Labour Pains: An Injured Worker Podcast

The WSIB has announced major staff reductions, cutting hundreds of jobs across Ontario. These cuts raise important questions for injured workers: waiting times, the quality of decision making, and access to benefits and support that injured workers depend on.

In this latest episode of Labour Pains, staff lawyer Tebasum Durrani is speaking with Harry Gosslin, President of CUPE Local 1750, which represents WSIB employees.

Labour Pains: An Injured Worker Podcast (formerlyInjuredWorkerCast) features conversations in the field of health & safety and workers’ compensation in Ontario, Canada and beyond.

It is produced by Injured Workers Community Legal Clinic, and is not a substitute for professional legal advice.

For more information on workers compensation issues, campaigns, and resources, visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠injuredworkersonline.org⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

Music by David Newberry

Audio Editing by Hesham Ghobarah

Occupational diseases can often seem invisible. Unlike a traumatic workplace injury, these illnesses often develop slowly, after years of breathing toxic dust, handling hazardous chemicals, or working in environments that cumulatively damage the body over time. And for many workers, by the time symptoms appear, proving that their illness was caused by work becomes an uphill battle.

In the latest episode of Labour Pains, we’re speaking with Janice Martell, one of Canada’s leading advocates for workers suffering from occupational disease. Through her groundbreaking work documenting the harms of McIntyre Powder exposure in miners, and now her advocacy around sarcoidosis and other emerging occupational illnesses, Janice has helped expose the gaps in how the WSIB recognizes diseases caused by workplace exposure.

Janice has launched a new voluntary registry open to all Ontario workers with a diagnosis of sarcoidosis. This is the first step in researching the relationship between work and this disease. Affected workers (or next-of-kin) can reach the registry by calling 705-822-3171.

Labour Pains: An Injured Worker Podast (formerly InjuredWorkerCast) features conversations in the field of health & safety and workers’ compensation in Ontario, Canada and beyond. 

It is produced by Injured Workers Community Legal Clinic, and is not a substitute for professional legal advice.

For more information on workers compensation issues, campaigns, and resources, visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠injuredworkersonline.org⁠⁠⁠⁠.

Music and Audio Editing by David Newberry.

In this episode we break down the Ontario Government’s proposed amendments to the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act, as part of Bill 105, and the implications for injured & ill workers. If passed, these changes would be the most significant amendments to the compensation system in decades, and would impact how lost wages compensation is managed over time. The possible end of lock in provisions could have wide-ranging consequences for permanently injured workers and the security and stability of their compensation. While expanding coverage to include workers in private residential facilities and retirement homes, increasing the benefit rate to 90 per cent and getting rid of the age 65 cut off are steps in the right direction, the amendments do not go far enough in properly addressing and rectifying historic injustices faced by injured workers. Join IWC caseworkers Tebasum Durani, John McKinnon, Chris Grawey and Orlando Buonastella in unpacking the substance of the proposed amendments, and their potential impacts.

Labour Pains: An Injured Worker Podast (formerly InjuredWorkerCast) features conversations in the field of health & safety and workers’ compensation in Ontario, Canada and beyond. 

It is produced by Injured Workers Community Legal Clinic, and is not a substitute for professional legal advice.

For more information on workers compensation issues, campaigns, and resources, visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠injuredworkersonline.org⁠⁠⁠⁠.

Music and Audio Editing by David Newberry.

Today’s episode is a discussion about how (and what) prescription medication is covered in Ontario, and whether or not it is time to expand that coverage. Our guest is MPP Robin Lennox, who recently introduced a motion calling on the Ontario government to expand the Ontario Drug Benefit.

Labour Pains: An Injured Worker Podast (formerly InjuredWorkerCast) features conversations in the field of health & safety and workers’ compensation in Ontario, Canada and beyond. 

It is produced by Injured Workers Community Legal Clinic, and is not a substitute for professional legal advice.

For more information on workers compensation issues, campaigns, and resources, visit ⁠⁠⁠injuredworkersonline.org⁠⁠⁠.

Music and Audio Editing by David Newberry.

Today’s episode features contributions from legal experts John McKinnon and Chris Grawey, both of Injured Workers Community Legal Aid Clinic. 

In today's episode, we're examining a little-known but deeply consequential policy: the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act's cutoff of wage loss benefits at the age of 65. On paper, it might sound like just another administrative rule. In practice, it raises serious questions about age discrimination, economic security, and fairness for injured workers, particularly older workers who are still part of the workforce.

Labour Pains: An Injured Worker Podast (formerly InjuredWorkerCast) features conversations in the field of health & safety and workers’ compensation in Ontario, Canada and beyond. 

It is produced by Injured Workers Community Legal Clinic, and is not a substitute for professional legal advice.

For more information on workers compensation issues, campaigns, and resources, visit ⁠⁠⁠injuredworkersonline.org⁠⁠⁠.

Music and Audio Editing by David Newberry.

Today’s episode features contributions from Steve Mantis and Marion Endicott, co-authors of “Who Killed Sir William? A Community-University Research Alliance Seeks Justice for Injured Workers.”

On the surface, “Who Killed Sir William” is a book about workers compensation and community/university research partnerships, but it is much more than that. It is a blueprint for building alliances that can push back against the forces that have made life difficult for all marginalized people. 

Labour Pains: An Injured Worker Podast (formerly InjuredWorkerCast) features conversations in the field of health & safety and workers’ compensation in Ontario, Canada and beyond. 

It is produced by Injured Workers Community Legal Clinic, and is not a substitute for professional legal advice.

For more information on workers compensation issues, campaigns, and resources, visit ⁠⁠⁠injuredworkersonline.org⁠⁠⁠.

Music and Audio Editing by David Newberry.

The City of Toronto is considering a bylaw that would restrict protest around what they are calling “vulnerable areas”. 

Today, Tebasum Durani discusses the broader implications of this proposal on the community - and on injured workers - with Jack Copple.

Jack Copple

Jack Copple is an Organizer with the Toronto & York Region Labour Council. The Toronto & York Region Labour Council represents over 200,000 workers from diverse sectors across the Toronto region. Committed to fighting for economic, social, racial and climate justice, the Council works tirelessly to create a fair and equitable future for all

Further reading and resources:

https://www.labourcouncil.ca/

https://www.labourcouncil.ca/protect-our-charter-rights/

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/rally-against-proposal-for-bubble-zone-bylaw-1.7513363

Labour Pains: An Injured Worker Podast (formerly InjuredWorkerCast) features conversations in the field of health & safety and workers’ compensation in Ontario, Canada and beyond. 

It is produced by Injured Workers Community Legal Clinic, and is not a substitute for professional legal advice.

For more information on workers compensation issues, campaigns, and resources, visit ⁠⁠injuredworkersonline.org⁠⁠.

Music and Audio Editing by David Newberry.

Today Tebasum Durani speaks to a worker named Margery about working in extreme temperatures, as well as to OFL President Laura Walton and MPP Peter Tabuns about the dangers of heat in the workplace and what needs to be done to keep workers safe.

Sources:

Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safetyinformation on risks of working in the cold.

Laurentian University Study on Heat Stress and Workplace Death.

Labour Pains: An Injured Worker Podast (formerly InjuredWorkerCast) features conversations in the field of health & safety and workers’ compensation in Ontario, Canada and beyond. 

It is produced by Injured Workers Community Legal Clinic, and is not a substitute for professional legal advice.

For more information on workers compensation issues,campaigns, and resources, visit⁠injuredworkersonline.org⁠.

Music and Audio Editing by David Newberry.

Today we’re hearing from Tebasum Durani and John McKinnon, who are both lawyers at IWC. John and Tabasum are discussing how Ontario’s Workplace Safety and Insurance board - or WSIB - is funded, why it is funded that way, and also a controversial decision for Ontario’s WSIB to hand over $2.5 billion dollars to employers in the lead up to an anticipated spring election.

What Injured Workers Need⁠ document.

Labour Pains: An Injured Worker Podast (formerly InjuredWorkerCast) features conversations in the field of health & safety and workers’ compensation in Ontario, Canada and beyond. 

It is produced by Injured Workers Community Legal Clinic, and is not a substitute for professional legal advice.

For more information on workers compensation issues,campaigns, and resources, visit injuredworkersonline.org.

Music and Audio Editing by David Newberry.