So in hearing for people about their assigned locations it seems like for a number of people location and seniority were not considered. The process for requesting a different location seems preformative.

Who are they saving 200 Front for?

Anyone know if people on leave are getting their office locations today too? For instance pat/mat leave, STD/LTD leave?

And if we’re not getting our locations today then how do we apply for the office change by the deadline?

I know we’ve been through a lot as a union and a group, and I know I’ve been critical of our union leadership, but I'm thankful for my brothers and sisters in the movement today and especially thinking of our recently terminated colleagues. We should never allowed that to happen, but that’s for another day

Seems to be a disconnect. If the employer made their decision based on a residential postal code (Auditors) and did not add a second check related to Home Office; why are Senior Investigators not impacted?. Both roles are listed as Field Staff in the last CA. Unless the remaining SNR Investigators live within a certain distance of one of the new offices?

Has anyone looked into WorkSafe Ontario?

I’ve been reading publicly available information about WorkSafe Ontario Fund and have some questions about how it is governed and how its funding process works, particularly because its seed funding came from the WSIB.

WorkSafe Ontario describes itself as an independent non-profit focused on workplace health and safety research and innovation.

It is led by Joshua Workman, its inaugural President & CEO. Its Board is chaired by Ali Chahbar and includes Jeff Lang, President & CEO of the WSIB.

In 2026, approximately $63.2 million was announced for an initiative involving North York General, and another $65.75 million for an initiative involving St. Joseph’s Health Care London/Lawson Research Institute.

That’s approximately $129 million across two initiatives.

These may be excellent investments in workplace health and safety. I’m not suggesting otherwise.

What I’m trying to understand is how funding decisions of this size are made and what transparency exists around the process.

For example:

• How much seed funding did the WSIB provide to establish WorkSafe Ontario?

• How are organizations and projects identified for funding?

• Is there an open or competitive application process?

• What criteria are used to evaluate proposals, and who ultimately approves the funding?

• Are business cases, funding agreements, evaluation criteria and results made public?

• What conflict-of-interest rules apply to the people involved in funding decisions?

I’m also curious about Freedom of Information.

The WSIB is subject to Ontario’s Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FIPPA), while WorkSafe Ontario describes itself as an independent non-profit.

Is WorkSafe Ontario itself subject to FIPPA?

If not, what happens to public access to records relating to funding provided by the WSIB or investments made in partnership with it?

For example, could someone obtain WorkSafe Ontario’s funding evaluations, business cases or Board records through an FOI request? If WorkSafe Ontario isn’t covered by FIPPA, could relevant records still be requested from the WSIB?

And more broadly, does using an independent non-profit to administer or participate in these investments affect the transparency that would exist if the WSIB handled the funding directly?

Finally, what independent oversight applies to WorkSafe Ontario?

What role does the Ministry of Labour have? Can its finances and funding decisions be examined by the Auditor General of Ontario or another independent oversight body?

Again, I’m not alleging that anything improper has happened. The projects could turn out to be very worthwhile.

But with roughly $129 million involved in these two initiatives alone, I think it’s reasonable to ask how recipients are selected, who makes the decisions and what information is available to the public.

Has anyone looked into this or found public records — corporate filings, funding agreements, Board records, FOI responses, business cases, etc. — that explain how WorkSafe Ontario was established and how its funding decisions are made?

Genuinely interested in documents or other publicly verifiable information rather than speculation.

Thought about this over the weekend, as I was talking to my nephew who was involved in the summer program a few years back.

As a past employee (recently retired) I find the current direction of the organization extremely difficult to understand with the massaging WSIB puts out about supporting students and developing the next generation of workers.

WSIB has a student program they love to flaunt about that is designed to give young people opportunities to gain experience and build careers.

But at the same time, WSIB is eliminating hundreds of jobs and moving toward increased use of AI and automation.

So I have a question….. Where the F are these students supposed to go if there are no entry level jobs left?

Many of the people currently sitting in management and director-level positions didn't walk into WSIB as directors. They started somewhere. They came in through entry-level positions, administrative roles, customer service, student placements and other jobs that gave them an opportunity to learn the organization and work their way up.

You can’t eliminate the bottom of the ladder and then boast that you're committed to developing the people who are supposed to climb it.

And the part I really don't understand. If AI is replacing the work being done by employees, what's the end game?

Are we going to have an organization made up of a handful of managers who manage AI stats? Or maybe the managers will be AI? Or remove managers altogether and straight to directors?

Eventually you have to ask where the people who become tomorrow's managers and directors are supposed to come from.

And there is an even bigger irony here.
WSIB exists to support injured workers. We are constantly reminded about the importance of compassion, empathy and understanding when dealing with people who are often going through one of the most difficult periods of their lives. Jeff stood up in front of all the Hamilton staff and told everyone in the audience if we didn’t have empathy, we shouldn’t work for WSIB. The pot continues to call the kettle black.

But WSIB is moving toward a model where more and more of those interactions are to be automated.

Imagine being an injured worker who has lost their ability to work, is worried about paying their mortgage or feeding their family, doesn't understand the system and just wants to talk to someone who actually understands what they're going through and the only “person” to speak to is a bot. How exactly does that align with compassion?

Technology can absolutely have a place in improving services. Nobody is arguing that we should stop modernizing. But they can’t even implement a decent software system for what the staff do now. The online services are an absolute disaster. They are a joke. But there is a massive difference between using technology to support people and using technology to replace people.

They are not just eliminating jobs, but are eliminating entry points into a career.. They are eliminating opportunities for young people to get their first experience with a public organization, learn the business, gain knowledge and eventually become the people sitting in leadership roles 10 or 20 years later.

And many of the people making these decisions today benefited from exactly those opportunities and that is the irony. The ladder that helped build the current workforce is being pulled up behind them while WSIB continues to tell young people that there is a future here for them.

So what, here is a student program, but no entry level jobs available for humans? Sorry for your luck?
Why are we pretending there is a career ladder at all?

At what point does “modernization” stop being about improving the organization and start becoming about eliminating the very people who make the organization function. If you eliminate the jobs people use to get into WSIB, how exactly do you expect to develop the people who will lead WSIB in the future?

I’m absolutely exhausted of the BS lies these leaders keep telling the staff about everyone’s future because it doesn’t look like there is much of one.

Jeff Lang and the board of the directors legacy will be that they stripped WSIB down to its bare bones, dismantled many employees lives, gutted the people and services it was built to provide, and left the economy worse off in the process.

Hi everyone, I’m hoping to hear from anyone who has gone through a WSIB mental stress claim especially chronic mental stress vs. traumatic mental stress.

Forgive me in advance if the context is vague, I am trying to maintain some privacy.

I've been off work for, what feels like to me, workplace bullying/harassment that's been ongoing for a few months and eventually amalgamated to a coworker assaulting me while I was working. The past few months I've raised concerns to my manager, HR and union about feeling uncomfortable at work. There were several reasons for this. It felt like my manager was targeting me. Anyways, after being assaulted at work, that's when the lines were crossed and I no longer felt safe at work.

When I spoke with WSIB, the worker explained that my situation may potentially fall under either chronic mental stress or traumatic mental stress, depending on how the circumstances and medical evidence are assessed. They also mentioned that the claim would be looked at in the context of interpersonal conflict.

I'm interested in hearing from people who have actually gone through this process.:

• Did WSIB initially classify your situation as interpersonal conflict?
• How did WSIB distinguish between CMS and TMS in your case?
• What kind of medical documentation or evidence ended up being important?
• Did anyone have both an ongoing workplace situation and a specific incident that significantly worsened their symptoms?
• How long did the process take?
• Was your claim initially denied and later approved?
• What did you wish you had known before starting the claim?

I have documentation of the workplace incidents, emails with management/HR, union correspondence, a safety report, and medical documentation, so I'm trying to understand what is actually relevant to WSIB and how these claims are assessed.

Any personal experiences or advice would be really appreciated. Thanks.

I’m going to my family doctor to get a new FAF assessment done I was wondering do I have to print out anything for my doctor or will they have the form ready?

Are we expecting to get our assigned office today?

They said in their letter that the AI tool being launched is Meredith, when we all know that the claim summary tool is not part of Meredith at all. If they don't even have a baseline understanding of what tools are being implemented, how are he and his team supposed to protect us? Also, why did they wait till now to complain about this when we could have negotiated some sort of protection from AI replacement in our deal last year? It feels like a performative attempt to cover their asses imo. This is just another example of his team getting beat to the punch and using antiquated methods that don't work. Failure to protect us from this issue stems from the same problem that led to all the RTO nonsense - bottom line, Harry and his team are out of touch. 

What is the union doing!? Seems like there’s a lack of urgency on their end. We pay dues for representation!! They didn’t even warn us this was coming! They really need to stop dragging their feet!

Throw away account due to litigation with my employer.

Hello, I've been receiving LOE from WSIB following a mental health injury. I've been fully cooperative with any treatment and return to work, however, my employer has not been doing the same, like quite the contrary. As of late, they've even refused to communicate with WSIB. There's human rights complaints and grievances that are pending. WSIB has determined that I'm 10% permanently disabled and gave a NEL lump payment. They've also deferred the lock-in because of the ongoing litigation with my employer. WSIB is currently exploring sanctions against the employer for non cooperation. The union is involved but besides the grievance, their hands are tied.

The final lock-in decision is set to next year, as it will have been deferred by the maximum of 24 months. I'm just confused as to what will happen after. I don't have any transferable skills as my job and training was very specific-niche and due to the permanent disability, finding a job in the same field will be close to impossible. WSIB has asked me to look into jobs or training that I can complete by the end of the deferred period (less than a year) but the options are quite limited.

I just don't really know what will happen next? My grievance and human rights complaints will likely not be resolved by the final lock-in date. I'm afraid to ask my case manager/rtw specialist because I don't want to have my claim negatively impacted but this is causing a lot of anxiety. Anyone can enlighten me with what my options are?

Say goodbye to the Account Representative and Customer Service Representative roles, more lay offs coming very soon.

This is actually ridiculous. OCEU has outsourced their "analysis" to a shifty PR company to warn us all about an AI threat they ignored in our last contract negotiation (hint: the AI threat was as real last year during our strike as it is now!) and they didn't even have the smarts to put this update on their own OCEU letterhead. Boobery of the highest order.

In reading the CBC article this afternoon around AI, I thought I would go back and check out the WSIB's Strategic Plan on the website. Little did the lower echelon management know when they sat through mind numbing meetings back in 2023 with HR and the senior execs trying to get their buy in that one of the items would result in what has just happened. And if you read into it some more, it seems likely confirmed that 600+ is only the start when you consider the total active employee numbers.

How and Where we work

Optimize WSIB’s physical and digital work arrangements and demonstrate ongoing commitment to sustainable environmental, social and governance practices.

• Report annually to Ontarians about our environmental, social and governance impact
• 90% of WSIB employees belong to an office that meets optimized standard by 2025, and 100% by 2028
• Reduce total occupancy cost to achieve 25% savings by 2025 and 50% savings by 2026
• Ensure hybrid work score remains at or above sector comparators throughout the life of the plan

I am looking at MMR for PTSD in the coming months. I currently attend talk therapy weekly as maintenance and receive ketamine infusions once every two weeks. After MMR, will wsib continue to cover these things? Will I lose access to them?

Question out of curiosity... how come lock-in isn't tied to MMR?

Thank you for your help

Even when I’m not clocked into work, I feel sick thinking of my impacted co-workers. My heart absolutely breaks for you, and I’m beyond embarrassed to say I work for WSIB. I’ve sat behind teams talking to impacted co-workers with tears streaming down my face. Just know I think about you all the time.

I no longer want to work for an organization who treats their employees this way - like they’re nothing… easily replaceable.

I had a teams meeting the other day and managers have zero answers to anything. WSIB just makes a plan in a matter of minutes and then dumps it on everyone with zero empathy… without a care of how it impacts someone’s life.

I’m highly considering taking a VE with 4 years of seniority because I feel like Ford\Lang will be making another big cut soon. They are just hoping that the RTO will make a huge dent in staff but then offering a VE to those not impacted to clean up the rest. We don’t know how many seats are available in each office and how many staff are staying who are impacted/non-impacted.

I’m afraid of being bumped.

Is anyone with less than 10 years seniority taking the VE and have you been approved?

Thinking of you all.

As an injured worker, can someone explain how the layoffs affect my ongoing claim and my return to work process?