Ontario introduces Minimum Wage bill (Bill 165)
Minister of Labour Yasir Naqvi presented Bill 165 (Minimum Fair Wage Act, 2014) today in the Assembly for first reading. Based on the recommendations of the Minimum Wage Advisory Panel, the...
View ArticlePart-time work exposing workers to a greater risk of injury
“The 15-hour work week: Canada’s part-time problem” / Tavia Grant (The Globe and Mail, Oct. 4) Article discusses the growing number of involuntary part-time, temporary and contract jobs in Canada’s...
View ArticleDouble amputee denied by Board
“WSIB says no to U.S. program that inspired double amputee to walk” / Patty Winsa (Toronto Star, Nov. 23) Giuseppe Chessari, who lost both legs in a 2009 industrial accident at a Mississauga recycling...
View ArticleLabour law review to cover precarious workers
The Ministry of Labour will launch a public consultation this Spring that looks at how Ontario’s current Labour Relations Act and Employment Standards Act meet the new realities of the workplace. This...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Seeking protection for the injured and ill in precarious work
“Ontario allowing employers to fire workers without cause” / Sara Mojtehedzadeh (Toronto Star, 17 May) Toronto injured worker Gordon Butler asked his employer, a small construction company in Markham,...
View ArticleWorker rights in the changing workplace
With three public consultations already held in the GTA and Ottawa, the Ministry of Labour’s Changing Workplaces Review moves to Guelph tomorrow. The Review, led by special advisors, C. Michael...
View ArticleStudy a wake-up call
The workplace is the site of 18 to 28% of serious injuries suffered by Canadian adults. In Ontario, while most WSIB claims involve no or little lost time, nearly 15,000 injured workers a year have a...
View ArticleWorker with disability in toxic environment failed by system
“Forced out by a broken system: my endless battle for workplace safety” (RankAndFile.ca, July 23) A worker with a permanent disability, enduring persistent psychological harassment and threats of...
View ArticleWomen’s health & the workplace
Some recent discussions on the role of gender and tasks as they affect the working experiences of women… Canadian researchers Katherine Lippel and Karen Messing were among presenters at the...
View ArticleThe Changing Workplaces Review & the injured worker
The Injured Workers’ Consultants Community Legal Clinic has, in its submissions to the ongoing Changing Workplaces Review, asked for the experience and perspective of injured workers to be taken into...
View Article“You don’t know what it’s like…”
The UK effort to get the disabled off benefits has had a horrific impact on people deemed fit to work. Decisions to cut benefits by authorities like the WSIB can have much more than a financial impact....
View ArticleClik here to view.
Chinese restaurant workers – vulnerable also to claims suppression
”Widespread’workplace abuse persists for Chinese restaurant workers” / Sara Mojtehedzadeh & Nicholas Keung (Toronto Star, Apr. 25, 2016) and Editorial A just-released report – Sweet & Sour:...
View ArticleCalling for changes in appeal time limits
In a letter to the Attorney of General and Minister of Labour, lawyers Michael S. Green, Ellen R. Lipes, Gary Newhouse and Peter Bird, call for reforms which, at a minimum, establish a single, long...
View ArticleBetter (when healed and safe) at work
With adequate time for medical recovery and job accommodation, an injured worker should be able to return to work safely and without fear of reinjury. In their letter to the Premier, the Ontario...
View ArticleExposing employee abuse in the restaurant sector
“Pilot project aims to protect vulnerable restaurant workers” / Sara Mojtehedzadeh (Toronto Star, Aug. 30, 2016) Following last month’s release of the Changing Workplaces Review Interim Report on...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Responding to Changing Workplaces Review interim report
The Workers’ Action Centre (WAC), with Parkdale Community Legal Services, has released “Building Decent Jobs From the Ground Up” – a comprehensive response to the Changing Workplaces Review Special...
View ArticleCritics and injured workers question RTW policies
This article sheds light on the WSIB’s intense pressure to get workers back to work, often sooner than they are ready. This is described as a “win-win” scenario, when the WSIB saves money by not...
View ArticleCalling on the Workplaces Review to strengthen rights
Injured Workers Consultants (IWC) was happy to make a submission on the Interim Report on the Changing Workplaces Review, in support of the Migrant Workers Alliance for Change (MWAC) and the Workers’...
View ArticleMaintaining employment after workplace injury or disease
The Ontario Network of Injured Workers Groups (ONIWG) recently presented its submission to the committee reviewing Canada’s performance under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Upcoming: Bancroft Institute Fall 2016 Policy & Research discussion
Barriers to Return-to-Work in a Context of Social Vulnerability is the timely topic for discussion at the Nov. 17 session of the Bancroft Institute for Studies on Workers’ Compensation and Work Injury....
View Article