Bureaucratic nightmare adds insult to workplace injury

Struggle for compensation leaves injured worker bitter: "You shouldn't have to fight for something that's legally yours"

By: Pat Daley

  When a fall from a ladder sheared off the top of his tibia, or shin bone, 10 years ago, Don Fleming didn't know the lasting legacy would be a feeling of bitterness toward a system that "screws you."
  Today, Injured Workers' Day in Ontario, Fleming drives school bus for Ludlow Bus Lines in the small town of Alliston. Ten years ago, he was driving truck and doing yard work at the local Beaver Lumber store, where he cleared about $450 every two weeks. The accident happened on a day off that he decided to work anyway.
  It resulted in a lost year, during which he was unable to walk, much less work, and kicked off a chain of events that are all too familiar to people hurt on the job - especially if they don't have a union to help them through the process. Says Karl Crevar, president of the Ontario Network of Injured Workers Groups: "A lot of injured workers in this province are not told they have rights or not told where to turn for help."
 

A worker is injured on the job every 9 seconds. Every time the light blinks, it signifies that a worker has been injured. Every working day in Canada, three people die from a workplace accident or occupational disease. From the Canadian Injured Workers Alliance (www.ciwa.ca)

  Right off the bat, the then Workers Compensation Board (WCB - now the Workplace Safety & Insurance Board) told Fleming's employer that as a small business they didn't have to keep him on. But it looked like WCB was going to take him under its wing and help him retrain.
 

He applied to and was accepted for Sheridan College's renowned animation program. "Compensation looked at them and said 'you'd be making more money than you are now, so we won't pay for it.'"

  "They said if you can find a school that has a 90% hiring rate for graduates, we'll pay for it," he said over coffee at the Alliston Tim Horton's. Fleming is a cartoonist and at age 33 saw the chance for his injury to turn into an opportunity. He applied to and was accepted for Sheridan College's renowned animation program. "Compensation looked at them and said 'you'd be making more money than you are now, so we won't pay for it.'"
  As he struggled to overcome his disappointment, the WCB compiled a list of jobs for which they decided he was eligible. Unfortunately, on the day they had scheduled an interview for him at a local printing plant that was looking for a graphic designer, he came down with flu and cancelled.
  "Then they started giving me a hard time," Fleming says. Shortly after, his compensation pension of $300 a month, which he'd received for about eight months, was reduced to $68. And then it was cut altogether "because I wasn't doing what I was told."
 

"People are calling from the across the province, asking 'Why am I being treated like this?'" - Karl Crevar, president of the Ontario Network of Injured Workers Groups

  "Non-cooperation," says Karl Crevar. Almost a decade after Fleming's experience, he says, it's getting worse. "People are calling from the across the province, asking 'Why am I being treated like this?' You're told to go back to work. If you say you're not ready, you're told you're not co-operating."
  By that time, Fleming was actually receiving better benefits from Canada Life, provider of Beaver Lumber's disability plan, of about $600 a month. However, they only lasted a couple of months. With the loss of compensation, Fleming needed a job. He found one at Ludlow's Bus Lines. But school bus driving hadn't been on the WCB approved list because it's part-time work. Canada Life cut him off and demanded repayment. He ended up giving back $500.
  That summer, having driven for only the last few months of the school year, Fleming wasn't eligible for unemployment insurance and was turned down for social assistance because his income was too high.
  "I survived on those little noodle packages," he says. "I can't stand them now."
  Fleming says he was supposed to get a WCB pension and drug benefits until age 65, so why didn't he appeal their decision to cut him off?
  "What was the sense?" he asks. "It's like hitting a dead horse with a stick. You lose all your respect for the government. The system screwed me." Besides, he says, he never had a lawyer and "nobody talked to you about what was going on."
 

"You shouldn't have to fight. That's why you pay compensation, that's why you pay when you have benefits at a company. You shouldn't have to fight for something that's legally yours."

  He considered suing Beaver Lumber and Canada Life but friends advised against it. In a small town, he'd end up an outcast, they told him. And he was making almost as much at Ludlow's as he would have received in benefits.
  Fleming's actions aren't uncommon, says Crevar. There are about 350,000 compensation claims filed in Ontario every year, and the rate of claim abandonment is going up, he says. "Either people don't know they have a right to the claim or they don't want to deal with the board."
  Fleming figures he'll be driving school bus forever. But he's not going to get rich doing it. After six years of filing, he finally became eligible for unemployment benefits. They paid him $19 for the layoff at Christmas break.
  He's applied for other jobs but nothing has panned out. He knows he doesn't have to say he was injured on the job, but prospective employers want to know about the one-year gap in his work history. He says: "As soon as you say personal injury, you're done."
  He's glad he's working today, but the whole experience has left Don Fleming feeling bitter.
  "Basically, they tell you you're useless," he says. "You shouldn't have to fight. That's why you pay compensation, that's why you pay when you have benefits at a company. You shouldn't have to fight for something that's legally yours. And you shouldn't have to play the system to get it."

Pat Daley is a freelance writer and editor in Athlone in Simcoe County, Ontario.

Get More/Do More
The Canadian Injured Workers Alliance website - www.ciwa.ca - has an incredible links page with resources for injured workers throughout Canada.

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