Ontario eyes stronger protections for workers who get sick on the job

Province gearing up to have dedicated occupational disease response team in place by year end.

Thestar.com
Jan. 16, 2017
By Sara Mojtehedzadeh

Ontario aims to have a dedicated occupational disease response team in place by the end of the year to improve prevention and enforcement, as well as help workers who get sick from chemical exposures file compensation claims, the Star has learned.

Michael Speers, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Labour, said it was “critical” that job-related illnesses be treated with the same gravity as physical injuries in the workplace, which have declined over the past decade.

Last month, a Star investigation on the struggle of hundreds of former General Electric workers in Peterborough to get compensation for often terminal illnesses like brain cancer highlighted criticism that occupational disease in the province is often not monitored, reported or compensated.

Currently, the province does not have a comprehensive system to do so. The Workplace Safety and Insurance Board’s voluntary database for “unplanned exposure incidents” retains minimal information about individual cases that is not widely shared with the Ministry of Labour.

Speers said the ministry is exploring ways to improve information sharing, including linking work history with electronic medical records, tracking dangerous substances in workplaces through the public health system and improving awareness about hazardous exposures.

Meanwhile, Labour Minister Kevin Flynn is to meet with former GE workers Tuesday, where he will talk about “supports available and required, and to listen to their concerns and input as we move forward with the strategy to deal with the issue of occupational diseases.”

Sue James, whose father, Gord Rath, worked at GE Peterborough for 30 years and died with a tumour on his lung and four on his spine, called the proposed measures a “good start,” but said her priority was new legislation to make it easier for former industrial workers to get compensation.

So-called presumptive legislation assumes that certain diseases are work-related unless employers can prove otherwise. In Ontario, firefighters are automatically entitled to compensation for several kinds of cancers unless their employers show the conditions were not caused by work. First responders such as police and paramedics are also covered by presumptive legislation for post-traumatic stress disorder.

“To me, that’s the bottom line: historical presumptive legislation for industrial workers,” said James, who also worked at GE for more than three decades. “These people that are dying are trying to protect their family and leave them with something.”

Under Ontario’s worker compensation model, employees give up their right to sue their employer in exchange for the ability to claim benefits when they are injured or fall ill because of work.

The Star’s investigation revealed decades’ worth of government reports that repeatedly warned of poor housekeeping, shoddy ventilation, lack of personal protective equipment, and noted the sheer volume of materials now known to be carcinogenic historically used at GE. The company says it has always taken the health and safety of its employees seriously and that “as more information became available about chemical use, GE, like other industrial companies, reduced or eliminated their usage.”

Former workers interviewed by the Star, most with decades of service at GE, described a workplace where asbestos fibres floated thick in the air, where open pots of lead and mercury dotted the shop floor, and where 23 massive dip tanks of varnishes and solvents used to coat and degrease motors belched fumes throughout the plant.

But around half of the 660 compensation claims filed by former employees have been rejected, abandoned or withdrawn for apparently insufficient evidence. Critics say the standard of proof workers are expected to provide compensation boards is often unrealistically high, and research also suggests that the vast majority of sick workers never file claims because they are not even aware their illness could be work related.

Cindy Forster, the NDP’s labour critic, said she believed the current system made it very difficult for workers or grieving families to make compensation claims when occupational illness strikes.

“I think WSIB is just full of delay and bureaucracy,” Forster told the Star. “They are a beast of the government. And I think that the government needs to step in to make sure the agency is working for the workers and not having people have to jump through all of these hoops.”

In a statement to the Star, a WSIB spokesperson, Christine Arnott, said the board supports the Ministry of Labour’s proposed reforms to prevent occupational disease.

“We also are committed to continuing to invest in education resources in support of Ontario’s universities and medical schools and for practicing physicians,” Arnott said. “While long latency disease claims account for a very small portion of claims filed with the WSIB, sadly they are among some of the most serious and have devastating impacts on workers and their families.”