© Local 500 safety director Saul Marques (I.) and Local 2171 safety dire:

ctor Jim Parker instructed and facilitated

workshops to assist union reps understand how compensation systems work.

WCB/WSIB seminar gives
tips to union delegates

One of the very well-attended
courses at this year’s safet;
conference was on WCB/WSI.
advocacy, instructed by Local 2171
safety director Jim Parker and Local
500 safety director Saul Marques.

The half-day course crammed a
lot of very useful information of the
history of workers’ compensation
boards in Canada, the claims
procedures, entitlements, benefits
and services and appeals. The
Lumberworker had the privilege of
sitting in on a workshop to take notes.

The course was adopted from a
compensation claims training
manual put out by the WCB in B.C.,
the CLC, the B.C. Fed and the
Justice Institute of B.C., with
additional information on the
Ontario experience and experience
in other provinces.

The delegates shared their often-
frustrating experiences in dealing

with boards and the sometime
complete lack of communication
from board staff and officials.

In Ontario, the WSIB (Workplace
Safety and Insurance Board)
operation policy manual is priced at
$224 with $75 for annual upgrades,
well out of the range of working
people. Bill 99, introduced in that
province in 1997, stripped workers
of many rights and cut benefits by
five per cent.

“Every time they take workers’
rights away they are giving money
back to employers in premiums,”
said Brother Marques, who added
that the employer-controlled media
has remained “hush-hush” about it.

Before the first WCB was
established in 1913, following a
report by Ontario Chief Justice
Meredith, workers had nothing to
back them up.

Although they could sue their

boss for injury, or their families
could sue employers over the death
of a family member, it was tough to
prove employer negligence. Injured
workers had little or no money to
hire lawyers and take on court cases.

If there were any contributing
factors, the lawsuit would be
impossible to pin on the employers.

The Meredith report resulted in
the Ontario government setting up
a worker’s compensation system
based on a no-fault system. There
would also be security of payment,
an employer-funded collective
liability, administration by an
independent agency and workers
wouldn’t be able to sue.

Today compensation boards put
in waiting periods between the injury
date and when benefits click in. The
theory, that the board uses, said
Brother Parker, is that they
discourage workers from using the

nts from both the union and management sides joined in the discussion of compensation case

system.

“People want to work. They want
to get better,” he said. “They are not
here because they think it’s a great
idea to be on compo.”

Marques said that nearly 100 per
cent of disabled workers who are
out of the workforce for 12-18 months
never return.

He added that human rights
decisions are eliminating the
discrimination against the disabled
and assist in bringing them back to
work in a modified capacity. In
Ontario the WSIB says that ifa
worker has one or more years
seniority, companies have a re-
employment obligation.

Parker said in the United States
there is a mixture of public and
private workers’ compensation
systems.

“You get a real mess down there,
but workers can also sue,” he said.

In Canada workers are supposed
to have quick access and Parker
said that 95 per cent of claims are
paid within 17 days. But the onset
of payment of some claims may drag
on from two weeks to three months.

“When it comes down to details
some of the American executive
types are arguing over what gets
put into accident reports,” he said,
adding that they find time “to
sanitize stuff in a way” that they
(compensation boards) are not going
to reflect badly on the company.

Parker said most appeals are
worker-driven and, in B.C. about
ten per cent driven by employers.
He said it’s easy to prove an injury
like a broken limb or a cut but it’s
tougher to prove soft tissue injuries
like tendonitis and shoulder injuries.

In Ontario employers fill out injury
reports (Form 7) of which the worker
has the right to a copy. He/she can
add new and different information
for the board. A worker fills out
Form 6, which Marques says has to
be done right or the claim will be
denied.

Parker said the board determines
if injuries and diseases rise out of
the course of employment. Diseases
like asthma, if linked to exposure to
cedar dust, are likely determined
compensable. Likewise the lung
disease mesothelomia can be directly
linked to exposure to asbestos.

Other diseases are determined by
the “balance of probabilities.”

For instance, compensation for
carpal tunnel syndrome may be
reduced for a more aged person, a
worker with diabetes or a women
who has reached the menopausal
stage in her life.

Benefits are paid for persons who
are deemed a “worker” under the
various acts, for personal injury due
to employment, for occupational
disease due to the nature of
employment or for hearing loss, the
proportion of which can be tagged to
chronic exposure to workplace noise.

The way a claim form is filled out
is especially important and Marques
said he tells his local union members
to use the six W’s principles (who,
what, where, when, why and want)
that are used in filling out grievance
forms.

“If things happen they way they
(board officials) believe they should
happen, they accept the claim — if
they don’t then they turn it down,”
said Parker.

Various boards use “meat charts”
which divide the human body up
into separate components. The loss
of a forearm, for instance may result
in a 15 per cent disability payment,
even if the person in question can’t
do their old job.

If they can’t go back to work, a
100 per cent disability is determined.

If the boards determine that
workers can do some limited job (i.e.
pump gas or do some security guard
functions) and, say that the job pays
$10 per hour, compensation will be
paid on the difference of that wage

Continued on page twenty-eight

LUMBERWORKER/SEPTEMBER, 2001/27