City council is showing its support for Workplace Safety and Insurance Board workers in Windsor as their jobs face relocation.
On Monday, council passed a motion from Ward 9 Councillor Kieran McKenzie that will see the city send a letter to the WSIB Board of Directors, the president of Ontario’s Treasury Board, and the Minister of Labour to strongly condemn the centralization strategy and call for the reversal of a relocation mandate, while also safeguarding remote work for Windsor employees.
In August, the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) announced a move to eliminate hundreds of jobs. The Ontario Compensation Employees Union (OCEU) says notification was given to 131 workers in Windsor that their jobs are redundant.
Affected remote workers have been given the choice of taking a severance package or relocating to an active office in places like London, Toronto, or Mississauga.
Ward 9 Councillor Kieran McKenzie says the choice between moving or losing your job is an unfair position.
“Workers who have been serving the public and the communities that they serve for a long, long time, in many cases, but it’s also the worse time to lose any jobs in our community,” he says. “At a time when not only do we need the services here, but we also need people who are earning a decent income to help support the local economy.”
McKenzie says he’s glad the council is voicing its displeasure at the measures and asking the WSIB board to reconsider.
“Continue to stay in our community and continue to serve the province and the people they serve through their work while at the same time remaining in the community where they have roots and families, and where the vast majority that I’ve spoken to want to stay in Windsor,” he says.
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.