Strike or Lockout? 3,600 Worker Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) employees are not at work
6 weeks later - workload major issue
Every weekday for the last six weeks, Kingston area members of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) - Ontario Compensation Employees Union (OCEU) have been on the picket line at the corner of Sir John A. Macdonald and John Counter Boulevards. Their 3,000+ union colleagues are on picket lines at other WSIB locations in the province.
The WSIB is an arms-length agency of the provincial government established under Ontario’s Workplace Safety and Insurance Act. It provides “no fault” coverage to workers injured on the job in a wide-range of work places including construction, mining, manufacturing, hospitality, and retail.
The “collective goal” set out in the CEO’s and Board Chair’s signed statement in the WSIB’s 2023 Annual Report is “reducing the impact of workplace illness and injury on people and businesses in Ontario.”
According to CUPE-OCEU local 1750 president Harry Goslin, WSIB employees are responsible for distributing $2.5 billion in benefit payments annually. Their work includes responding to calls from injured workers, claims assessment, assisting injured workers to access needed medical care, and helping with back-to-work programs. In some cases, they are responding to the needs of grievously injured people and their families. In all cases, injured workers are worried about their recovery and income.
Aaron Lazarus, WSIB vice-president communications, agrees that the work is “tough. People helping people who have had something happen to them.” He also confirmed that workload has been an issue, saying that the peak in 2021 has been reduced and that management has a 25-year plan to do more in that regard.
Mr. Lazarus described the job action as “disappointing.”
The union leadership expresses disappointment as well, waiting for management to table a final best offer that the union can take to their members.
The sides do not even agree on how workers ended up on the picket line. The union says that they were having a work-to-rule day in May focused on completing required on-line learning certificates and that management locked them out. Management says that no work was being done by noon that day so access to the workplace computer systems was cut off.
Earlier this week, each side met with mediator, Brian O’Byrne, the current chair of the Ontario Labour Relations Board. The parties have not met together face-to-face for some time.
While the union and management wrangle over a settlement, services to injured workers in the province continue with some gaps. The appeals process, for example, is on hold.
For now, CUPE-OCEU workers in Kingston are holding the line.
