Executive Summary

The title of this report comes from a comment of an injured worker who participated in this study. His words summarize the desire for a timely return to meaningful and sustainable employment that was expressed by most of this study’s participants.

WCB statistics indicate that most injured workers return to work shortly after their injuries heal. Some do not, however, so the primary goal of this study was to identify barriers to the successful vocational rehabilitation and re-employment of Manitoba workers who have sustained significant disabilities from workplace injuries. The primary sources of information were interviews and focus group meetings with 34 injured workers with a broad variety of significant disabilities. Additional research activities included a review of previous research, and consultations with staff of the Workers Compensation Board (WCB) of Manitoba, unions, community-based disability agencies, advocates for injured workers, and other researchers. ^[1] All of these groups have a role to play in assisting injured workers return to work.

This study’s participants were drawn from non-random samples, which prohibits generalizing the findings to the total population of injured workers with significant disabilities in Manitoba. In other words, these findings describe the experiences, opinions and concerns of 34 injured workers who participated in the interviews and focus groups. They do not, however, quantitatively describe the overall prevalence of these experiences, opinions, and concerns amongst the total population of injured workers with significant disabilities in Manitoba.

Although it would be misleading to extrapolate the findings of this study to all injured workers with significant disabilities in Manitoba, it would be equally misleading to dismiss these findings as the complaints of an atypically dissatisfied group of injured workers.

This study provides a rich set of information about the vocational rehabilitation and re-employment experiences of injured workers with significant disabilities in Manitoba. Many findings highlight barriers and other issues which we hope will be of interest to the WCB, the government of Manitoba, unions, community-based disability agencies, advocates for injured workers, and injured workers themselves.

Employers

Findings

Many ^[2] of the injured workers who participated in the study were disappointed with the assistance they received (or did not receive) from their employers, the Workers Compensation Board of Manitoba, their unions, or advocates for injured workers. Their most frequent complaints, however, were directed towards the employers for whom they were working at the time of their injuries.

Most participants who were not successful in returning to stable employment with their pre-injury employers reported that their employers either declined to re-employ them—often stating that no suitable work was available—or provided unsuitable accommodations. Some participants subsequently managed to become re-employed with other employers, but most of those who had worked since their injuries continued to experience problems and barriers related to their disabilities. Very few participants had had stable post-injury employment histories, and most were unemployed at the time they participated in this study. ^[3]

Some participants who were employed reported that their pre-injury employers have aggressive return-to-work programs, and felt they were expected to return to work too soon. One reported that his employer has a modified work program where injured workers with disabilities are sometimes paid to do nothing all day. These participants felt their employers’ modified work programs were not intended to facilitate the rehabilitation and re-employment of injured workers, but rather, to reduce the companies’ workers’ compensation costs.

Recommendations

The Government of Manitoba should explore the inclusion of a provision requiring employers to accommodate and re-employ injured workers with disabilities within the Workers Compensation Act. This requirement—which already exists in workers’ compensation legislation in Ontario and four other provinces—would make the Manitoba Act consistent with federal and provincial human rights legislation. It would also be consistent with the WCB’s hierarchy of vocational rehabilitation objectives, which gives greatest priority to assisting injured workers to return to the same, modified, or different work with their pre-injury employers.

A requirement compelling employers to accommodate and re-employ their workers who are injured during the course of their employment would also have the potential to reduce the overall costs of the workers’ compensation system in Manitoba. It would also prevent many injured workers from having to change careers in mid-life, and/or lose valuable seniority and benefits they have earned with their pre-injury employers.

WCB Vocational Rehabilitation Services

Findings

Many study participants identified WCB Vocational Rehabilitation staff as important and effective sources of assistance. Additionally, a significant minority of study participants were relatively satisfied with the benefits and services they had received from the Workers Compensation Board of Manitoba. These tended to be injured workers who had high pre-injury earnings or relatively serious injuries and severe disabilities.

Most participants, however, described some dissatisfaction with the vocational rehabilitation assistance they had received from the WCB. Many of the experiences they described suggested that barriers often result from the discretionary provision of services and/or inconsistent application of policies. In other words, some injured workers with significant disabilities reported receiving particular kinds of vocational rehabilitation services (e.g. vocational testing), but others did not.

Contrary to WCB policy, some participants who were receiving or had previously received vocational rehabilitation services from the WCB did not recall ever having a formal Individualized Written Rehabilitation Plan (IWRP). Some participants who did not return to their pre-injury employers felt that they were offered very limited choices of vocational goals. Some participants felt that the training they received from the WCB did not provide them with sufficient qualifications to realistically compete for and obtain the jobs for which they were trained. Although they were not employed, most of these participants were deemed capable of obtaining the jobs for which they were trained, and saw their wage loss benefits reduced by the wage associated with those jobs.

Some participants raised questions about the purpose, timing, and effectiveness of group workshops on career exploration, job search techniques, resumé writing, etc. Some participants—particularly in Winnipeg—felt that they did not receive adequate individualized job search assistance.

Various sub-groups of injured workers who participated in the project described barriers unique to their sub-groups. These included injured workers outside of Winnipeg, older injured workers, and injured workers with less severe disabilities.

Recommendations

This report includes 24 recommendations concerning the Workers Compensation Board of Manitoba’s vocational rehabilitation services. In addition to addressing the above barriers, the WCB should undertake or fund a major study of the employment outcomes of injured workers with significant disabilities who receive WCB vocational rehabilitation services.

Unions

Findings

Some union members with significant disabilities who participated in this study were pleased with the assistance they received from their unions, but many other participants felt that they did not receive adequate support from their unions. The most frequent concern was that they felt their unions should have devoted greater attention to problems they experienced when attempting to return to work.

Recommendations

This and previous research suggests that there are opportunities for organized labour to do more to support union members who are disabled on the job. Unions should ensure that they educate their members about their WCB entitlements, and about what their unions can and cannot do for them if they are disabled by a workplace injury. Different unions assign different priorities and devote different resources to assisting members who are injured/disabled at work. The labour movement can assist disabled injured workers by making workers’ compensation issues a greater priority amongst more unions.

Disability Agencies

Findings

Very few study participants had accessed services provided by community-based agencies which provide vocational rehabilitation and/or job search assistance to persons with disabilities. Most participants’ comments about a handful of agencies were positive. Some of those who had not accessed the services of agencies indicated that they weren’t sure they were “persons with disabilities.”

Recommendations

Agencies can assist injured workers with disabilities by ensuring that disabled workers know about their services. Agencies can facilitate this by strengthening their ties with injured workers groups, advocates for injured workers, and unions. The Workers Compensation Board of Manitoba can facilitate this by providing claimants—particularly those whose benefits are concluded—with greater information about these agencies.

Worker Advisor Office

Findings

Some study participants who sought assistance from the Worker Advisor Office were very pleased with the assistance they received, but others were not. The most common source of dissatisfaction was that the Worker Advisor Office did not follow the injured worker’s appeal through to its conclusion.

Recommendation

The Government of Manitoba should review staffing levels and caseloads at the Worker Advisor Offices and increase staffing if the review indicates that current Worker Advisors cannot adequately assist the injured workers who seek assistance.

Injured Workers Groups

Findings

Very few of the injured workers who participated in this study were aware of the provincial injured workers organization or several fledgling regional injured workers groups in rural Manitoba.

Recommendations

Greater funding from the WCB—and support from the WCB, unions, and disability agencies—would help injured workers groups advocate on behalf of injured workers with disabilities in Manitoba more effectively.