Deeming - it's just wrong!

Fact sheet

Fact sheet: Deeming is demeaning! (November 2010) [pdf]

"Deeming" refers to the practice used by the workers’ compensation Board to decide the compensation that it will pay for loss of earnings as a result of workplace injury or illness. It reduces a permanently injured worker’s loss of earning benefits under the pretence that the worker is employed. This systemically leads to poverty among injured workers...

See also Injured Workers' Action for Justice (IW4J) [brochure].

The reality of deeming - an injured worker's story

In this Operation Maple video Tewduda, an injured personal support worker (member of the Women of Inspiration support group) shares her reality. Deemed in April 2011, her benefits are extremely low. A single mother with teenage children at school, she almost lost her rental unit due to her low income. These types of problems with the Board not only affect injured workers but also their families. She was left in severe poverty and with a disability for life. Most likely, she will not find suitable employment due to her English skills, age and level of disability. As USW's Nancy Hutchison explains, many injured workers suffer similar situations when they are deemed - the time to stop this practice is now!

Background & commentary

Injured workers need permanent compensation for permanent injury. The wage loss system has been distorted and is not being calculated as Hon. Gregory Sorbara intended it when he introduced the legislation in 1989. Low wage earners end up with little or no compensation and no retraining even if they can actually never return to employment : a "phantom wage for a phantom job".

Injured workers should at least be compensated for their actual loss of wages and they should be entitled to at least one year of job search assistance. If there is a disability for life, there should be a pension for life.

There should be no reduction in benefits if an injured worker gets Canada Pension Disability benefits. The injured worker has paid for those benefits. Ontario should negotiate with the federal government to maintain contributions to the CPP for those injured workers who can neither work nor receive the Canada Pension Disability benefit.  (source: Toronto Injured Workers Advocacy Group)

The Board, in its September 2005 response to the Minister, committed to a policy review that would give injured workers "greater flexibility and fairness"; however the policies under the Bill 187 leave injured workers worse off than before...

Read more....

  • "IWC submission regarding Bill 187 July 2007 interim policies - Deeming adds insult to injury" (November 2007)
  • Injured Workers History Project bulletin #4: "Deeming - it's just wrong!" [pdf]
  • "ONIWG submission to the Minister on Bill 187" with suggested amendments on deeming (April 18, 2007)