An injured steel worker fired for taking a side job in exchange for food, after his employer didn’t pay him and he couldn’t afford to eat. An injured autoworker fired for failing to meet production targets, after her employer assigned her a “modified” job that went against her doctor’s orders.An injured temp agency worker fired for using his phone during a “modified” shift that an independent tribunal said provided him “little, if anything” to do. All are Ontario employees who were told by the provincial workers’ compensation board that their bosses were within their rights to terminate them, despite legal provisions meant to protect employees from unfairly losing their jobs after an accident.Half of all appeals made on that issue to the Workplace Safety and Insurance Appeals Tribunal over the past decade resulted in the tribunal slapping down decisions by the province’s compensation board, the Star has found, forcing injured workers into lengthy legal battles to enforce basic protections.“This is absolutely an enormous issue. It starts at the front line of adjudication, and it starts with the power imbalance between workers and employers,” said Maryth Yachnin, a lawyer at the Industrial Accident Victims’ Group of Ontario legal clinic.“It results in a culture where the worker is being disbelieved at every turn.”Under Ontario law, employers must offer accident victims jobs that are suitable, sustainable and productive for at least a year after they are fit enough to work. If the worker gets fired within six months of returning, their employer must prove to the compensation board that they are not terminating them because of their injury. The Star found 55 cases over the past decade at WSIAT, the highest level appeal for workplace compensation matters, all involving injured workers who were fired shortly after returning to work, but where the compensation board accepted ...
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