https://justcompensation.ca/2018/12/05/ontario-open-for-harassment/#more-626
Author: Janet
Women in precarious job situations vulnerable to workplace harassment
Statement by the Prime Minister on the International Day of Persons with Disabilities
Did you know that 6.2 million persons identified with a disability in 2017 in the Canada Census? Did you know that more than 25% of these identified with a workplace injury? https://pm.gc.ca/eng/news/2018/12/03/statement-prime-minister-international-day-persons-disabilities
Canada accedes to the Optional Protocol to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
December 3, 2018 Ottawa, Ontario Employment and Social Development Canada
The Government of Canada is working to create a truly accessible Canada. Today, as part of these efforts, the Honourable Carla Qualtrough, Minister of Public Services and Procurement and Accessibility, along with the ministers of Justice, Foreign Affairs and Canadian Heritage, announced that, with the support of all provinces and territories, Canada has acceded to the Optional Protocol to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
Accession to the Optional Protocol means that Canadians will have additional recourse to make a complaint to the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, if they believe their rights under the Convention have been violated.
Along with the proposed Accessible Canada Act, which was recently adopted by the House of Commons and is now before the Senate, today’s announcement shows that the Government of Canada is taking another step towards creating a barrier-free Canada.
Recently released data from Statistics Canada reinforce the importance of a more inclusive and accessible Canada. The 2017 Canadian Survey on Disabilities shows that the prevalence of disabilities among Canadians is greater than many realize, with 22% of Canadians identifying as having a disability. The new data will be used by the federal government to help build a more inclusive society that benefits all people in Canada – especially persons with disabilities – through the realization of a Canada without barriers.
Quotes
“Over the last year, our government has taken important steps to help realize a barrier-free Canada. Today, on the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, we celebrate those accomplishments and look towards the future of accessibility in Canada with optimism. Canada’s accession to the Optional Protocol of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities builds on our work and sends a clear message that we are committed to the rights of persons with disabilities and committed to giving all Canadians a fair chance at success.”
– The Honourable Carla Qualtrough, Minister of Public Services and Procurement and Accessibility
“Canada joining this UN convention is about protecting and promoting the rights and dignity of persons with disabilities. As a country, we need to ensure that everyone has access to the same opportunities and enjoys the same rights. Today is a step forward to making that goal a reality.”
– The Honourable Chrystia Freeland, P.C., M.P., Minister of Foreign Affairs
“I am proud that the Government of Canada is taking this step to advance the rights of persons with disabilities. Enabling the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities to consider complaints of violations of rights under the Convention is an important way to strengthen and protect the human rights of Canadians with disabilities.”
– The Honourable Jody Wilson-Raybould, P.C., Q.C., M.P., Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada
“Promoting and advancing human rights for everyone is a fundamental part of our Canadian identity. It is important that federal, provincial and territorial governments continue to work together to uphold the rights of persons with disabilities. I am proud of the intergovernmental consultation held in support of Canada’s accession to the Optional Protocol to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and I look forward to driving further change.”
The Honourable Pablo Rodriguez, Minister of Canadian Heritage and Multiculturalism
“This announcement regarding the Optional Protocol, along with this government’s intention to pass the proposed Accessible Canada Act, sends a strong message to Canadians with and without disabilities that this government truly believes in inclusion and equality for all. This is one positive step to ensuring that Canadians with intellectual disabilities have their voices heard and that we are one step closer to ensuring we are not the left behind of the left behind.”
– Kory Earle, President, People First of Canada
Quick facts
- The United Nations (UN) Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (the Convention) is an international human rights instrument that requires State Parties to the Convention to promote, protect and ensure the rights of persons with disabilities. Canada ratified the Convention in 2010.
- The Optional Protocol establishes two procedures. The first is a complaint procedure that allows individuals and groups to take complaints to the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in the case of an alleged violation of their rights under the Convention. The second is an inquiry procedure that allows the Committee to inquire into allegations of grave or systematic violations of the Convention by a State Party.
- The UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities is a body of independent experts that monitors the implementation of the Convention by States Parties.
- As of November 2018, there are 177 States Parties to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, with 93 States Parties to the Optional Protocol to the Convention.
- Under Bill C-81, approximately $290 million over six years would serve to further the objectives of the proposed legislation.
- One in five people—22 percent of the Canadian population aged 15 years and over, or about 6.2 million individuals—had one or more disabilities, according to the 2017 Canadian Survey on Disabilities.
- The survey also reports that people with severe disabilities aged 25 to 64 years are more likely to be living in poverty than their counterparts without disabilities (17 percent) or with milder disabilities (23 percent).
WSIB employees decry ‘broken’ system Long wait times, understaffing put injured workers at risk, internal messages warn
Sara Mojtehedzadeh Toronto Star
The Toronto Star Dec. 10, 2018
Chronic understaffing, long wait times and chaotic case management at Ontario’s workers compensation board are putting vulnerable accident victims at risk, compromising the integrity of the provincial compensation system and jeopardizing financial accountability, according to the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board’s own employees.
Staff made the criticisms in response to a September blog post by WSIB president Tom Teahen, which solicited feedback on whether the board was making Ontario a safer place to work, improving recovery for injured workers, meeting customers’ needs and acting in a financially responsible manner.
On all four counts, the 60 responses obtained by the Star through a freedom of information request show the answer was overwhelmingly no.
“Accident rates are going up while resolutions to (injured worker) claims are going down,” said one employee. “There are not enough people to process work and queues keep piling up, while people that are disabled from a workplace injury are waiting for someone to get back to them. I find that embarrassing.”
In another post, an employee complained they were “frustrated” by delays faced by injured workers calling the board for help, some of whom have post-traumatic stress disorder.
The employee said call wait times could sometimes mount to 20 minutes – enough time for “somebody to give up and take their own life.”
“It is not unheard of that clients complain of waiting in excess of 30 minutes to reach the right person,” said another employee.
“If you can’t help an injured worker who’s (sic) literal livelihood depends on the WSIB within a reasonable time frame, that’s an incredible shortfall,” the employee said.
The September blog post came in the wake of a new service delivery model – rolled out in July at the board – which aims to make the compensation claim process more effective and “help people recover and return to work quicker.” The change came in response to rising claim duration and recovery times.
Under the new model, injury claims no longer have a dedicated case manager. Instead, callers go into a general pool and are triaged based on the complexity of the case. The idea is that complex claims get more focused attention from experienced staff, while uncontentious claims are processed more efficiently.
WSIB chief operating officer Brian Jarvis said in an interview with the Star last week that the new model experienced some early “bumps on the road,” but said statistics already show 95 per cent of injured workers are now receiving compensation decisions within 10 days, up from 89 per cent in May, and that 60 per cent were back on the job in days, up from 51 per cent.
“We’re trying to help the injured workers that come to us every day who need our help and need our support, and we’re seeing examples of how we’re doing better recently than we were prior to making these changes,” he said.
Statistics obtained by the Star through its freedom of information request, which also sought all records pertaining to the new service delivery model, show average call wait times were up from 39 seconds in 2017 to almost two-and-a-half minutes in 2018.
Jarvis said wait times are now under two minutes “on most days.”
Numerous employees complained that losing ownership over claim files meant they had to start from scratch each time an injured worker or an employer called them.
“As all of our telephone conversations are recorded, there is no reason senior management would not (be) able to hear the stress, fear, anger and uncertainty that front-line staff hear every day,” said one employee.
“I continue to see obscenely long claims durations (which, of course, is not financially responsible) and an inability to attend to every claim to provide the service each worker, employer or provider deserve.”
“Please do not add further chaos to an already broken model,” said another.
While numerous employees said there was a need for change at the board, the vast majority raised significant concerns about the new approach – and more importantly, the lack of staff available to make it work.
Staff are “burning out due to the unmanageable caseloads yet we are being told to ‘do more with less.’ Not sure how that is humanly possible,” said one employee, while another called the number of empty desks due to stress leave “staggering.”
“This work environment not only adds undue stress, it is teetering on compromising my professional standards, which I am not OK with,” added one registered nurse at the board.
The records obtained by the Star show that there has been a 33 per cent increase in allowed lost-time injury claims between 2015 and 2018, from 51,500 to almost 70,000 projected claims this year.
But despite this increased volume, the number of front-line staff at the board fell by 9 per cent over the same period.
There are currently 785 case managers and adjudicators at the board, down from 815 in 2015.
“We are drowning,” said one employee in response to Teahen’s blog.
Harry Goslin, president of the Ontario Compensation Employees Union, said he has “continued to raise concerns about rising work volumes.”
“The WSIB on the other hand maintains the view that there is not a workload problem,” he told the Star.
As previously reported by the Star, a January poll conducted by the union found that 90 per cent of the 263 employees surveyed said work-related stress was impacting their personal lives and 92 per cent attributed the workload issues to understaffing at the WSIB.
Asked if the board would commit to hiring more front-line staff, Jarvis said his organization would replace staff who retired or were moved within the organization, but said hiring was “based on the data that shows how much activities and claims we have.”
Employees made clear in their responses to Teahen’s blog that they cared deeply about serving Ontarians and the integrity of the compensation system.
“Our founding father created a fair compensation system whereby workers gave up their right to sue their employers in exchange for a fair and compassionate system that adjudicated (a claim) on the basis of its own merit,” said one 30-year veteran.
“How can adjudicators make the best possible decisions if they are short-changed in training, do not have enough people to do the job, have unreasonable time frames, and have processes in place that short-change the worker?”
“We as the employees of WSIB do care about the outcomes for our workers and the experience they have,” added another.
“We want to be proud of where we work and say what good things we are doing. Right now, I am not feeling that.”
Justice for Migrant Workers Is Asking for Support
Justice for Migrant Workers organized an action this week in support of Ralston Maise, an injured migrant worker who is getting no workers’ compensation or health care.
Justicia is asking people to call the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) and urge them to provide immediate support to Ralston and better protections for all injured migrant workers. More info, including a template for calling in and emailing, is available athttps://harvestingfreedom.org/2018/12/10/take-action-in-solidarity-with-ralston-maise/
Already so many people have called in with their support! Thanks especially to the many injured workers at the Workers’ Comp Is A Right Toronto demonstration who called in showing their solidarity!