Challenge comes same week WSIB announces 2023 adjustment
The Ontario Network of Injured Workers Groups (ONIWG) has filed a court application challenging the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board’s (WSIB) cost-of-living adjustment for 2022, claiming it does not abide by the law.
The rate for 2022 was set at 2.7 percent, but the ONIWG says it should have been set at 4.7 percent, resulting in a 2 percent loss for workers.
“We're talking about an organization that has been repeatedly cutting benefits to injured and ill workers,” alleges Janet Paterson, president of the ONIWG.
Every year, the WSIB adjusts workers benefits for inflation, and Canada’s inflation rate has been soaring over the past couple of years, with the Bank of Canada hiking interest rates repeatedly to try and bring it under control.
The ONIWG says the WSIB has not been following the rules for calculating the cost-of-living adjustment set out in Section 49 (1) of the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act (WSIA). It states “an indexing factor shall be calculated that is equal to the amount of the percentage change in the Consumer Price Index for Canada for all items, for the 12-month period ending on October 31 of the previous year, as published by Statistics Canada."
In a statement to Canadian Occupational Safety, the WSIB says it uses an averaging method similar to the one used by the Canada Pension Plan to calculate cost-of-living increases.
“For 2022, the WSIB used the 12-month average consumer price index (CPI) from the period November 1, 2020 to October 31, 2021 and compared it to the 12-month average CPI from the period November 1, 2019 to October 31, 2020.”
The difference being the WSIA states it should be based on the CPI at the end of October, while the WSIB is basing it on an average calculated over the course of 12 months.
The WSIB defends the practice saying, “using the average over the year, rather than a point-in-time change in CPI, is a more reasonable reflection of the inflation over the entire year.”
The court challenge to the 2022 rate comes the same week the WSIB announced the 2023 rate will be 6.5 percent.
Monte McNaughton, Minister of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development is quoted in a WSIB press release saying, “people who are injured or fall ill at work should have the confidence they will get the help they need as quickly as possible and our government is making that happen.”
But Paterson disagrees, saying the province has not taken action to ensure sick and injured workers receive the compensation they are entitled to.
“Earlier this year, we called on Premier Ford to meet with us and instruct the WSIB to properly apply the law and WSIB policy. We received no response. As a result, we are asking the Court to review WSIB's unreasonable decision to give injured workers 2% less than what they are owed in 2022."
Paterson adds, the cost-of-living adjustment for 2023 of 6.5 percent also falls short, claiming it should be 6.9 percent.
