Selected news of workplace injury, illness and compensation.
Stronger worker safety measures and transparency around workplace outbreaks on the way as Toronto reports record COVID-19 cases | Toronto Star (Dec. 30, 2020)
Temp workers, the unsung pandemic heroes who make and deliver our goods, should not be losing sleep – or their lives – over $14 an hour | Toronto Star (Dec. 28, 2020)
Ontario shutdown won’t stop COVID-19 spread in workplaces, health experts say | Globe and Mail (Dec. 22, 2020)
Ontario lockdown doesn’t do anything to help warehouse workers, says advocate | CBC Radio (Dec. 22, 2020)
Five Ontario construction deaths in one week | Daily Commercial News (Dec. 21, 2020)
Thousands of workers got COVID-19 on the job. But the Ministry of Labour has fined just one employer | Toronto Star (Dec. 19, 2020
The paid sick days conundrum: pandemic revives debate over who should foot the bill | Globe and Mail (Dec. 17, 2020)
Amazon’s speed shouldn’t come at the expense of workers | Toronto Star (Dec. 16, 2020)
COVID long-haulers and the plight of unproductive bodies | Canadian Dimension (Dec. 15, 2020)
Proposed workplace safety legislation will stabilize WSIB premiums, avg industrial wage: province | Law Times (Dec. 14, 2020)
Can employers make the COVID-19 vaccine mandatory? The law isn’t clear | CBC News (Dec. 11, 2020)
Amazon warehouse workers in Canada saw injury rates double. Then COVID hit. Inside a hidden safety crisis | Toronto Star (Dec. 10, 2020)
Stakeholders relieved MOL to protect employers from WSIB premium spike | Daily Commercial News (Dec. 10, 2020)
CLAC: Open letter to Doug Ford: WSIB coverage is desperately needed for all healthcare heroes | GlobeNewswire (Dec. 9, 2020)
Spread of COVID-19 in Brampton linked to systemic factors, experts say | St Catharines Standard (Nov. 29, 2020)
Bitter harvest: the pandemic has created serious risks for the migrant workers … | CBC News (Nov. 29, 2020)
Our essential workers are burning out. Advocates say a lack of basic job protections is to blame | Toronto Star (Nov. 28)
UWindsor study reveals toll of COVID-19 on Ontario health-care workers | CBC News (Nov. 24, 2020)
Workplace compensation claims reflect toll COVID-19 has taken on Canada’s workers | CBC News (Nov. 23, 2020)
California’s gig worker battle reveals the abuses of precarious work in Canada too | The Conversation (Nov. 22, 2020)
Newfoundland & Labrador: A bureaucratic system forgot I was the human being on the other side. I want change | CBC News (Nov. 22, 2020)
Alberta: Bill 47 Pt. 2 – Less compensation for work-related injuries | Parkland Institute (Nov. 12, 2020)
Ontario increasing services to workers and small businesses (WSIB In Transition operational review report) | Ontario News Release (Nov. 6, 2020
British Columbia: New NDP government challenged by damning report on mistreatment of injured workers | The Tyee (Nov. 6, 2020)
Adequacy of COVID infection control and PPE linked to workers’ mental health: study | At Work (Nov. 4, 2020)
Advocate and art lover Judy Kondrat always saw those who’d been overlooked by others | Globe and Mail (Nov. 3, 2020)
Quebec tables long-awaited bill to reform workplace safety law | Montreal Gazette (October 28, 2020)
This cancer survivor was harassed, taunted and sprayed with Lysol by colleagues. But a tribunal says she can’t sue her workplace | Toronto Star (Oct. 25, 2020)
WSIB claims from LTC workers could be tip of the iceberg, union says | CBC News (Oct. 24, 2020)
What new Ontario-led research says about mesothelioma | TVOntario (Oct. 22, 2020)
A spin class became a superspreader event. Why are fitness instructors excluded from workers’ compensation if they fall ill on the job? | Toronto Star (Oct. 16, 2020)
Safety statistics reveal ‘disappointing’ trends of workplace fatalities, injuries | OHS Canada (Oct. 13, 2020)
Public health won’t tell us which employers have COVID-19 outbreaks. But we obtained WSIB data to help paint a picture | Toronto Star (Oct. 11, 2020)
WSIB holds premium rates for Ontario businesses | Canada Newswire (Oct. 1, 2020)
Industrial bakery facing prosecution over death of temp agency worker Enrico Miranda | Toronto Star (Sep. 25, 2020)
COVID-19 rates higher among racialized and low wage workers | WHSC News (Sep. 24, 2020)
Ontario to hire nearly 100 new health and safety inspectors to tackle workplace COVID-19 risks | Toronto Star (Sep. 23, 2020)
COVID-19 infections among Canadian health-care workers are above global average | Huffington Post (Sep. 20, 2020)
Workplace linked to 1 in 5 COVID-19 infections in Ontario | HRReporter (Sep. 3, 2020)
Slapping down farmers’ objections, court restores public health order protecting ‘exceptionally vulnerable’ migrant workers | Toronto Star (Aug. 27, 2020)
British Columbia: New government-commissioned report recommends cultural shift at WCB to better support workers | CBC News (Aug. 26, 2020)
What research can do: estimating the role of workplaces in COVID-19 transmissions | At Work (Aug. 25, 2020)
British Columbia: Harry Bains: Improvements to Workers’ Compensation Act long overdue | The Province (Aug. 24, 2020)
Under-reporting of injuries related to awareness of hazards, IWH report finds | Daily Commercial News (Aug. 24, 2020)
Workplace safety claims now being approved for miners who got sick from inhaling McIntyre Powder | CBC News (Aug. 14, 2020)
More than 180 workers at this Toronto bakery got COVID-19 — but the public wasn’t informed. Why aren’t we being told about workplace outbreaks? | Toronto Star (Aug. 10, 2020)
Better recognition of occupational cancers can aid prevention too, report | WHSC News (Aug. 6, 2020)
Report urges WSIB to improve evidence-based decision-making in workplace cancer claim | Law Times (Aug. 5, 2020)
The PBO report on universal basic income and the taxation of WSIB benefits (Part 1) | Workerscomplaw.ca (Jul. 28, 2020
A Jamaican migrant worker suffered catastrophic injuries on the job, then was told he could work as a ‘shoe shiner’ and had his workers’ compensation cut off | Toronto Star (Jul. 25, 2020)
WSIB and government must act now on occupational cancer claims: Steelworkers | Businesswire (Jul. 24, 2000)
Explainer: Implementing paid sick days and paid sick leave | Broadbent Institute (Jul. 20, 2020)
Roughly 13,000 health care workers file workplace injury claims tied to COVID-19 | Globe & Mail (Jul. 15, 2020)
British Columbia: Proposed changes to labour laws would increase workers’ compensation limits, make COVID-19 claims easier | CBC News (Jul. 14, 2020)
Proposed Bill presuming WSIB coverage for COVID-19 claims quietly passed first reading | Mondaq (Jul. 13, 2020)
Claims system for workers with cancer outdated: study | Globe and Mail (Jul. 10, 2020)
Ontario’s ability to identify workplace cancer risk is ‘grossly inadequate,’ study finds | Toronto Star (Jul. 9, 2020)
The Ontario government says migrant workers have equal rights and access to benefits, but do they? | Toronto Star (Jun. 27, 2020)
New program will address opioid addiction, Ontario says | Globe & Mail (Jun. 19, 2020)
How workers’ comp fanned the flames of the opioid crisis | Globe & Mail (Jun. 18, 2020)
Compensation system hides the real toll of industrial disease: This series examines where Canada falls short protecting workers from job-related illnesses | Waterloo Region Record (Jun. 13, 2020)
Laws have little impact if companies aren’t afraid of the consequences: occupational disease kills more Canadians than any other work-related injury, accident or disorder | Waterloo Region Record (Jun. 6, 2020)
‘It took the pandemic to shake us up’: What COVID-19 has taught us about the nature of the way we work, and what we must do to fix it for the safety and betterment of us all | Toronto Star (Jun. 3, 2020)
Care providers are not asking, what caused the disease? | Waterloo Region Record (May 30, 2020)
COVID-19 and proposed amendments to the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act, 1997 | Employment and Human Rights Law in Canada (May 27, 2020)
ONIWG: UN highlights the unique challenges faced by Disabled Injured Workers during COVID-19 | GlobeNewswire (May 19, 2020)
The WSIB COVID-19 adjudicative approach and statistics to date-July 2020 update | Workerscomplaw.ca (May 12, 2020)
Ontario urged to follow B.C. with presumptive workers’ compensation for COVID-19 | OurWindsor.ca (May 11, 2020)
The Uncounted: Occupational disease is killing Canadians | Toronto Star/Waterloo Region Record (May 8, 2000)
WSIB study finds link between use of McIntyre Powder in Ontario mines and risk of Parkinson’s | CBC News (May 7, 2020)
Gates: Give heroic frontline workers the WSIB coverage they deserve | Toronto Sun (Apr. 27, 2020)
Open letter to Workplace Safety Insurance Board regarding COVID19, workers compensation and migrant farm workers (Ontario) | Harvesting Freedom (Apr. 17, 2020)
Coronavirus: The risks to essential workers with hidden health conditions | The Conversation (Apr. 15, 2020)
Canada: cross country survey of changes to workers’ compensation system in response to COVID-19 | Littler Insight (Apr. 14, 2020)
WSIB expands options during COVID-19 pandemic | OHS Canada (Apr. 7, 2020)
‘Them plants are killing us’: Inside a cross-border battle against cancer and pollution | Environmental Health News (Apr. 7, 2020)
Province urged to make workers’ compensation automatic for essential employees diagnosed with COVID-19 | Toronto Star (Apr. 6, 2020)
Why the ‘invisible workers’ cleaning up COVID-19 need better labour protection | CBC Radio (Apr. 3, 2020)
Peel’s injured workers must beat the myths: we don’t fake either pain or poverty | Tough Times (Mar. – Apr. 2021)
Ontario defers WSIB payments for 6 months | Canadian HR Reporter (Mar. 27, 2020)
Crying over workplace spills | Canadian HR Reporter (Mar. 25, 2020)
More action urgently needed to ensure no one is left behind in COVID-19 crisis | Hamilton Spectator (Mar. 19, 2020)
Strains, sprains leading cause of workplace injury in Ontario | OHS Canada (Feb. 28, 2020)
‘A totally rigged system’: injured workers in British Columbia want change now | The Tyee (Feb. 17, 2020)
Pandora’s box opens on Quebec’s deadly asbestos legacy | Montreal Gazette (Feb. 15, 2020)
Ontario to reward safe employers | Canadian Metalworking (Jan. 22, 2020)