The Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) is eliminating hundreds of jobs, including over 100 in Windsor, according to the union representing the workers.
The Ontario Compensation Employees Union (OCEU) says the province has given notification to 131 workers in Windsor that their jobs are redundant.
The decision comes following a province-wide review of the WSIB, an independent provincial agency that administers no-fault workplace insurance and compensation for workers in Ontario.
President of the Ontario Compensation Employees Union, Harry Goslin, says there were all kinds of reactions to the news.
“Some that felt betrayed that the organization had turned their backs on them; people were in tears and unable to continue with the meeting and were unable to work for the rest of the day,” he says.
The OCEU says the proposed closure eliminates stable, family-supporting public-sector jobs and will impact service delivery for injured workers, increase workloads, and undermine WSIB’s mandate to deliver essential services to Ontarians.
Goslin says it’s devastating.
“We’re talking about a workforce that got the organization through the pandemic and has served their communities; they’ve worked from their kitchen tables to provide workers with the services that they need,” he says.
The union says many of the impacted workers bring decades of experience working with local industries, employers, healthcare providers, and injured workers. They also have deep knowledge of healthcare systems and rehabilitation networks.
Goslin says the organization is already inundated with significant workload problems, so just imagine what it’s going to be like after these cuts.
“That is not going to be improving service; that is not going to make the organization the most sought-after workplace in the province,” he says. “It’s going to be undermining those workers that we serve. It’s going to delay their return calls, it will delay decisions, and it will delay access to healthcare.”
A total of 466 WSIB employees across the province have been notified that their jobs are redundant, according to Goslin. More notifications are also expected over the next year.