June 1, 2009 - Injured Workers' Day
On June 1st every year, injured workers and labour activists gather at Queen's Park in Toronto and at other locations in cities across the province to mark Injured Workers' Day. It commemorates the events of June 1st 1983 when thousands of injured workers came to Queen's Park to speak against the government's proposal to eliminate the permanent disability pension. The government listened and set aside the proposal.
For a brief history of Injured Workers' Day, take a look at this IWHP Bulletin 1.
This year injured workers are faced with the argument that they should have less than full justice because there is an economic crisis. But workers and injured workers did not bring about the economic crisis. Workers' compensation was created to be a system of justice in good and bad economic times. Employers are protected from lawsuits in good economic times and bad. Injured workers must be protected from poverty at all times as well.
The road to justice for injured workers still stretches far ahead. This year, the Canadian Labour Congress has joined us to mark June 1st as a national injured workers day. Workers from across Canada will use this day to organize rallies, public awareness events and lobby governments to improve health and safety and workers' compensation laws.
In Ontario , workers are asking the government to:
- address injured worker poverty by eliminating deeming and fully protecting workers' compensation benefits against increases in inflation
- extend workers' compensation coverage to protect all workers and to cover all occupational diseases, from both physical hazards and occupational stresses
- end the experience rating system that rewards employers who fail to report workplace injuries and drains hundreds of millions of dollars from the system every year
- restore the independence of the Appeals Tribunal from WCB/WSIB policy, independence that existed prior to the Harris government
