The chair of the WSIB says its prime mandate is the injured worker. Since Mike Harris’ government changed Ontario’s Workers Compensation Board to the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board in the 90s, prevention has been a key focus. At the same time, the board took the word “compensation” out of its name and mission statement.

“But I’ve made our mandate very clear,” says Steve Mahoney, adding that employers have said accusingly that since he became WSIB chair two years ago, the playing field has tilted more in favour of the injured worker. He hopes that’s true.

“We want to see them get back to work, and there’s nothing worse for us than witnessing the deterioration physically and mentally of an otherwise healthy person just because of an injury.”

The board also recognizes that an injury, and the entire process, can be an emotional strain on the worker. Front-line employees take worker sensitivity training to help them show more empathy and better understand workers’ frustrations and fears.

If indeed three per cent of claimants are not getting their claims resolved, Mahoney has instructed his staff to focus on that three per cent and find out what the problems are.

“The system is not perfect, but it does work,” he says. “If there’s one thing I’ve heard for 30 years it’s that injured workers want dignity and respect…We’re striving very much to understand that and to deliver respect and dignity to the people who are injured.”

What injured workers have been reporting for decades – including a high incidence of unemployment and depression – may soon be backed by hard data. The Research Action Alliance on the Consequences of Work Injury (RAACWI) is a community-based partnership conducting research on the worker’s compensation system and its role in the economic, social and health consequences of work injury.

Ontario’s WSIB provides core funding to RACCWI and is more than receptive to the research findings. After meeting with RAACWI’s representatives, Mahoney has initiated a full review of the WSIB’s experience rating program, which sets a high standard for safety and gives monetary rebates to employers that meet the criteria. RAACWI claims that the system somehow allows a rebate even, in some cases, at facilities where a worker has died on the job.  

five-year program is in its third year and promises to uncover what really happens to workers – physically, financially and emotionally – long after a workplace injury.

As for Eric Olivieri, recovery is going well. He spent three months in a wheelchair but is walking now. His limbs and pelvis are held together by screws and rods. There’s still tingling in his knee and a lot of pain, especially where healthcare providers have had to break up scar tissue. And his mother says the emotional scars persist. “He talks a lot in his sleep,” Carlene says. “I’ve heard him say, ‘Get it off me, get it off me.’”

Thankfully, he feels much better today than when friends first saw him in pain and heavily medicated after the injury. “It wasn’t a pretty sight,” he says. “They couldn’t stand seeing me like that and only stayed a couple of minutes.”

A few weeks later they visited him at home, though, and stayed the night. “We had a huge sleepover, 10 kids in our living room,” he says. “It was awesome.”

He knows he’s lucky to be back in their world.