The Decisions of the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The 2016 decisions of the Workplace Safety and Insurance Appeals Tribunal tell a stark and troubling story. In hundreds of appeals, Tribunal decision makers comment that the decisions of the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board are “unreasonable” and “arbitrary,” ignore the “unanimous opinions” of doctors, are based on “not a single word of medical or other reliable evidence,” and could place the worker at “medical risk.”
The Tribunal’s decisions confirm what workers and health care professionals have been saying since 2010: in order to get its financial house in order, the Board is disregarding the safety, health and dignity of workers who are injured on the job. It is abdicating its statutory duty to compensate workers and help them recover and return to work.
In No Evidence, we expose the decision making of the WSIB through an in-depth analysis of the Tribunal’s 2016 decisions. The four primary findings include:
1. The Board regularly fails to listen to treating health care professionals about whether return to work is safe.
2. The Board has reversed benefits it had promised to the most vulnerable workers.
3. The Board wrongly denies compensation based on “pre-existing conditions. ”
4. The Board targets workers with mental health conditions for denial of benefits and treatment, increased scrutiny and surveillance.
http://iavgo.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/No-Evidence-Final-Report.pdf