for Stoney Creek. Although she did not
seek re-election in the October 10 2007 Ontario provincial election, she
introduced
Bill
177 - Workplace Safety and Insurance Amendment Act 2006. The Bill would
amend the Act so that the WSIB will consider employment or business positions
which are both suitable and available to the worker when determining the
worker's post injury earnings. The Act only requires the Board to consider
suitable positions and not whether they are also available to the
worker. (The CIWS is a non-partisan organization. We do
not advocate any particular party or political ideology. However, we do
recognize any Canadian politician who has taken
concrete action to improve the workers compensation system for disabled
workers.)
Nova Scotia WCB Refuses to Acknowledge Symptoms - Gives Only
$300/month to Unemployable Man - "For the past 20 years, Kelly's been
unable to work. The heavy medication causes his hands to often shake
uncontrollably. He even had to have a section of his rib grafted to replace his
dissolved jaw. All this came from falling off a ladder at work - the injury
that caused him to get the jaw replacement to begin with. But he gets only five
per cent disability from workers compensation - about $300 a month - because
the compensation board has refused to acknowledge his bizarre
symptoms."
BC
- Strike targets death toll - "There have been too many deaths, but there
have also been even more maimings . . . WCB rules have been relaxed in the last
half-dozen years, and there are fewer inspectors. . . . Once you’re hurt,
it’s hard to collect any compensation without a union behind you. . . .
WCB offers little or no retraining nowadays."
(USA) Lawmakers Ponder
Power Shift in Workers' Compensation - "Legislators have learned that they
have no one to blame but themselves for the loss of power over the rules that
govern workers' compensation claims and benefits."
20,000 People could be Impacted by Court Decision -
"Schroeder estimates about 20,000 people could be affected by the court's
decision and the funds to be paid out for interest could range from $15 to $20
million."
B.C. Court Right to Make WCB Pay Interest - "The case, in a
nutshell, revolves around WCB denying claimants interest on their awards. In
other words, WCB thought it could basically keep people's money as settlements
dragged on and then - and only then - pay interest if WCB was found to have
made a "blatant" error. And that rule, surprise, surprise, was something the
WCB came up with on its own in 2001. The B.C. Supreme Court correctly said that
was unfair. As Drew Schroeder - the lawyer who fought this battle and won -
pointed out, the stress of fighting compensation claims takes a tremendous toll
on people's lives. To add another level of economic hardship is simply
unacceptable."
OFL Report Exposes Employers Getting Rebates After Job
Accidents - Ontario Federation of Labour releases report, the Perils of
Experience Rating: Exposed! "The Report shows that . . . This practice
encourages employers to mis-report and under-report accidents, to force injured
workers back to work before they are medically ready, and to pay workers sick
pay rather than have them receive compensation benefits. Anything goes to keep
the employers claims history in good standing. "Tens of millions of dollars are
drained out of the WSIB's accident fund each year by employers who have learned
how to play the game of experience rating," said Samuelson. "In fact, according
to the WSIB's own figures, rebates have exceeded penalties by more than half a
billion dollars in the last four years alone."
“Shame, shame” - Liberal Steve Peters Broke Promise
to Injured Workers - Labour draws eyes to injured workers - Holding
placards and chanting, “Shame, shame,” a group of about 50 people
journeyed from Toronto, Windsor and elsewhere in Ontario to the
Elgin-Middlesex-London campaign office of Liberal candidate Steve
Peters.
INJURED WORKERS BETRAYED BY ANOTHER LIBERAL BROKEN PROMISE
- Deeming is the process where permanently disabled workers can see their
compensation benefits reduced because the WSIB deducts wages they imagine the
injured worker could be earning. The Board makes no attempt to determine if the
worker actually has a job or actually earns income. They simply gaze into their
crystal ball and tell the injured worker "you could be earning this amount" and
wave a magic wand and make the worker's benefits disappear. . . . "Deeming
will not be eliminated by these new policies, only be given a new name,"
Crevar said.
Which Party Speaks for Injured Workers? - "Who speaks for
injured workers? Who will respond to their economic plight and help restore
dignity to their lives?" asks Karl Crevar Treasurer of the Ontario Network of
Injured Workers' Groups (ONIWG).
Leaders' Debate Derailed By Injured Workers Calling For
Judicial Inquiry (NFLD) - 50 - 100 Injured Workers Converged on Political
Leaders Outside the NTV Studio Just Before the Newfoundland Leaders' Debate.
Rally organized by the Newfoundland and Labrador Injured Workers Association
makes impact at leaders' debate.
Workers
Compensation Unions "sound the alarm" - All Injured Workers Need Fair
Treatment - "We know the system and its failures best. We know how to
fix the problems and think it's time to sound the alarm. Today we are launching
a national campaign calling for the reform of the workers' compensation systems
in all jurisdictions across Canada." - What alarm, Mr. Mahoney? Could it be
your own employees know of, and want to put a stop to, the unfair practices and
tactics used by the WSIB? "
(USA) National Study of the Workers Compensation System -
Presidential Candidate John Edwards promises to "stand up for injured
workers by undertaking a comprehensive national study of the workers
compensation system and will use the bully pulpit of the White House to urge
states to create a fair and rational system that provides clear timelines and
options for injured workers."
SICKO!
(USA) Injured Workers "Committing Suicide" - Don't Forget
the Injured Worker on Labor Day in California - "Reality is that Workers
Compensation is not about truth and justice, nor is it about fairness and
equity. It's simply about money and power . . . It’s about medical-legal
doctors who prostitute themselves and use more of their creative writing skills
than their medical skills for those big money payoffs from the insurance
carriers . . . It's getting so bad that injured workers suffering in
excruciating pain and getting a blind ear from the insurance companies and
their defense counsel are simply committing suicide and that is a list that
keeps growing and growing as time goes on with no relief in sight."
The CIWS has pointed out how Canadian WCBs are
increasingly
using an insurance-industry business model to delay
and deny legitimate claims.
NWT WCB Discriminates Against
Psychologically Injured Workers - The Minister for the Northwest
Territories WCB, David Krutko, Independent for Mackenzie Delta, requests and
receives amendment to exclude mental stress as a result of labour relations
matters from the list of compensable injuries. "At the Minister’s
request, a further amendment was made to exclude mental stress as a result of
labour relations matters from the list of compensable injuries . . ."
Reported in the
Report
on the Review of Workers’ Compensation Act, August 2007
- For more information see:
DISCRIMINATION - Denying Compensation For Occupational
Diseases
SICKO! (USA)
Report on Insurance Greed - American Association For Justice
"Pattern of
Greed: How insurance companies put profits over policyholders"
reveals how insurers collected billions in premiums from policyholders and then
stiffed them in their time of greatest need. It highlights the aftermath of
Hurricane Katrina and the secondary devastation caused by the insurance
companies. The AAJ called on insurance regulators to immediately initiate
investigations into companies that continue to unfairly delay and deny
thousands of unresolved claims. The CIWS has pointed out
how Canadian WCBs are increasingly
using an insurance-industry business model to delay
and deny legitimate claims.
(USA)
Supreme Court clarifies workers' comp claims re:
subcontractors- " The law -- intended to discourage companies from
subcontracting regular work to avoid the cost of workers' comp insurance --
provides that a company is responsible for subcontracted employees when it
farms out "regular or recurrent" work to another business. It exempts companies
from lawsuits filed by employees covered by their workers' comp insurance. "
(USA) State of Ohio Sues Workers Comp Insurance Companies- "
The state of Ohio has filed an anti-trust lawsuit accusing Marsh & McLennan
Cos, American International Group Inc. and three other insurers and their
subsidiaries of price fixing and other anti-competitive behavior, Attorney
General Marc Dann said Monday.. . . Following a three-year investigation by Mr.
Dann, the lawsuit accuses Marsh & McLennan of orchestrating a secret
conspiracy to artificially inflate prices while feigning competition."
"Slave Worker" Under Canada’s Live-in Caregivers Program
Not Covered By CSST - Domestic workers are not covered By CSST (Quebec
workers compensation) - ". . . Several other domestic workers . . . filed
cases with the Quebec labour board against their employers for unpaid wages,
long hours of work, verbal and physical abuse, sexual harassments and a whole
slew of other disturbing work conditions that they face outside of the public
eye as they work isolated in their employer’s homes. To make matters
worse, Canada, as part of extending its temporary workers program is making
deals with the Philippines to contract hundreds of Filipino migrant labourers
to work in the oil sands of Alberta."
Precedent
Setting Ruling on 'Independent Contractors' - A Workers' Compensation
Appeal Tribunal ruling has thrown into question the notion that B.C. truckers
are independent "owner-operators" responsible for their own WorkSafeBC coverage
because they own their rigs.
PTSD Can Be Induced By Adversarial Workers Compensation
System - "To put it simply, Legal Abuse Syndrome is the result of an
abuse of power differential. The legal system represents the power to take a
life, incarcerate a person, remove a person’s children, family or property
. . . conditions that cause Legal Abuse Syndrome come from often inadvertent
but officially sanctioned bullying."
(USA) Employer WCB Fraud Pegged at $100
BILLION in California Alone- Bill Zachary who chairs the California Fraud
Assessment Commission says, " The focus at the commission and among law
enforcement is shifting from employee fraud to . . . employers misreporting
payroll . . ." The CIWS has pointed out that WCBs and
the insurance industry have overplayed the level of fraud by injured employees,
falsely profiling injured workers as liars, cheaters and frauds. Yet
only 0.01% of employee claims are fraudulent.
Employer fraud is much more of a cost factor at up to 23% of private industry
payroll according to this report.
SICKO!
(USA) Even Superman Had To Fight the Insurance
Companies- ". . . the late Christopher Reeve . . . had to push hard for
the necessary (and expensive) exercise equipment that would help prevent his
muscles from succumbing to atrophy."
Alberta Minister Iris Evans 'Betrays Worker" - Gets WCB to
Draft Letter Refusing Help - "He expected Employment Minister Iris Evans
would help him in his battle with the Workers' Compensation Board . . . Evans
instead got the WCB to draft her letter refusing to help him - and she’s
not the first Conservative government minister to have pulled the move, despite
the WCB being an arm’s length public body." - "Evans 'betrays' worker"
by Jeremy Loome.
JULY
2007:
(USA) Injured Worker Faces Trumped Up
Workers Fraud Case- ". . . it is quite clear that the public defender .
. . and his law firm are an integral part of the high dollar stakes system of
railroading innocent injured workers as trade for financial rewards from the
state's insurance commission."
CIWS
Estimate of Claimant Fraud (0.01%) Confirmed by New York Statistics- "
For years, the “fraudulent workers’ compensation claim” has been
the battle cry of the insurance industry. Now, the facts are out, and they show
that while worker fraud is minimal, insurer fraud is massive in scope. The NYS
Insurance Department reports that a typical workers’ compensation insurer
found 320 cases of worker fraud in 31,000 claims – a rate of one-tenth of
one percent." The
CIWS has
estimated an extremely low claimanrt fraud rate as well, at 0.01% - one
tenth of one percent.
NEW!
ALBERTA PETITION
Alberta Injured workers are calling for the WCB Board of Directors to hold
public hearings throughout Alberta. Please help gather signatures for the
Alberta Petition by printing it and distributing it freely.
SICKO! Many victims of
asbestos-caused cancers left uncompensated, study says- ". . . Jim Brophy,
one of Canada's top occupational health experts, said Ontario taxpayers have
been covering huge medical bills for people with mesothelioma and thousands of
other asbestos-caused cancers - costs that should have been covered by fees the
WSIB charges employers to cover workplace diseases."
System Creates
Incentives for Employers to Hide Injuries - “ . . . there are
strategies employed in the workplace to keep people from making Workplace
Safety and Insurance Board claims . . . What I’m seeing is that there is a
greater and greater disparity between what’s really happening in the
workplace and what’s being reported in (the Workplace Safety and Insurance
Board) . . . That is a system creating incentives for employers to hide
injuries.”
Forum '07 'Emerging
Health & Safety Issues in Changing Workplaces: A Canadian Discussion' -
Sept 17-18, 2007, Vancouver, BC- hosted by the Canadian Centre for
Occupational Health and Safety (CCOHS). Expert presenters, Canadian and
international researchers, policy-makers, compensation specialists and other
experts will share their knowledge of issues impacting today's workplaces,
including precarious employement, emerging technologies and processes, work
organization and stress and gaps in protection, accountability and
responsibility.
WCBs Are Undermining the Public Health Care System - ".
. . as public insurance institutions, workers' compensation boards should be
brought into compliance with the principles of the Canada Health Act. One
public service should not be a vehicle driven by employers to undermine
another. . . . In British Columbia, for example, WorkSafe BC has, in its own
words, "aggressive" targets to reduce the average short-term claim duration. To
the extent that workers are pressured into returning to work too quickly, the
costs of workers' compensation will be eventually transferred to the public
health system . . . For its part, it is the responsibility of the federal
government to work to ensure that in no way is the Canada Health Act
undermined, thwarted or contravened. The exclusion from the CHA of insured
services delivered under workers' compensation should be dropped." From:
Health
Care Privatization and the Workers' Compensation System in Canada -
prepared for presentation at The Canadian Political Science Association
meetings Saskatoon, June 1, 2007 by CLC senior researcher, Teresa
Healy
SICKO! Saskatchewan WCB -
Committee of Review Report 2006 released- "The candour, frustration,
anger and tears of the persons who spoke to us, demonstrated again the profound
impact the legislation and decisions by the members and employees of the
Workers’ Compensation Board have on individuals, families and businesses .
. . With the exclusive authority and immunity given to the Board . . . It is
expected the Board and each employee of the Board will exercise the
Board’s enormous power over individuals in a fair and reasonable manner .
. .for the communal and public good, not for private, selfish or profit
interests." (Part 1) (Part 2)
A Giraffe has been sighted in
Vancouver BC - David Kuntz MD - Kuntz’s advocacy on behalf of injured
people denied medical treatment has brought this much honored physician not new
honors but the loss of his medical license, his home and his savings . . . .
former patients . . . allege that there has been an orchestrated campaign to
silence their doctor . . . "I felt I had a duty to keep trying to help these
workers prematurely abandoned by the WCB while legitimate problems remained
untreated. They had nowhere else to turn,"
Workers’ Compensation Conference Entitled ‘Long Term
Injuries – Long Term Issues,’ - will be held at the CAW Family
Education Centre in Port Elgin, September 21-23. The conference will address
the workings of the Ontario Board and Ontario legislation, with the objectives
of increasing the capacity to deal with long term injuries and related issues.,
creating alliances and continuing to build the Take it Back campaign. The Take
it Back campaign is the CAW’s mission to make the compensation system more
fair and establish dignity for injured workers, who under the current system,
have been given reduced benefits and are forced back to work whether they are
ready or not. Along with the Take it Back campaign, this year’s
Workers’ Compensation Conference will focus on return to work, labour
market re-entry and compensation policy, with the choice of beginner or
advanced workshops. Registration deadline for accommodation and child care is
August 31. For more information, contact: Sari Sairanen, Health & Safety
Director 1-800-268-5763 ext. 789
WHSCC Review
Open For Public Submissions - Independent Review Panel of the Workplace
Health, Safety and Compensation System" (WHSCC) New Brunswick is open for
public submissions
SICKO! Worksafe denied the claim so
Taxpayers paid the bill for 20 years - Ever since her accident, the single
mom has survived on social assistance and lived perilously close to the poverty
line. "People’s taxes have been paying for me to live while the
employer funded insurance policy denies my claim."
SICKO! Shipyard
families waiting for answers - Pushing for clinic to determine industrial
impact on community - "What we feel we deserve from (WHSCC) would obviously
be compensation for all these families, men and the widows that have been left
behind,"
The
60
Summits Project (sponsored by Prudential Financial Inc.) is promoting
adoption of the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine's
(ACOEM) guideline
"Preventing Needless Work Disability by Helping People Stay
Employed" throughout Canada and the US. This
guideline advocates paying SOME doctors - but not all doctors,
saying"Make billing for these services a privilege, not a right,
for providers and make that privilege contingent on completion of training and
an ongoing pattern of evidence-based care and good-faith effort to achieve
optimal functional outcomes." (The CIWS believes that
the insurance industry and workers compensation boards should not be involved
in interfering with the medical profession. Privileged payment schemes to SOME
doctors would constitute interference.) (Prudential Financial, Inc. has
teamed up with the 60 Summits Project to promote adoption of the above ACOEM
guideline.)
'Safety Lottery Encourages Accident Cover-ups' - Workers'
Health and Safety Not a Lottery - " . . . the new management approach to
resolving health and safety problems by draw . . . . a manoeuvre that . . . has
had the perverse effect of encouraging people not to declare minor
accidents"
Darrell Powell to cover The 19th
IUHPE World Conference on Health Promotion and Health Education - Darrell
Powell is also coordinator of a
submission to the Senate
Sub-Committee on Population Health regarding the need to review WCBs in
Canada as a negative social determinant in health. He will also be covering the
IUHPE (International Union for Health Promotion and Education) 2007 Conference
in Vancouver June 10th - 15th. His findings will be included in the
CFRO COOP Radio 102.7 series on workers compensation the
week following the conference. (CDs will be available.) Discussions and
thematic of conference will be integrated and explored in relation to
occupational injury/disability, recovery and societal participation/equitable
status.
Fair and Reliable Medical Justice Act
- US- "The alternatives could include the creation of special health courts
that would expedite medical injury cases, provide prompt and reasonable
compensation to injured patients, and facilitate enhancements in patient
safety."
(USA) Ex-workers' comp
official gets 5 years - . . . Attorney General Marc Dann, a Democrat, said
that questions remain about how politics influenced the bureau's investment
practices. "While Mr. Gasper acknowledged in court what many of us have known
all along, that the BWC became a veritable ATM machine
that was used by Republican political appointees to reward campaign
contributors, we still don't know who was pulling the strings," he said.
(USA) Ex-Ohio Workers’
Comp Exec Sentenced - The former chief financial officer of the Ohio
workers’ compensation agency was sentenced Wednesday to more than five
years in federal prison for accepting bribes in an investment scandal widely
blamed for state Republican losses in last year’s election.
SICKO! BC
- BILL 33 Strips Away Injured Workers' Access to Human Rights Bill 33, in
its first reading in BC, takes away the Human Rights of injured workers to have
their rights interpreted by the WCB. It is an amendment to the Administrative
Tribunals Act which circumvents the responsibility of aministrative tribunals
(such as WorkSafe BC) to apply the Charter and Constitution. It strips injured
workers of their access to fundamental justice and basic human rights.
Tears greet
compensation law - `It's been a hard battle for many firefighters and their
families' - Tears of pain have rolled down Nathan Shaw's face over the loss of
his father, a Hamilton firefighter, to cancer. There have also been tears of
frustration fighting the workers' compensation board and trying to prove his
father's cancer was caused by a toxic blaze at a plastics plant.""
(***NOTE*** The CIWS is has been pointing out that the
firefighters should never have had to fight for this redundant legislation
because the intent of the original WCB Act legislation in all provinces was
that ALL workers should have immediate presumptive status regardless of their
industry and that the burden of proving that the injury was NOT work related is
the sole responsibility of the board. See VIOLATING
THE ENABLING LEGISLATION - Violating Presumptive
Status)
(USA)
SICKO! The Workers' Compensation
System Should Be Abolished - Worker who had a leg amputated receives only
$3360 in compensation for his permanent injuries. (***NOTE*** The CIWS is concerned that the Canadian workers
compensation system is following an insurance industry cost-reduction model by
denying compensation, delaying compensation, under-compensating and prematurely
cutting off compensation to injured workers. This article shows how far the US
insurance industry model has gone to deny injured workers fair compensation.
Canada is following closely behind. See WCB
Has An 'Identity Crisis')
YUKON - Minister receives major WCB report Julia
Skikavich reports from the Whitehorse Star that the Worker’s Compensation
Act review panel has released its report and recommendations. The 238-page
document was sent out at 1 p.m. Wednesday to Brad Cathers, the minister
responsible for the Yukon Workers Compensation Health and Safety Board, and all
stakeholders who took part in the panel’s hearings.http://www.whitehorsestar.com/auth.php?r=46861
Domestic Workers at Risk MONTREAL, April 21 /CNW Telbec/ - The
CSST for Domestic Workers Campaign invites you to a public forum on domestic
workers' rights on Sunday April 22 from 2-4 pm at 2149 Mackay. Speakers include
representatives from trade unions and community organisations. Domestics are
among the only salaried workers required to pay their own CSST premiums if they
want to be covered in case of workplace accident. They deserve the same access
to compensation as any other worker. For further information: IWC, (514)
342-2111, [email protected]
TRADEtalk (BC/Yukon construction trades magazine) Spring 2007
says: An article in the last edition of TRADEtalk about the problems of
settling claims with WorkSafeBC prompted calls from several desperate readers.
Each person had a horror story to relate. Many people have been refused
benefits or had their compensation greatly reduced. . . . "Under the current
provincial administration,WorkSafeBC has undergone tremendous
restructuring.Among the changes, occupational health and safety regulations
have been cut.” Jim Sinclair, president of the B.C. Federation of Labour
said. . . . Sadly, despite our warnings, this is a clear indictment of the B.C.
Liberals’ agenda of cuts and deregulation. Workplace inspections by WCB
have fallen by 44% since 2001, and the resulting value of penalties has dropped
by 57%.” Sinclair added that regulation changes for WorkSafeBC have added
further hardship for victims of workplace injuries. It’s more difficult to
have claims accepted. However, if they are approved, the benefits are smaller.
. . ."
Saskatchewan WCB Blasted by Privacy Commissioner"The
Commissioner found that the WCB disclosed to the Complainant’s employer
more personal information and personal health information than was necessary .
. .that the WCB failed to adequately safeguard the Complainant’s
information . . . there was a more or less continuous flow to the Employer of
copies of most communications between the Case Manager and this Complainant . .
. safeguards were effectively short-circuited by the apparent practice of
routine sharing of copies of correspondence intended for the claimant with the
claimant’s Employer . . . the WCB in certain key areas had not met the
requirements of HIPA, of FOIP or of the Overarching Personal Information
Privacy Framework for Executive Government."
MARCH 2007:
WCBs Using Illegal
Disability Ratings - confirmed by JAMA and Forensic Toxicologist, Dr.
Brautbar (involved in the Hinckley poisoning case seen in the movie "Erin
Brokovich")
Examining the
examiners (re: Independent Medical Examiners) ". . . there is a dark
underbelly in the business . . . many patients are being profoundly
mistreated."
NOTICE TO BC WORKERS -
Worksafe BC Forced to Change Disability Policy After Court Ruled it "patently
unreasonable" Notice to All Workers Granted
Permanent Disability Awards Prior to June 30, 2002 - you are eligible to have
your permanent award reassessed if your condition deteriorates after that
date. The policy has been changed after the BC supreme Court quashed
a policy decision of the WCB (Worksafe BC) on the ground that it made a
patently unreasonable interpretation of the word "recurrence" to include
deterioration.
Fear strikes WCB "The
Workers Compensation Board has been screwing us CN workers for years," the man
yelled at the crowd. "I'm just trying to get some attention."
(Note: The CIWS does not condone or encourage violence
but we report incidents that may involve injured workers in order to expose the
level of frustration and desperation many injured workers reportedly feel about
the WCB system.)
Bomb scare empties Winnipeg
buildings, streets Several streets around the Workers Compensation Board
building in downtown Winnipeg were closed for several hours early Wednesday
afternoon after a large truck was driven onto the steps of the building. . . .
CBC reporter Sheila North-Wilson spoke to the man moments before he was put
into a police cruiser. He expressed exasperation over issues related to the
Workers Compensation Board and CN Rail. (Note: The CIWS
does not condone or encourage violence but we report incidents that may involve
injured workers in order to expose the level of frustration and desperation
many injured workers reportedly feel about the WCB
system.)
8th Annual
International RSI Awareness Day Conference Toronto (*RSI= Repetitive Strain
Injury) Please join us for a fun and informative day as we discuss:
*Regulating, Accommodating and Compensating RSI* Who should attend: Injured
workers, compensation reps., health & safety reps., anyone who works or has
an interest in preventing RSI through Ergonomic Regulations, accommodating
workers with RSI and seeing that they receive fair compensation. Learn: What
has happened since last year Hear from the top labour leaders What is the
Government doing Tips on successfully accommodating RSI From the experiences of
injured workers dealing with the WCB (WSIB) Join with other activists to make
RSI an election issue When: Wednesday Feb. 28, 2007 9:30 am – 4:00 pm
Registration and Coffee begins at 9 am Where: United Steel Workers Hall, 25
Cecil Street, Toronto (free parking) Spadina & College Cost: Free includes
lunch and breaks please register by Friday Feb. 23. 2007 so we have numbers for
food by contacting: Audrey Parkes email: [email protected] or phone: (416)
461-2411 ext 34 Public Compensation Coalition
Are You a Woman Who Has Been or Is Currently
a Victim of Workplace Bullying*? If so, we'd like to hear from you. The
N.B. Advisory Council on the Status of Women has hired facilitators to hold
focus group sessions next week, to help develop suggestions to deal with this
problem. If you are of have been a victim of bullying at work, and are willing
to give us a couple of evening hours, please call us at 444-4101 or
1-800-332-3087 or email [email protected]. *Workplace bullying is
usually defined as repeated, unreasonable behaviour that intimidates or
humiliates you. Examples include frequent insulting remarks, constant criticism
in front of others, withholding of information. The bully can be a supervisor,
a co-worker, a client, a supplier or even a visitor to the workplace.
www.acswcccf.nb.ca
"Bottom Line" Conference - March 7,2007 - Vancouver,
BC The Elephant in the Room: Mental Illness in the
Workplace From one of the
conference resource documents "Navigating
Workplace Disability Insurance Report and Documentary" by the Canadian
Mental Health Association (also has video documentary) " . . . The present
project is part of a larger study relating to the factors
that contributed to the death of Donald James Mayer, investigated in a
Coroner’s Jury in the fall of 2000. . . one of the main reasons behind Mr.
Mayer’s distress that day was the rejection of his
disability insurance claim by his workplace insurance provider, after he
had gone through a drawn-out application and appeal process for both coverage
through a private insurer, as well as through the Workers’ Compensation
Board (WCB). At the subsequent Coroner’s Inquest, at which CMHA BC
Division had intervenor status, the Jury recommended to the Canadian Life and
Health Insurance Association that the organization and others take steps to
make the claim process more “efficient, accurate, and timely,” so as
to help avoid similar situations in the future. The jury
also made a recommendation to WCB about the need to consider “apparent
work stress claims” more carefully . . . ” FULL REPORT in pdf
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE January
19, 2007 UNDERSTAFFED & UNDER
PRESSURE FULL STORY: WCB Contributes to
Increased Wait Times in Hospitals Ontario's health care system near
the breaking point " . . . What the Federation found was a system
stretched to its limit with diminished staffing levels, under resourced,
exhausted front-line workers and heavy, heavy workloads on workers in every
sector. . . . Talking to front line workers also produced the Report:
Understaffed & Under Pressure: A reality check by Ontario health care
workers. The Report outlines the conditions of the exhausted workers who are
trying to provide the proper care to our society's sick, injured and frail in
the face of our understaffed health care system and calls on the provincial
government to restore and strengthen the public health care system. . . ." For
more information: Dana Boettger, OFL Communications Director 416.4443.7665
Terry Downey, OFL Executive Vice-President 416.578.3230 (cellular)
(*** NOTE*** The CIWS has pointed out how provincial
governments are in a conflict
of interest when they allow the WCB to deny chronic stress claims due to
workload in hospitals and schools. This allows them to understaff their
hospitals and schools without having to face workplace safety inspections. (See
Workplace Safety Inspections - 'Out of
Synch'). The fact that WCB denies stress claims is not only
discriminatory, but it also harms Canadian society by contributing to chronic
understaffing. Understaffing has been implicated in the increasing injury rates of workers and in the
deaths of patients due to medical errors.
Chronic understaffing also contributes significantly to
increased wait times in Canadian
hospitals.)
MEDIA ADVISORY - January 16, 2007 OFL PRESENTS TO
STANDING COMMITTEE ON SOCIAL POLICY BILL 140, AN ACT RESPECTING LONG-TERM CARE
HOMES COMMITTEE ROOM 1, MAIN LEGISLATIVE BUILDING QUEEN'S PARK, TORONTO
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 17 AT 3:45 P.M. (TORONTO) Terry Downey, Ontario
Federation of Labour's executive vice-president will present the OFL submission
to the Standing Committee on Social Policy outlining the Federation's policy
position in this important sector in our health care system. The Ontario
Federation of Labour constitutes the largest provincial labour federation in
Canada with 700,000 members drawn from over 1500 locals and 40 different unions
- including health care unions. "For our members, Bill 140 is a flawed piece of
legislation reflecting the betrayal of Ontarians by this government," Downey
says. "The most fundamental flaw of Bill 140 is
that is does not address the chronic and critical understaffing issue in
long-term care." "Just last week the SARS Commission released its
final report on the 2003 SARS crisis and the findings by Justice Archie
Campbell reflect what has happened to our whole health care system.Chronic underfunding, woefully inadequate staffing
levels, heavy, heavy workloads and complete disregard for worker
safety," Downey said. "The government must act now to fix the system
- not scale back services and care that Ontarians need." More
information: Dana Boettger, OFL Communications 416.443.7665 Terry
Downey, OFL Executive Vice-President 416.578.3230 (cellular) (***NOTE*** The CIWS has pointed out how provincial governments
are in a conflict of
interest when they allow the WCB to deny chronic stress claims due to
workload in hospitals and schools. This allows them to understaff their
hospitals and schools without having to face workplace safety inspections. (See
Workplace Safety Inspections - 'Out of
Synch'). The fact that WCB denies stress claims is not only
discriminatory, but it also harms Canadian society by contributing to chronic
understaffing. Understaffing has been implicated in the increasing injury rates of workers and in the
deaths of patients due to medical errors.
Chronic understaffing also contributes significantly to increased wait times in Canadian
hospitals.)
Workplace safety
inspections - 'Out of Synch': CBC - January 15,
2007 EXCERPTS: A CBC News investigation has found that workplace
safety inspections in Canada are out of sync with the reality of the modern
workplace environment. ---- In some provinces, claims to workers' compensation
boards in workplaces that have traditionally been subject to safety inspections
— such as construction, manufacturing, mining and forestry — are just
as common as claims in workplaces that haven't been traditionally inspected
— such as health care, education and office environments. Even so, visits
from inspectors were up to 10 times more frequent in traditional workplaces
than in non-traditional ones. ---- The problem is more severe in the health
care field. Not only are health care workers facing an ever-increasing threat
of violence, but the agencies responsible for regulating safety in hospitals
are not doing their job. From CBC's In Depth Report on Workplace Safety Also
see
Map of Workplace Safety Inspections Workers Compensation Boards Are Not Doing Their Job in
Regulating Safety In Canadian Hospitals:CBC's Anna Maria
Tremonti reports on "THE CURRENT" - January 15, 2007
Listen (requires RealPlayer -
download Basic RealPlayer
free) A CBC investigation has revealed that not only are
health care workers facing an ever increasing threat of violence but the
agencies responsible for regulating safety in hospitals are not doing their
job. In 2005, 73,000 nurses working in direct patient care in hospitals or
long-term care facilities reported they had been physically assaulted by a
patient, according to Statistics Canada. That amounts to 30 per cent of
hospital nurses and 50 per cent of long-term care facility nurses. ---- And
CBC's investigation showed that if you're involved in the health care industry,
you're 6 to 12 times more likely to file a claim for Worker's Compensation for
violence than employees from any other industrial sector. Gary Symons is part
of the CBC's investigative team working on this story and he joined us from our
studio in Kelowna BC … a province where statistics show one in every three
nurses was assaulted in 2005. EXCERPTS: SYMONS - "We have good reason to believe that (violent incidents) are
actually being underreported by 50% . . . we see the same thing in hospitals
right across the country . . . there were other cases including an armed
robbery with a knife where no report was given to the Occupational Health and
Safety Committee." NURSES UNION - ". . .
Workers Compensation has done nothing in follow-up . . . they are not
supporting the worker, basically, and they are not following through on a lot
of the investigations or any of the orders that are written and there are
definitely no fines being issued . . . nurses have just lost faith in the
workers compensation board here in British Columbia. They no longer feel it
represents their interests at all. . . . nurses do not feel safe . . . it's
only going to be a matter of time until somebody is
killed." SYMONS - "Governments are
not looking at the root causes of this trend . . . the drastic overcrowding
we're seeing in many Canadian hospitals." Children,
spouses of asbestos workers suffering Updated Sun. Jan. 14 2007 10:01 PM ET
---- TV.ca News Staff EXCERPT: Many of the sons, daughters and spouses of
Canadian workers sickened by asbestos are now discovering their own serious
lung disorders and diseases, which doctors say were triggered by the poisonous
dust brought home by their fathers and husbands. . . . "From a point of view of
early detection and surveillance identification of this disease and making it a
public health (issue) -- making the public aware of it could save people's
lives," Brophy told CTV News. --- He also said the families of affected workers
deserve financial assistance. ---- "It's so obvious compensation boards should
be recognizing these people as suffering from work-related diseases whether
they were in the workplace or not," he said.
* * * The
CIWS now has an Aboriginal Injured Workers Representative. * *
*
Earlene Bitterman will be addressing the treatment of injured
workers who are members of the First Nations, Metis and Inuit communities in
Canada. To reach her, email the CIWS at and specify that your story relates
to the aboriginal community. WCB is
shortchanging disabled workers of special needs allowances.---
CBC's "Morning Edition" reports: Alex
Taylor (injured workers consultant in Saskatchewan) says that thousands of
injured workers are not receiving these allowances (such as the Independence
Allowance, the Personal Care Allowance, the Clothing Allowance and the
Permanent Functional Impairment Allowance) because they don't know about them.
"I estimate that there are about 5000 - 6000 disabled
workers in Saskatchewan alone who are not receiving proper benefits and their
entitlements can range from $500 to $47,000 each depending on their case."
- Alex Taylor
The problem, he says, is that injured workers are
required to apply for these special needs allowances separately. However, WCB
only advises them of these allowances by sending one pamphlet, and often, the
worker is in hospital or otherwise indisposed when they receive it. Because
they miss the notification for one reason or another, there are thousands of
disabled workers who don't even know about their entitlement to these
allowances. ----- James Parker, reporting on the CBC's "Morning Edition" says
that, amongst the injured workers that Taylor has helped, they have
collectively received over $750,000.00 in back pay and Taylor stimates that
there could still be millions of dollars that are still owing to disabled
workers in Saskatchewan. MORE
INFO SOMETHING IS WRONG WITH WCB's
INJURY STATISTICS:CBC's Anna Maria Tremonti reports on "THE CURRENT" - January 8, 2007
LISTEN
TO PART 1LISTEN
TO PART 2 (requires RealPlayer -
download Basic RealPlayer
free) EXCERPTS: INJURED WORKER - "WCB was pressuring me" UNION - "The WCB needs to be reviewed for their policies and
practices" IRIS EVANS (minister responsible for Alberta WCB) -
"The new statistic . . . the Disabling Injury Rate . .
. reflects all WCB reportable injuries whether Lost Time Claims or Modified
Work. And I think that will begin to address the perception that people have
that . . .we're not trying to reveal these statistics." DR. LOUIS
FRANCESCUTTI (teacher at the University of Alberta faculty of medicine and
emergency room physician with a special interest in injury prevention) -
" . . . "statistics are being doctored . .
." (The CIWS agrees with Dr. Francescutti
that workplace injury statistics are being doctored. The statistics reported by
WCB (and referred to by Iris Evans above) only report ACCEPTED claims and do
not report DENIED or PREMATURELY TERMINATED claims. They also do not include
claims that were not reported due to COERCION OF WORKERS as addressed in the
interview.)
DECEMBER 2006:
Since Ed Stelmach replaced Ralph
Klein as leader of the PC party in Alberta, he has dumped from Cabinet the last
two Ministers responsible for WCB, Clint Dunford and Mike Cardinal. The
Edmonton Journal reported that "Among those sent to the backbenches are cabinet
veterans Gary Mar, Clint Dunford, Mike Cardinal and Edmonton’s Gene
Zwozdesky." http://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/news/story.html?id=7d861094-ab76-457b-8301-a57c28f5c12f&k=0
Clint
Dunford was criticized for not addressing the longstanding claims by injured
workers before his portfolio was transferred. His replacement, Mike Cardinal
was silent on the issue as well.
The drastic restructuring of the
Alberta cabinet makes it unclear as to who has the WCB portfolio now, but it is
likely Iris Evans, Minister of Employment, Immigration and Industry.
Whether these changes translate into fairness for injured workers in
Alberta remains to be seen.
FIVE DEATHS
A DAY - Workplace deaths on the rise in Canada Workplace deaths on the
rise Dec. 12, 2006. 07:33 AM TOBI COHEN CANADIAN
PRESS A new study shows the daily grind can be hazardous to your health,
with an average of five Canadians dying on the job every work day. * * * NOTE * * * This report takes its statistics from the
Association of Workers Compensation Boards in Canada (AWCBC) which only reports
ACCEPTED claims. The CIWS believes that the statistics ARE MUCH WORSE!
See full report
here.
Injured workers rally Thunder Bay News Source
Web Posted: 12/7/2006 7:40:11 PM
Injured workers across the province are
calling on the provincial government to restore benefits they've lost due to
the high cost of living. Members and supporters of the Thunder Bay and District
Injured Workers' Support Group voiced their concerns at MPP Michael Gravelle's
office Thursday, explaining the need for the provincial government to address
this issue.
Support group president Janet Paterson says due to
inflation over the past 10 years, injured workers have lost over 20 per cent in
benefits forcing some people to reach out for more financial help. ''And what
has happened then, is other systems end up having to take over.
We have
people living on welfare, we have people living on CPP, on ODSP and on
nothing'' she said.
Gravelle says improvements must happen soon and
he's optimistic something will, as all parties have shown support on the first
reading of his new Private Members Bill. Gravelle says this new legislation
would attach a cost-of-living adjustment to workers' benefits, an improvement
which he says is long overdue. ''I believe this is achievable, and it's
something that I would expect that our government should be doing, and that's
the basis of which I'm bringing forward.''
The injured workers and
supporters ended off the rally on a musical note and sang their version of
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer - to express their view on the
system…(singing) 'We are the injured workers, we have something here to
say, the system that you have going, should be burned and thrown away.'
* * * NOTE - Michael Gravelle's Bill 168 does not address
retroactivity as does the previous Bill 162 introduced a week earlier by Andrea
Horwath, NDP MPP for Hamilton East. (See "Politicians Who Take Action for Injured
Workers"
MEDIA ADVISORY December 6, 2006 Queen's Park News
Conference "Every Worker in the Province Should Be Covered Under
Workers' Compensation" Media Studio Main Legislative Building Queen's
Park, Toronto Thursday December 7, 2006 at 10:00 a.m. (TORONTO) "Why
isn't every worker in the province covered by workers' compensation," Ontario
Federation of Labour president Wayne Samuelson is asking. "How can we have a
fair system of coverage for injured workers when not everyone is included?"
As a part of the OFL's ongoing campaign to protect the rights of
workers injured on the job the Federation has been calling for fairness,
protective legislation and inclusiveness in the workers' compensation system.
Speaking at the news conference: Andrea Horwath, NDP, MPP, Hamilton
East Maryam Nazemi, Injured Worker - not covered by workers' compensation Wayne
Samuelson, President, Ontario Federation of Labour
Following the news
conference there will be a rally at 400 University Avenue, Ministry of Labour,
Toronto.
More information: Wayne Samuelson, OFL President 416.571.7408
(cellular) Dana Boettger, OFL Communications 416.443.7665
- The Canadian Injured Workers Society is happy to announce the election of
their new Executive after their Annual General Meeting on December 2, 2006.
New to the Board are Fred Palmer of Newfoundland, Gary Nielsen of
Alberta, Eva Menzies, and Earlene Bitterman both of British Columbia,. The
Board is rounded out by D.M. Boyle Vice-President, and Mike Farrance Treasurer
both of Ontario, and the newly elected President, Beth McQuinn Nixon of New
Brunswick.
Outgoing President Jane Edgett of Saskatchewan was widely
commended for her commitment to developing the organization and the time she
has spent providing information on injured workers issues. Although she plans
on being an active general member, her presence on the Board will be sadly
missed.
Ms McQuinn Nixon is optimistic about what can be accomplished
in the coming year. “The media is finally getting the tragic story of
injured workers out to the public. In every province, in virtually every
community you can find an injured worker who was not treated with dignity and
respect. As we approach this holiday season I challenge every Canadian to think
of injured workers and their families.”
CIWS was formed in 2005
to promote fair and equitable compensation for injured workers in Canada, to
address the mistreatment of injured workers and to voice the common concerns of
injured workers across Canada.
The Canadian Injured Workers Society
is a non-profit organization committed to promoting fair and equitable
compensation for injured workers across Canada. For more information about
becoming a member please contact : or 506-432-9115. The society’s
web page is http://www.ciws.ca
- Nabbed for car trick By CP LEVIS, Que. -- A man
has been arrested after driving his vehicle into a building housing the
province's workers compensation offices. Quebec provincial police were called
to the scene near Quebec City after the man reportedly had a detonator attached
to a gasoline can. The 51-year-old suspect had previously made threats to the
office and threatened to kill himself with a knife. Local police say he was
taken to hospital where he will undergo a psychiatric exam.
http://www.ottawasun.com/News/National/2006/11/27/2515790-sun.html (Note: The CIWS does not condone or encourage
violence but we report incidents that may involve injured workers in order to
expose the level of frustration and desperation many injured workers reportedly
feel about the WCB system.)
Scathing Expose of Alberta
WCB: Nov 19th - A five-day
series in the Edmonton Sun identifies illegal activities at the Alberta WCB.
The CIWS applauds the Edmonton Sun and reporter Jeremy Loome for some excellent
investigative journalism into illegal activities being perpetrated by the WCB
in Alberta. It identifies numerous issues including withholding
evidence from injured workers, financial bungling of workers' monthly payments;
an internal bonus system that critics say artificially accelerates the pace
with which claims are rejected; and callous treatment of the most vulnerable of
injured workers. Articles will be referenced from the "Related
Articles" page or click thie link above.
News
Conference - Ontario - OFL and ONIWG:
NOVEMBER 16, 2006 IT'S
TIME TO ACT - INJURY SHOULD NOT MEAN PROVERTY Injured Workers Demand New
Legislation Now Media Studio, Main Legislative Building, Queen's Park,
Toronto Monday, November 20, 2006 - 11:30 a.m. Attention: Assignment
Editor, Health/Medical Editor, Media Editor, News Editor, Government/Political
Affairs Editor
TORONTO--(CCNMatthews - Nov. 16, 2006) - A joint news
conference by the Ontario Federation of Labour and the Ontario Network of
Injured Workers Groups (ONIWG) will outline the desperate situation of injured
workers in Ontario. Injured workers are calling on Premier Dalton McGuinty to
keep his election promise to "protect worker benefits from inflation".
In the lead up to the election Liberal Party MPPs came
to large meetings of injured workers and said that cost-of-living would be
restored if they won. The Liberals did win the 2003 election, it's now November
2006 and nothing has been done.
Nothing has been done. Injured workers are still
living well below the poverty line - turning to the welfare system and food
banks just to survive.
Injured workers are fed up with excuses. There is no
legitimate excuse not to provide cost-of-living protection injured workers say,
"Now is the time for legislative action to end the indignity and poverty of the
present system."
Speaking at the news conference:
Andrea Horwath, NDP, Member of Provincial
Parliament Steve Mantis, Injured Worker, Thunder Bay & District Injured
Workers Support Group Peter Page, President, Ontario Network of Injured
Workers Groups Wayne Samuelson, President, Ontario Federation of Labour
Injured workers in attendance will be available for
interviews in the Media Studio.
For further information: Dana
Boettger.OFL Communications (416)443.7665
Peter Page, President, ONIWG (289) 808.2871
(cell)
Karl CrevarTreasurer, ONIWG (905)517.0831/
CONTACT
INFORMATION Wayne Samuelson, OFL President Primary Phone:
416-443-7678 Secondary Phone: 416-571-7409 Toll-Free: 800-668-9138
- The next meeting of the
Canadian Injured Workers Society will be held on on: SUNDAY NOVEMBER 12th
2006 at: 1:30pm NST (Newf/Lab) 1pm AST (Atlantic) 12pm EST
(Ont/Quebec) 11am CST (Man/Ont) 11am CST (Sask) 10am MST (AB) 9am
PST (BC) At this meeting we will be holding elections for the new Board of
Directors for the society. All members can attend online via the
CIWS MEMBERS
FORUM. Please log on early. Nominations for Directors are being accepted
now via email and will be also be accepted at the meeting prior to voting.
Please send us your nominations now for Directors. Specific positions will be
voted on at the meeting and don't need to be outlined in your email. Email
Canada-wide
Media Release November 9, 2006:
Workers compensation boards across Canada are
increasing their advertising about safety this month. Some provinces are even
using 'shock and awe' videos - bloody, gory videos about workers being injured.
Yet on October 29th, the Conference of Canadian Compensation Unions
representing approximately 10,000 compensation board employees who deliver
services to injured workers, 'sounded the alarm' about the failure of the
workers compensation system in Canada and called for a national campaign for
the reform of legislation covering injured workers.
http://www.nupge.ca/news_2006/n03no06a.htm http://www.straightgoods.ca/ViewFeature6.cfm?REF=657
What is the relationship between these two stories?
The Canadian
Injured Workers Society sees the 'shock and awe' videos and the increasing
workplace safety ads put out by workers compensation boards as a knee-jerk
response of workers compensation boards to increasing criticism of their
failure to prevent workplace injury and to compensate injured workers.
The CIWS is asking, "How does this shock/trauma approach prevent
workplace injuries or address specific workplace hazards directly?" Shocking
videos make good PR for WCB, but have little REAL effect on workplace safety.
http://www.ciws.ca/news_workers_compensation_canada.htm
The CIWS believes that workers compensation boards have an inherent
conflict of interest in regulating workplace safety. The organization that
metes out compensation funds should not be the same one that is in charge of
workplace safety. It is too easy to deny injured workers' claims to save money,
then just ignore the hazard that caused the injury. When a workplace injury
claim is denied by WCB, that workplace hazard goes uninvestigated.
The CIWS applauds the efforts of the Compensation Unions to expose
the failures of the workers compensation system in Canada and agrees that
fundamental reform is critical.
