Toronto lawyer launches multimillion-dollar lawsuit on behalf of Ontario injured workers who had payouts reduced due to pre-existing conditions.
/ Laurie Monsebraaten
Former Brampton sewer worker Pietro Castrillo, 61, is part of a
multi-million dollar class action lawsuit against the Workplace Safety
and Insurance Board (WSIB) for discounting non-economic loss awards due
to pre-existing medical conditions.
A Toronto lawyer has
launched a multimillion-dollar class action lawsuit on behalf of injured
workers against Ontario’s Workplace Safety and Insurance Board.
The lawsuit, filed in
Ontario Superior Court last month, alleges the board acted in bad faith
and “with public malfeasance” when it reduced benefits for pain and
suffering for thousands of injured workers with medical conditions that
weren’t causing impairment before their workplace accidents.
“For 22 years, the
board has calculated non-economic loss awards based on a point system
that recognized the impact of injuries on degenerative disease,” said
lawyer Richard Fink.
“But several years
ago, the board instructed case managers to deduct for pre-existing
conditions without any formal changes in policy, regulations or law,” he
said in an interview Friday. “What they are doing is illegal.”
As reported by the Starlast
week, injured workers’ advocates are alarmed by a proposed board policy
on pre-existing conditions they say would legitimize this practice.
Before the election
call, they wrote an open letter to Premier Kathleen Wynne, saying the
change would contravene the “historic compromise” behind Ontario’s
100-year-old no-fault insurance plan, which saw injured workers give up
their right to sue in exchange for fair and just compensation for as
long as a workplace disability lasts.
A WSIB spokeswoman
said the board considers Fink’s lawsuit to be “completely devoid of
merit and will vigorously defend all allegations.”
“We are committed to
ensuring that every injured worker receives the appropriate level of
benefits,” Christine Arnott said in an email. “The WSIB is proud of its
record in providing service to injured workers in Ontario.”
Non-economic loss
awards are granted by the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) to
cover pain and suffering for injured workers who suffer permanent
physical and psychological impairments from a work-related injury or
illness.
Fink’s lawsuit, which
still has to be certified by the court, seeks damages from the board for
its alleged behavior, including expenses incurred by workers
challenging decisions on their claims.
“The Board moved
aggressively to reduce its costs by clawing back legitimate awards to
injured workers, forcing them into lengthy and costly legal battles to
win back what they should never have lost,” said Fink. “The lawsuit
seeks to right this wrong and hold the board to account for its
actions.”
Pietro
Castrillo of Brampton is just one of the many injured workers whose
non-economic loss award was wrongfully reduced by the WSIB due to a
“secret policy” the board adopted to cut costs in 2011-2012, Fink
alleges in the statement of claim.
The 61-year-old man
tore his rotator cuff and permanently injured his shoulder while working
for a sewer construction company in 2011.
He was eligible for a
non-economic loss award of about $2,500. But since medical tests found
evidence of osteoarthritis in his shoulder, the WSIB reduced his award
by half to $1,230, according to the lawsuit. Castrillo appealed and won
because this pre-existing condition had never impaired his ability to
work in the past. However, Castrillo is still out more than $600 he had
to spend in legal fees to fight the case, the lawsuit says.
“Personal-injury
awards have increased dramatically over the years, but WSIB awards have
stayed the same or gone down,” said Fink, whose firm, Fink &
Bornstein, has represented injured workers for more than 30 years.
“I don’t think it’s constitutional to rob people of reasonable damages within the WSIB system,” he added.
Fink’s firm is holding
public meetings in Mississauga and Toronto later this month to find
other injured workers to join the class action.
source: http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2014/05/12/classaction_lawsuit_aims_to_help_ontario_injured_workers.html
source: http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2014/05/12/classaction_lawsuit_aims_to_help_ontario_injured_workers.html
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