“Lawsuit seeks relief for injured workers struggling with mental illness.” / Sara Mojtehedzadeh (Toronto Star, July 5, 2017)
While a recent amendment to the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act (Bill 127) extended entitlement to compensation for workers with chronic mental stress, it only takes effect January 1st, 2018. This means that workers with current chronic stress claims, such as Margery Wardle who suffered mental stress injury from years of sexual harassment on the job, are still ineligible for compensation under legislative provisions that the Workplace Safety and Insurance Appeals Tribunal has on three occasions declared unconstitutional. Approximately 170 appeals of denied claims from those subjected to long-term trauma are currently before the Tribunal, a process which due to backlogs often takes years, “with many claimants … financially or emotionally unable to see the appeals through.”
Seeking relief for those whose cases were denied or are already in the system, a lawsuit has been filed with the Ontario Superior Court of Justice against the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board and Ministry of Labour by labour law firm Goldblatt Partners, representing Ms Wardle, Injured Workers Consultants Community Legal Clinic and the Ontario Network of Injured Workers’ Groups. The suit argues that the exclusion of benefits for chronic mental stress violates the Charter of Rights, seeks to have the legislation preventing entitlement to compensation declared immediately invalid, and calls for retroactive justice with reconsideration of claims rejected over the past 20 years (since the ban was introduced with passage of Bill 99). (See Press release, July 5)
Related:
- Crawley, Mike & Nicola Brockbank. 2017 Jul 5. “Lawsuit Takes on WSIB for Rejecting ‘Chronic Mental Stress’ Claims.” CBC News Toronto
- Injured Workers’ Consultants Community Legal Clinic, IAVGO Community Legal Clinic, Workers’ Health and Safety Legal Clinic, Ron Ellis, Gary Newhouse. 2016 Nov. 9. Complaint to the Ombudsman of Ontario: WSIB Refusal to Compensate for Chronic Occupational Stress (The Ontario Ombudsman notes in the just-released 2016-2017 Annual Report that his Office continues to monitor this situation)