A seven week strike of Ontario insurance employees who support injured workers ended on Monday when they accepted a collective agreement with their employer. Harry Goslin, president of the Canadian Union of Public Employee’s (CUPE)’s Ontario Compensation Employees Union (OCEU), said he is proud of workers for securing their agreement, but work remains to be done to stop these jobs from being outsourced to US companies.
Bargaining between OCEU and the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) broke down on May 21 over pay rates, heavy workloads and outsourcing of jobs. The offer on the table when workers took job action included a wage increase of two per cent in the first year, 1.5 per cent in the second and one per cent in the last year. A 2024 study showed that 56 per cent of WSIB employees saw their workplace as toxic and 80 per cent said they were understaffed.
The current collective agreement the two parties reached includes a seven per cent wage increase over three years with an increase of 2.75 per cent in the first year, 2.25 per cent in the second and two per cent in the third. WSIB has also agreed to address workloads by creating a joint workload committee, exploring improvements to absence coverage, improving training and more.
READ MORE: WSIB workers strike against toxic workload, low pay
“We are a critical safety net for Ontario workers and Ontarians spoke up, sending thousands of messages to the WSIB leadership,” said Goslin. “Together, we were able to secure the best possible outcome and successfully pushed back against the employer’s attacks on union seniority rights.”
No commitment against outsourcing
While the union has made gains on pay rates and workload, Goslin said the WSIB and the Ontario provincial government have not made a commitment against outsourcing work. At the start of the OCEU strike, the WSIB was finalizing an agreement with the firm Iron Mountain which is based in Boston, Massachusetts. The agreement would see the work of 26 Ontario employees sent to a US company.
While workers were on strike, the WSIB quietly began the process of outsourcing labour, which meant contractors were performing the duties of striking workers.
On July 2, the OCEU put out a statement saying WSIB internal documents showed the board was launching a trial program where contract health care providers could contact employees directly. The health care professionals would discuss the workers’ functional abilities, a duty usually performed by a return-to-work specialist.
“This is a blatant attempt to undermine the strike and outsource union jobs behind closed doors,” Goslin said at the time. “These decisions affect people’s recovery, their employment and their future. Offloading this to private contractors with no accountability is irresponsible.”
Out-sourcing Canadian jobs continued to be a problem at WSIB when the board contracted BetterUp, an American professional coaching company.
WSIB’s CEO, Jeff Lang said the board’s priority has always been helping the people that depend on them.
“We thank Ontarians for the patience they’ve shown us during the labour disruption,” said Lang. “Our team is committed to delivering better, easier, and faster service to Ontarians and we can’t wait to get back to doing what we do best – helping people.”
Goslin, however, maintains that service for Canadian injured workers should come from Canada.
“Both the WSIB and the FORD government would not commit to not outsource work. Shockingly this includes the WSIB plans to send the work of 26 WSIB employees to an American company, Iron Mountain,” he said. “We ask where Captain Canada is during this trade war?”
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