• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Injured Workers Online

Injured Workers Online

Working Together for Justice

  • Blog
  • Sign Up
  • About
  • Twitter
Working Together for Justice
  • Workers’ Compensation
    • History
    • Law Reform
    • Workers’ compensation bills
    • Chronic Pain Victory
    • Research and Education
    • Bancroft Institute
    • Meredith Conference: “No-Half Measures”
    • RAACWI
  • Issues
    • Appeals
    • Benefits
    • Experience Rating
    • Funding
    • Mental Health
    • Poverty
    • Return to Work
    • Stigma and surveillance
    • Universal Coverage
  • Community
    • Ontario Network of Injured Workers Groups (ONIWG)
    • Workers’ Comp Is a Right campaign
    • Injured Worker Groups
    • IW Speakers School
    • Injured Workers’ Stories
    • Organizing and Action
    • Arts & social justice
  • Events
    • Calendar View
    • RSI Awareness Day
    • Day of Mourning
    • Justice Bike Ride
    • Injured Workers Day
    • December demo
    • Labour Day – a workers’ festival
  • Media
    • In the News
    • Press Releases
    • Fact Sheets
    • Headlines on workers’ compensation
    • Videos
  • Resources
    • Law and Policy Submissions
    • Reports, Articles & Papers
    • Practical guides & booklets
    • IWHP Bulletins
    • Library
    • Find Legal Help
    • Links
Home / Blog / Appeals / Board’s use of pre-existing conditions under scrutiny

Board’s use of pre-existing conditions under scrutiny

July 18, 2016

“Injured workers routinely cut off WSIB by improper rulings: critics say decisions citing pre-existing conditions unlawfully force vulnerable workers to battle for compensation they’re entitled to.” / Sara Mojtehedzadeh (Toronto Star, Jul. 21, 2016)
(updates Jul. 18 article: “WSIB slashes benefits and forces legal battles: Paramedic who injured his back at work was approved for compensation until a doctor he never met blamed a ‘pre-existing condition’”)

“Four years after making a successful Workplace Safety and Insurance Board claim for an injured lower back, [paramedic Mark] Winegarden was abruptly cut off benefits when the board revisited his file. The sudden ruling concluded his symptoms actually stemmed from a “pre-existing condition” rather than his traumatic accident — a reversal that advocates for injured workers say is unlawful but increasingly common… “. They point to WSIB’s aggressive identification of pre-existing conditions as a means to reduce benefit entitlement in its campaign (under president David I Marshall) to cut the unfunded liability. This intensified, says former Appeals Tribunal Chair Ron Ellis, following the report recommendations on permanent impairment policy by consultant Christopher Brigham – subject of a recent Toronto Star article.

Systematic denial?

An analysis by the Toronto Star would appear to confirm this – since 2012 about 80% of appeals by injured workers have been successful when before the Workplace Safety and Insurance Appeals Tribunal (WSIAT) over claims denied for an alleged pre-existing condition.

Critics argue that the WSIB is violating a core legal principle (which Board’s own legal counsel in 1998 called the “cornerstone” of Ontario’s workers’ compensation system) – the “thin-skull” doctrine which says injured workers cannot be denied benefits for health conditions that never interfered with their work abilities before an accident.

Forced into lengthy (and stressful) appeal process

With the resulting increase in appeals (up from 3,927 in 2009 to 9,435 last year), injured workers face a growing backlog where the average time to be offered a first hearing before the Tribunal has risen from 6 months in 2009 to 17 months in 2015.
In the words of Mark Winegarden:

The (board) knows a certain percentage are just going to abandon their claims. A certain percentage are going to fight, but they won’t have the resources.

Related reading:

  • Ellis, Ron. 2015 Oct. “Cost-averse Adjudication and the Hijacking of the Thin-skull Rule” Administrative Justice Workers’ Compensation
  • Backgrounder. 2014 Nov.  New WSIB Benefits Policies

Filed Under: Appeals, Benefits, In the News

Primary Sidebar

Latest Tweets

Injuredworkersonline Follow

IWO_org
Injuredworkersonline @iwo_org ·
15 Mar

Then & Now: Technology and the changing hazards in mining https://www.thesafetymag.com/ca/topics/technology/then-now-technology-and-the-changing-hazards-in-mining/439237#.ZBH4wPPGS2M.twitter

Reply on Twitter 1636048781316882432 Retweet on Twitter 1636048781316882432 Like on Twitter 1636048781316882432 1 Twitter 1636048781316882432
Injuredworkersonline @iwo_org ·
15 Mar

Bill C-224 Cancer legislation reaches important milestone in Canadian Parliament https://www.iaff.org/news/cancer-legislation-reaches-important-milestone-in-canadian-parliament/

Reply on Twitter 1636048154285215745 Retweet on Twitter 1636048154285215745 Like on Twitter 1636048154285215745 1 Twitter 1636048154285215745
Injuredworkersonline @iwo_org ·
15 Mar

Ontario roofing company fined after man not wearing fall protection killed in fall while working on a school portable - OHS Canada MagazineOHS Canada Magazine https://www.ohscanada.com/ontario-roofing-company-fined-110k-after-man-killed-in-fall-while-working-on-a-school-portable/

Reply on Twitter 1636047273758199809 Retweet on Twitter 1636047273758199809 Like on Twitter 1636047273758199809 3 Twitter 1636047273758199809
Load More...

Footer

Stay connected – get our blog updates
Copyright © 2023 Injured Workers Online
  • Accessibility
  • Terms of Use
  • Privacy

The information in this website is for educational purposes only. It is not a substitute for legal advice. For legal advice, see Find legal help