AMENDMENTS

The 2007 Ontario budget proposes amendments to the province's Workplace Safety and Insurance Act. Those amendments would:

• Provide a 2.5% increase in compensation benefits in each of three consecutive years starting July 1 for recipients receiving partial benefits.

• Determine benefits for injured workers re-entering the workforce based on what they are likely to earn from "suitable and available" employment.

• Allow Workplace Safety & Insurance Board officials greater flexibility to review cases after a currently designated 72-month period for locking in benefits.

• Require the WSIB to make a lump-sum retirement payment rather than a monthly income payout to injured workers who reach the age of 65 if the benefit they are entitled to amounts to less than $3,000 Canadian ($2,640) per year.

• Increase the size of the board of directors so there is a minimum of seven and a maximum of nine members in addition to the president and chair of the organization and clarify that one person cannot serve as both president and chair of the WSIB.

• Increase funding to the Office of the Worker Adviser, which represents nonunion workers and their dependents in workplace safety and insurance issues.

Source: Ontario Ministry of Labor