Email the Minister

Let the Minister of Labour know why it is important for injured workers and their allies to be involved in any review our our workers’ compensation system, and why it must address changes demanded by the Workers’ Comp is a Right campaign. If you wish, please add your own words about why this is important to you.

Dear Minister McNaughton

Your government’s November 15th 2018 economic update announced a review of the WSIB that did not even mention injured workers. The WSIB’s role is to provide benefits to workers who get hurt in Ontario. Injured workers and their allies must be involved in any review of our compensation system.

Nobody goes to work with the intention of getting hurt. When workplace accidents happen, all Ontarians should expect nothing less than a compensation system that treats them with dignity and respect, and helps them get back on their feet.

But the sad reality is that the Workplace Safety & Insurance Board (WSIB) has shown that it is more concerned with cutting its own costs than with supporting injured workers. And most of the WSIB’s cost-cutting measures have come squarely on the backs of injured workers. From 2009-2015, almost $1.6 billion were cut from injured worker benefits. Additionally, close to 50% of injured workers with a permanent disability are living at or near the poverty line.

Every year, thousands of injured workers are cut off of workers’ compensation and forced onto publicly funded social assistance programs. They are losing their homes, their families are falling apart due to the stress, and their mental and emotional health is suffering. In effect, injured workers are being re-victimized by the very system that was designed to protect them.

With the Worker’s Comp is a Right campaign, the Ontario Network of Injured Workers’ Groups is calling for an end to some of the WSIB’s primary methods of cutting benefits and sending people into poverty. As you are aware, the campaign has three demands:

•	No cuts based on phantom jobs
•	Listen to injured workers’ treating healthcare professionals
•	Stop cutting benefits based on “pre-existing conditions”

These are very reasonable demands, and I fully support them.

Your government was elected on the promise of standing up for the “little guy.” Injured workers are part of the “little guys,” and I hope you will follow through on your commitment to stand up for them.

I urge you to implement the demands of the Workers’ Comp is a Right campaign, and to help restore justice for injured workers.

Sincerely,

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Dear Minister McNaughton

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