Hamilton man injured on the job warns young workers: 'It's not worth it'

Marvin Mulder, 52, says his whole life changed after being injured while working as a mover in Hamilton in2010.

A herniated disc in his spine contributes todaily pain, back spasmsand mobility issues, and prevents him from working, playing with his grandchildren, and sometimes even getting out of bed.

"It wasn't an accident, it was just the job," says Mulder, who is among a groundswell of injured Ontario workers speaking out againstproposed changes to Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) policies.

He says years of struggling against WSIB to get adequate compensation have led to mental health challenges, but thathe's one of the lucky ones, as many injured workers don't succeed in getting WSIB compensation. Mulder, who lives in Hamilton, says the board tried to push him back into the workforce despite his physical limitations.

"I tried to do the [WSIB-imposed] retraining program and ended up in the emergency four or five times," he told CBC Hamilton. He said the experience has changed his outlook on work: had he known how challenging it is to deal with the workers' compensation system, he would have chosen a job with a lower likelihood of injury.

"If I see someone going into the skilled trades, I'd say, 'Don't do it, it's not worth it. God forbid you get injured. Your life will be destroyed.'"

Injured workers sayWSIB changes would limit access to compensation

Mulder and otherinjured workers in Ontario are askingthe provincial governmentto halt proposed changes to (WSIB) policiesthey say will make it harder for workers to receive compensation.Many went to Queen's Park onInjured Workers Day, June 1, to make the ask. The annual observance commemoratesa massive protest against changes to workers compensation at Queen's Park in 1983.

Mulder says recent recommendations to WSIB from a KPMG value-for-money audit, that would limit the amount of time for workers to appeal WSIB decisions to one month, will make it nearly impossible for many workers to get compensation to support them after their injuries. The current window to make an appeal is six months, according to the Ontario Network of Injured Workers Groups.

The report also recommends reducing the amount of time injured and ill workers can secure legal representation.

Mulder explains that workers who don't agree with WSIB's decisions can go to an appeals tribunal, which overturns the original decision about 70 per cent of the time. Hesays that with only a month to gather the necessary documents to appeal, fewer people will have the opportunity to bring their cases before that tribunal.

"It's going to greatly reduce the amount of appeals going through," he said Thursday. "A month to get all your paperwork together?.. You try and get into a specialist within a month's time."

The injured workers who went toQueen's Park arecalling on the provincial government to "reject the recommendationsand to consult injured and ill workers on ways to improve the compensation system," according to the Ontario Network of Injured Workers Groups.

"It can take several months to a year just to get medical reports or assessments for injured and ill workers, and if these recommendations get implemented, then [WSIB] representatives will become time limit machines," said Maryth Yachnin, staff lawyer with the Industrial Accident Victims' Group of Ontario (IAVGO), in a release issued after the press conference.

"It's shameful the WSIB is even considering these suggestions from KPMG. Many of the workers we help will be forced into poverty because they can't appeal unfair decisions in time."

WSIBspokespersonChristine Arnottsays the board wants to "do everything possible" to make the claims process easy and fast, and to avoid appeals in the first place.

"While we look forward to improving our dispute resolution and appeals processes, it's important to note that an appeal within the WSIB is only one part of the appeals system," she told CBC Hamilton in an email. "If someone disagrees with a WSIB appeals decision, they will still have the option of appealing to the independent Workplace Safety and Insurance Appeals Tribunal (WSIAT)."

She also said WSIB would soon launch a public consultation on the recommendations of the recentaudit.

'We as family members need to be able to have a voice'

With the added focus on injured workers this month, Mulder was quick to point out the effects that a workplace injury can have on the family members of the injured person as well.

His wife, Linda Hunt, 53, says they range from feelings of helplessness from watching her partner in pain without being able to do anything about it; to frustration that there isn't support out there for people in her position.

"There's a lot of things he is no longer able to do," she said, citing maintenance of their property, snow shovelling, and household chores as things that fell on her exclusively after Mulder's injury. "I have become the sole breadwinner."

The couple saysMulder has faced numerous challenges with his WSIB benefits over the years, such as having them reduced, and being forced to attend job training when he clearly was unable to handle it physically.

"It still is a struggle with them," said Hunt. "There should never be a struggle with an insurance company when you've been deemed disabled."

A change she'd like to see at WSIB is for the organization to consider peoples' family circumstances when determining their compensation, and to allow family members to be more involved in the process.

"I can't call them up and say, 'This is what we are dealing with,'" she said. "I can't be a delegate for Marv, he has to be his own. There is zero communication I am allowed to have with WSIB.

"We as family members need to be able to have a voice."