WSIB is still caught up in culture of denial

Toronto Star journalist Sara Mojtehedzadeh’s revelation of major staff complaints about the malfunctioning of the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board’s (WSIB) operations and its negative impact on injured workers and worsening health and safety conditions in Ontario’s workplaces, is all the more reason to require an open public inquiry into the board’s operations.

When employees exhibit such depth of dissatisfaction with the operation of the WSIB, it is reflective of something profoundly wrong with Ontario’s compensation system. And with the Ford government’s decision to cut premiums by 30 percent, it is about to get a lot worse.

We have written previously of the “culture of denial” which permeates the board at all levels, designed to suppress workers’ claims. This was exhibited in the Industrial Accident Victims Group of Ontario (IAVGO) study showing that the board denied claims without evidence, and doubled the number of denied claims between 2009 and 2015.

The board also maintains systemic road blocks to occupational disease recognition-A practice that underestimates the true level of injury and disease caused by work. For example, the average reported fatality rate of approximately 300 per year may be significantly higher according to some estimates.

In one estimate, Dr. Annalee Yassi maintains in the report for the Weiler Commission in 1980 that there may be an additional 6,000 deaths annually from cancers and other systemic disease caused by chemical exposures and work related stress. Bear in mind the board only reports diseases that have been allowed as work-related and does not report the total number of claims. As well many work-related diseases never get recognized by the worker’s attending doctor because of poor training in occupational health. If we had this many flurelated deaths we would call it a “pandemic” and set the health system on “red alert.”

Such under-reporting has serious consequences: firstly, it shifts the burden of disease and injury from employers onto the public health care system; secondly, such under reporting distorts the basis upon which regulatory and prevention policies are formulated resulting in weak and ineffective protective standards.

It’s time we move to reform the WSIB into a truly “workers’ compensation system.” It’s time we awake to the epidemic of diseases needlessly caused by work and put the whole health and safety system under public scrutiny. Robert and Dale DeMatteo, Campbellcroft

JANIS RAMSAY/METROLAND Christine Nugent (left) and Dianne Baddeley with the Barrie District Injured Workers Group held a public action Dec. 10 to bring awareness to the shortfalls of the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB). Workers and supports across the province have launched efforts similar to those of Peterborough GE workers and their families, calling for reform at the WSIB.