Following a community consultation, Thunder Bay and District Injured Workers Support Group and Injured Workers’ Community Legal Clinic have called for a meeting with the Ombudsman to address the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board’s response to key recommendations made by the KPMG Value for Money Audit of the Board’s Dispute Resolution and Appeals Process. (Management response is included in the Nov. 2022 report).
The community is concerned that these recommendations, if adopted, would disentitle most injured workers and ignore disability needs, especially of those with significant permanent disabilities and who have developed mental health challenges in addition to dealing with poverty and unemployment.
In particular, the injured worker community and advocates draw the Ombudsman’s attention to proposed drastic reductions to the time to appeal. To summarize, these would:
- add 3 new time limits for injured workers within a 90 day period
- cut the time limit to object to decisions from 6 months to 1 month
- cut the amount of time for injured workers to find a legal representative
In addition to recommendations which, if implemented, would severely lessen access to justice, the recommended change in the time limit to object contravenes injured workers’ rights under Ontario’s Workplace Safety and Insurance Act.
Read full letter to the Ombudsman.
** On May 18 at 1 pm, join injured workers and the community for a Town Hall to discuss the report and its damaging recommendations.
Join using link: us02web.zoom.us/j/86584195401 Meeting ID: 865 8419 5401