The Ford government's move to restore one of several longstanding cuts to Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) benefits is a positive step but falls well short of what injured workers need, according to a leading union representing WSIB staff.
Harry Goslin, president of CUPE 1750, the Ontario Compensation Employees Union (OCEU), is calling on the province to reverse the broader package of nearly 30‑year‑old cuts that he claims continue to disadvantage injured and ill workers. Those include the cap on insurable earnings, a 50% reduction to retirement income benefits, and cuts to prevention services.
Labor Minister David Piccini announced that Ontario will improve loss‑of‑earnings benefits and extend WSIB supports past age 65, bringing the province more in line with other Canadian jurisdictions. Advocates have pressed for these changes for years, arguing that workers who stay in the labor force beyond traditional retirement age face an arbitrary cutoff in support under the current rules.
“Premier Ford says he’s for the little guy – and there’s no one more vulnerable than an injured or ill worker,” said Goslin, whose local represents about 3,800 WSIB and health and safety association employees.
Goslin welcomed the announcement as “long overdue” but stressed that it only addresses one piece of a much larger problem created by reforms dating back to the 1990s.
Goslin also pointed to the large number of workers who still have no access to WSIB benefits at all. He noted that an estimated 1.56 million Ontario workers lack WSIB coverage because their sectors are exempt or not yet scheduled under the system.
“Minister Piccini says no worker should have to worry about paying their bills while recovering. Yet because of his inaction, one in four workers in this province is told to fend for themselves when they’re hurt on the job,” he said.
Ontario has far more workers without WSIB coverage than all other provinces combined, with roughly 60% of the 2.5 million Canadian workers without workplace liability insurance are in Ontario, according to figures cited by CUPE and other advocates.
Goslin argued that the province has had ample fiscal room to restore benefits and expand coverage. He criticized the government for using WSIB surpluses to provide what he described as $21.5 billion in savings to employers through premium cuts and rebates instead of rebuilding benefits for injured workers.
“At any time over the last eight years, the government could have restored these benefits,” he said. “Instead, they used massive WSIB surpluses to deliver $21.5 billion in savings to employers.”
Those surpluses and rate reductions have helped lower statutory workers’ compensation costs for covered employers, but they also sit against a backdrop of ongoing debates over adequacy of benefits, access to coverage, and how workplace injury risk is shared between public systems and private products.
Goslin linked the policy debate to conditions inside the WSIB itself. Employees recently staged a historic seven‑week strike to protest what the union described as crushing workloads, backlogs, and mental health strain. The strike ended with a deal on wages and some workplace issues, but CUPE has continued to warn that staffing and workload pressures are affecting service quality for injured workers.
With the benefit changes expected to increase the volume and complexity of claims, Goslin said a provincial hiring freeze across agencies and boards risks undermining whatever gains the new rules might deliver if WSIB cannot add staff.
He renewed his call for an end to the hiring freeze so the board can prepare for higher claims volumes and ensure timely decisions and support.
Ontario’s relatively low WSIB coverage rate has created a sizable parallel market for private disability, accident, and health insurance. Workers outside the WSIB regime typically rely on a mix of employer‑sponsored benefit plans, individual disability policies, and general social programs if they are injured at work.
Any move toward universal or significantly expanded WSIB coverage would have implications for group benefits carriers and brokers, affecting product design, pricing, and the positioning of supplemental or wrap‑around disability products for employers that currently fill gaps left by statutory coverage.
At the same time, richer and longer‑duration WSIB benefits could limit the scope for further premium reductions if claim costs rise more quickly than expected, potentially reshaping the cost base for covered employers over the medium term.
Goslin said the latest benefit change is welcome but does not resolve the core structural issues he sees in Ontario’s system. He also reiterated CUPE 1750’s demands for universal WSIB coverage across Ontario’s workforce, a full reversal of the legacy cuts from the 1990s and 2000s, and sufficient staffing to ensure the board can manage its caseload under the new rules.
“This isn’t about resources – it’s a political choice to leave 1.56 million workers without protection, and it’s simply not right,” he said.
