In a bid to revamp how injured temporary foreign workers are compensated, WSIB may pay out millions
The Workplace Safety and Insurance Board could pay out millions in retroactive compensation to injured temporary foreign workers as it re-examines 50 claims filed by migrant workers since 2007.
The WSIB on Wednesday said it is revamping how it compensates injured migrant workers and is implementing a new foreign agricultural worker strategy “that emphasizes recovery and return to work in Ontario,” for the workers.
“These are people who come to work our farms, grow our food and contribute to our economy,” said WSIB president Jeff Lang in a statement.
“We expect the payments could be just over $10 million.”
Thousands of migrant workers leave their homes and families each year to toil on Canadian farms, contributing to an industry that makes up more than seven per cent of Canada’s GDP. Ontario’s fruit and vegetable sectors alone generate more than $4.2 billion annually in economic activity, representing more than a third of Canada’s total production, according to the Ontario Fruit and Vegetable Growers’ Association.
‘These are some of the most vulnerable people’
As Canada cements its place as the world’s fifth-largest agricultural exporter, the government expects to meet a lofty target of $95 billion in agri-food exports by 2028, according to Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, a $39-billion increase from 2016 when agri-food exports amounted to $56 billion.
“These are some of the most vulnerable people,” Lang said in an email. “They came to work in Ontario, they got hurt, they got sent back to their home countries, and they got dinged for not being from Ontario.”
The WSIB pays workers 85 per cent of their salary if they are hurt on the job and unable to return to that role, but claws back money that could be earned if they were able to return to work in Ontario.
Lang says that is not fair because migrant workers who return home after injury usually earn far less in their countries than if they worked the same job in Ontario full-time.
Lang says he is sorry for what he called the province’s unfair treatment of injured migrant workers.
Years ago, four injured migrant workers in similar situations went to the Workplace Safety and Insurance Appeals Tribunal to argue for better compensation.
Last September, the tribunal ruled that the WSIB was wrong to assume seasonal migrant workers were eligible for a maximum of 12 weeks of income-loss compensation through the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program if they had been injured.
It noted that the loss-of-earnings provisions of the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act assumed that after three months, all workers could return to work either in Ontario or their home country, without taking into account workers’ actual circumstances, such as whether they had recovered from their injury, were capable of working or finding a job.
‘You are going to be treated equally’
The tribunal ruled that was not appropriate.
“It is not appropriate to limit their entitlement to long-term (loss of employment) benefits to 12 weeks in every case without regard for their individual circumstances,” it wrote.
“For the reasons set out in this decision, the panel concludes: The long-term (loss of earnings) benefits for migrant agricultural workers ought to be based upon their ability to earn in their actual local/regional labour market.
The tribunal’s decision didn’t spark change at the WSIB as it had already decided to review its interpretation of the legislation, Lang said, but it convinced the organization it was on the right path to fix the problem.
“If you’re injured while working in Ontario or become ill, you are going to be treated equally, you’re going to be treated with dignity, you’re going to be treated with respect, you’re going to be treated with compassion,” Lang said.
Advocates say that while the WSIB’s announcement is a step forward, it doesn’t go far enough in addressing systemic problems that often lead to abuse of migrant workers.
“While an important step in the right direction, these changes fail to address the full scope of exclusion faced by migrant workers in accessing workers’ compensation benefits,” said Maryth Yachnin, a lawyer with the Industrial Accident Victims’ Group of Ontario, in an email.
‘Thousands of migrant workers without essential protections’
“The WSIB’s refusal to extend the changes to workers in other migrant worker programs is leaving thousands of migrant workers without essential protections.”
Syed Hussan, executive director of Migrant Workers Alliance for Change, says many injured migrant workers are “forced to leave the country,” and because their temporary status in Canada is tied to one employer they are unlikely to complain about injury or illness for fear of deportation.
“Both the provincial and the federal government,” Hussan said, “continue take away the ability of migrants to protect themselves by denying them permanent resident status.”
Migrant workers comprised nearly one-quarter of all agricultural workers in Canada in 2021, according to Statistics Canada. More than 61,000 migrant workers were employed in Canada’s agriculture sector that year, an increase of almost 12 per cent from 2020.
With files from The Canadian Press.
This article was first reported by The Star
