Survey shows four times more poverty among injured workers

Posted June 4, 2009

Article source Ontario Network of Injured Workers' Groups (ONIWG)

From an Ontario Network of Injured Workers' Groups press release:

The Ontario Network of Injured Workers' Groups has released its report "Impacts of Workplace Injury," revealing a picture of poverty that many would not have expected. More than 200 injured workers from across Ontario were surveyed. The data were gathered and analysed by members of ONIWG with the assistance of a graduate student from York University.

"Today we seek justice and dignity for injured workers in this great province of Ontario. Our study shows that many of these injured workers are living in poverty, many will be seeking out food banks for their next meal, many rely on family for support, many are divorced from family and friends, and many are on welfare because their worker’s compensation is so paltry. All because one day they went to work and suffered a workplace accident. They expected the workers' compensation system would take care of them. We have found that for too many, the system has left them in poverty and despair," said Peter Page, President of the Ontario Network of Injured Workers' Groups.

For more information see the following document: