From Worker Victory to Policy Reform: Injured Migrant Workers Fight for Return to Work Justice in Workers' Compensation in Ontario, Canada.

IF 1.8 Q3 PUBLIC, ENVIRONMENTAL & OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH New Solutions-A Journal of Environmental and Occupational Health Policy Pub Date : 2025-01-23 DOI:10.1177/10482911241311200

Maryth Yachnin

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Abstract

This article explores the challenges facing injured migrant farm workers in the workers' compensation system in Canada's province of Ontario, with a focus on their fight for return to work justice. Told from the perspective of one of the lawyers who represented the workers, it highlights a recent victory achieved by 4 workers in the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program in defending their rights to workers' compensation support. The workers' compensation tribunal decided that the workers' compensation board must evaluate these workers' ability to return to work, access retraining, and receive compensation based on their labor markets in Jamaica-instead of based on fictional job prospects in Ontario. The tribunal also called out the need to consider systemic anti-Black racism in workers' compensation law and policy. The article analyzes how this legal victory could reshape workers' compensation policy in Ontario for injured migrant farm workers. It also discusses the implications of the win for injured workers in other temporary work programs and precarious employment sectors.

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来源期刊

New Solutions-A Journal of Environmental and Occupational Health Policy PUBLIC, ENVIRONMENTAL & OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH-

CiteScore

3.50

自引率

4.30%

发文量

期刊介绍： New Solutions delivers authoritative responses to perplexing problems, with a worker’s voice, an activist’s commitment, a scientist’s approach, and a policy-maker’s experience. New Solutions explores the growing, changing common ground at the intersection of health, work, and the environment. The Journal makes plain how the issues in each area are interrelated and sets forth progressive, thoughtfully crafted public policy choices. It seeks a conversation on the issues between the grassroots labor and environmental activists and the professionals and researchers involved in charting society’s way forward with the understanding that lack of scientific knowledge is no excuse for doing nothing and that inaction is itself a choice.