Permanently injured workers are having their benefits slashed because the provincial compensation board deems them capable of doing “imaginary” jobs with “ghost wages,” a new report says — even though the board’s own audits have identified significant barriers to finding real employment.The study, based on freedom-of-information requests, focuses on a practice known as deeming. That refers to when the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board “deems” a permanently injured worker employable in a new job, and then reduces their compensation accordingly — regardless of whether they’ve actually found employment.The data shows that these workers, some of whom have been left with life-changing physical restrictions, face significant barriers in finding a job. In some cases only a small portion are actually successful. For example, just 27 per cent of injured workers with English language barriers who completed a WSIB work transition program found a real job at the end of it, according to the board’s internal audits. Some job categories for these workers had a zero per cent employment rate.“For these unemployed workers, the WSIB simply waves a magic wand and assigns an imaginary job with an imaginary wage,” the report by the Ontario Network of Injured Workers’ Groups and the Injured Workers Community Legal Clinic says.“The WSIB then cuts the worker’s benefits, by pretending that the worker is earning actual wages from the imaginary job.”Around 6 per cent of workplace accidents — or around 3,000 — result in permanent impairments every year, according to WSIB data. Many of these workers successfully return to their accident employer. The report released Wednesday, entitled Phantom Jobs and Empty Pockets, focuses on those who can’t.“For short-term and visible injuries, the system works fairly well. Workers with these kinds of injuries usually receive b ...
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