Last week the Ford government announced it was handing $2 billion in surplus WSIB funds as special rebates to employers – a hugely generous gift to them and another insult to injured workers.
Even in the midst of an affordability crisis, the Ford Conservatives didn’t spare a thought for the injured workers who are struggling with drastically higher costs for housing, groceries and other necessities. They didn’t extend their generosity to workers who need safe workplaces or who aren’t covered by WSIB.
Rebates to employers make up the lion’s share of an overall $2.5 billion payout from WSIB. The overall amount includes a refund of $2 billion to employers; a $150 million to reduce WSIB premium rates; and another $400 million for workplace health and safety programs.
With even a small portion of those WSIB billions, the Ford PCs could have
- restored loss-of-earnings coverage from the current 85% to 90% of an injured worker’s gross earnings; that bump would have raised Ontario’s coverage up to the levels that injured workers get in Alberta, Saskatchewan and BC
- expanded WSIB coverage to more Ontario workers, which is what the government’s own WSIB agency review recommended; Ford PCs ignored that recommendation and Ontario’s coverage rate remains low, with 1.56 million workers excluded from the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act and left to fend for themselves when they’re injured at work
- given additional funding for the six Ontario health and safety associations, whose budgets have been flatlined since 2010 and whose health and safety experts invest in workplace safety and education
For decades, Conservative and Liberal governments have favoured employers over workers when it comes to WSIB, beginning with the Harris government’s cut of loss-of-earnings benefits from 90% to 85%.
Other numbers tell the same story: in 2012, average premium rates were $2.40 per $100 earnings; in 2023, they had fallen to $1.30 per $100 earnings, and this most recent announcement takes them to $1.25 per $100 earnings. In the same period, the government gave special rebates to employers: in 2022, they got $1.5 billion in the midst of the pandemic. With this latest $2 billion, total special rebates amount to a staggering $3.5 billion in less than three years – all while benefit levels for injured workers stagnate and are eroded by inflation.
Expanding who’s covered by WSIB would more than pay for itself by increasing the premiums that are paid. Expanding WSIB coverage to more Ontario workers can be counted on to I WSIB costs by $205 million for currently covered employers. Over the long term, having more workers enrolled would reduce costs to OHIP by $107 million, and improve wage replacement by $41 million for workers not currently covered.
For years, CUPE Ontario, the Injured Workers Committee and the Ontario Compensation Employees Union/CUPE 1750, which represents workers at WSIB, have raised the alarm that benefits rates for injured workers are too low to support families. Injured CUPE members report the same thing: they can’t provide for their own and their families’ basic needs on WSIB benefits.
In no sense have workers benefited from the WSIB’s massive surpluses the way employers have: since 2017, employers received $18.6 billion in premium rate cuts, while injured workers got nothing.
Injured workers need increased benefits and supports; more Ontario workers need coverage; and all workers have the right to safe workplaces. We won’t get any of these from the Ford Conservatives.
