Thousands of Workplace Safety Insurance Board (WSIB) workers across the province will be back on the job Monday after a tentative agreement was reached with the union to end a weeks-long strike, the union told the Star.
The Crown agency announced the agreement was reached on Saturday.
More than 3,000 union members had been on the picket lines since May 22 after talks between union executives and the WSIB over a new collective agreement broke down. The union was primarily concerned about wages and workloads, saying employees’ mental health was strained with high internal turnover.
“The organization looks forward to welcoming back its full team within 24 hours of a successful ratification vote,” a WSIB spokesperson said in an emailed statement.
Details of the tentative agreement will not be publicized ahead of a membership vote, a spokesperson with the CUPE-affiliated Ontario Compensation Employee’s Union (OCEU) said.
In a statement Saturday, WSIB president Jeff Lang thanked Ontarians “for the patience they’ve shown us” during the labour disruption.
“Our number one priority has always been — and continues to be — helping the people who depend on us,” Lang said. “I am proud of our team’s work the last few weeks and am very excited for everyone to come back together so we can keep supporting Ontarians who need us.”
A WSIB spokesperson declined to comment further on the tentative deal Saturday.
The parties spent some 30 hours at the bargaining table to come to an agreement Saturday morning, working “straight through the night,” OCEU/CUPE 1750 President Harry Goslin told the Star.
He said the union believes WSIB was motivated by a desire to alleviate a claims “backlog” that led the government agency to begin using automation to handle cases during the strike.
While the WSIB used the word “backlog” in an internal memo, it previously insisted in a statement to the Star on June 10 that “there is no backlog to register claims,” noting that the agency has registered more than 11,000 new claims and issued over 60,000 payments to injured workers since the strike began.
“We don’t want to miss anybody who should be prioritized, who needs access to health care right now, or who needs their income in place right now,” said Aaron Lazarus, vice-president of communications at the WSIB, explaining the move to automate some claim approvals.
Goslin said the latest round of bargaining saw “helpful movement” on the work overload issue that he expects will come as good news to members, including workload management plans and “immediate relief” options.
Furthermore, Goslin said WSIB has also told the union there are no “immediate plans” to outsource 26 jobs to U.S.-based companies.
The union previously said the WSIB signed a contract with Iron Mountain, a Boston-based information management firm, in January that would “offshore” document management services and lay off dozens of unionized employees at an undisclosed date.
“We’ll hold them to that,” Goslin said.
WSIB previously said it was offering the union wage increases above the rate of inflation that would see the average unionized salary jump from $98,000 to more than $104,500, according to the Crown agency’s website. The offer also included increased on-call premiums, full-time support for the joint workload committee with OCEU, upfront payment of travel expenses and extended health and dental coverage.
Funded by premiums paid by more than 300,000 Ontario businesses, the WSIB offers workplace injury and illness insurance, plus no-fault collective liability insurance and access to industry-specific health and safety information.
The WSIB also provides wage-loss benefits, medical coverage and support to people getting back to work after injuries or illnesses tied to the job.
With files from Nathan Bawaan and Estella Ren
