Can you believe it?? The WSIB was created to help workers when injured or ill and now is giving Billions to corporations instead!
Join us on Monday December 9th at noon to show your support for all workers.
There will be pizza, coffee and hot chocolate for all.
Hope to see you there.
Below is a recent letter published in the Chronicle Journal and a poster for the rally.
The WSIB donates $2.5 Billion to employers while their injured and ill workers live in poverty
Every employer in this province knows that there are certain predetermined costs to doing business. Those costs such as wages, benefits, Employment Insurance and workers compensation are built into their business plan and those costs are passed on to customers through the products that these employers sell.
The workers compensation charges, called “premium rates”, are set by the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) and are not negotiable. The money that the employers pay into the compensation system are placed in an account to cover the cost of ensuring that workers injured or made ill at their workplace are provided with support for as long as the injury or illness lasts. Over the past decades, these compensation costs have not risen for employers and in fact have decreased over that time. Over the past six years the WSIB has been able to create a multi-billion dollar surplus in its account even while lowering employer premium rates by almost 30%. This surplus became so large in 2022 that Doug Ford and his government were able to give employers rebates totalling $1.2 Billion. On November 21st Doug Ford, with a great deal of fanfare, announced that the WSIB had again accumulated a surplus and that employers were again going to be given a rebate, this time a rebate of $2.5 Billion.
The question that has to be asked is how was the WSIB able to accumulate these surpluses if there was no increase (and in fact a decrease) in employers funding into the WSIB account. The answer is quite simple; the money going to support injured and ill workers was dramatically cut by the WSIB.
As a result of these cuts, workers with long term injuries or illnesses suffer poverty, depression, family breakup, divorce and suicide because the compensation system has failed them. Instead of working to support workers who have been injured and made ill at their workplace the Ford government and the WSIB continue to deprive workers of the needed support that a true compensation system should provide and have rewarded employers who through questionable compensation practices have decreased their compensation costs.
Clearly this is a case of the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer. These rebates are not going to be passed on to employees; they are going to be absorbed by the employer and added to their bottom line. In the mean-time, employees who have suffered permanent injuries and illnesses are left to struggle to make ends meet.
This inequality has got to stop. Injured Workers groups and their supporters across the province will be holding demonstrations on December 9th to voice their disgust with the actions of Doug Ford, his government and the WSIB at this latest action.
Please join the Thunder Bay & District Injured Workers Support Group at 12:00 noon on Monday December 9th at MPP Kevin Hollands office (774 N. James St.) to voice your concern.
