TORONTO, June 01, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- June 1st marks the 37th Annual Injured Workers Day. Because of Covid-19, for the first time since 1983, our rally will not be held at Queen’s Park, but will instead take place online. Organized by the Ontario Network of Injured Workers Groups (ONIWG), the rally will be live-streamed on YouTube and Crowdcast.

While many in the province are asking when things will return to normal, injured workers are reminding the public that when it comes to health and safety at work and workers’ compensation, “normal” is not adequate. 

“Ontario’s Health and Safety and Workers Compensation systems are broken,” says Janet Paterson, president of ONIWG, “but we know what is needed to fix the system. It is time for those in power to learn and to listen.”

ONIWG is holding the online rally with the theme of #ProtectUs. Workers must be protected from danger on the job, and those who do get sick or injured must have their incomes protected without hassle or delay.

“We have workers in this province putting themselves at risk of illness or even death in order to provide essential goods and services and keep this province running,” said Paterson, “and the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board is refusing to promise that workers who get sick will be covered.”

Unfortunately, the WSIB has opted to adjudicate every instance of Coronavirus in the workplace on a case-by-case basis, leading to massive backlogs. At the moment, literally thousands of sick essential workers are waiting just to be told whether or not they have adequately proven that they caught the deadly virus at work.  Even claims from workers in hospitals and care homes have been rejected. 

“We call these workers heroes, while the WSIB is ignoring or rejecting their claims. Wouldn’t it make common sense to presume that an extremely infectious disease was contracted in their frontline workplace?” asked Willy Noiles, ONIWG’s Executive Vice President.

“Coronavirus has not created these problems, but it has brought them clearly into focus,” concludes Paterson. “We can’t go back to normal. Injured workers know that ‘normal’ was not good enough to keep us safe, and it has not provided us with adequate benefits.”

This Injured Workers Day, it is time to create meaningful change, and to show once and for all that WORKERS COMP IS A RIGHT.

Stream information can be located at www.injuredworkersonline.org.       

For more information contact:
Janet Paterson, President, ONIWG
807-472-6910
jlrwpat@tbaytel.net

Willy Noiles, Executive Vice president
289-219-4473
noiles.will29@gmail.com