"KPMG is the Grinch Who Stole Christmas": Injured Workers


TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwire - Dec. 22, 2011) -

What: Rally at KPMG to demand that its recommendations to WSIB be rejected
When: Friday December 23, 2011, 11 a.m.
Where: 333 Bay St.
Who: Injured Workers, Ontario Network of Injured Workers Groups
Visuals: KPMG to be given the 'Grinch Who Stole Christmas' award

Injured workers, their families and friends will be outside KPMG headquarters on Friday, December 23rd, insisting that the consulting firm is the 'Grinch Who Stole Christmas' for recommending that the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board drastically cut compensation to workers who have been injured on the job.

KPMG, the management consulting company that was recently hired by Toronto Mayor Rob Ford to recommend cuts to city services, was commissioned by the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) as part of an annual Value for Money Audit; this year on Adjudication and Claims Administration. Instead of a routine audit the report recommends sweeping changes to workers compensation in Ontario that will especially target older workers who the Liberals traditionally rely on for support.

Betty Campbell, a 54 year old single mother from Toronto, is one of the hundreds of thousands of Ontarians who are being affected. She will be giving KPMG executives the Grinch Who Stole Christmas Award. "KPMG is the Grinch who wants to steal from injured workers this Christmas but I'm still hopeful for a quick and ultimately happy ending to this ordeal," she says.

Maryth Yachnin, staff lawyer at IAVGO community clinic wants the report to be immediately rejected by the WSIB and Province. "Not only does KPMG's report argue that a successful workers compensation system is one that does not compensate injured workers, it erroneously concludes that the quality and consistency of decisions has improved because workers benefits are being slashed. This is no way to treat people who have sacrificed their health for their employers and the economy."

Among the extensive recommendations of KPMG's report that Yachnin calls "shoddy and devastating" is to limit compensation to workers with pre-existing but non-evident conditions (like degenerative disc disease), even though a workplace accident directly causes a severe and long-term disability. This will have a significant impact on older workers and people whose bodies have degenerated because of years of strenuous labour.

Injured workers are especially upset because KPMG did not have the mandate, medical or legal expertise to recommend wide-scale policy and legislative change, or to challenge years of jurisprudence which forms the basis for workers compensation law and principles. Nonetheless, WSIB President and CEO, David Marshall, has accepted and endorsed the report. The WSIB is now moving to revise its policies in line with the cutbacks KPMG recommends.

Injured workers have united with groups like Toronto Stop the Cuts and the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty to demand the WSIB and the Province immediately reject KPMG's report.

Endorsers: Toronto Stop the Cuts, Ontario Coalition Against Poverty, Workers Action Centre, Toronto Workers Health and Safety Legal Clinic, Hamilton Community Legal Clinic, Justice for Migrant Workers, Sudbury Community Legal Clinic, Injured Workers Consultants, IAVGO Community Legal Clinic, Greater Toronto Workers Assembly, Canadian Autoworkers Union.

Contact Information:

For media inquiries contact:
IAVGO Community Legal Clinic
Maryth Yachnin
Staff Lawyer
416-924-6477 ext. 25
yachnim-iavgo@lao.on.ca

Ontario Network of Injured Workers Groups
Karl Crever
905-662-7128
oniwg@sympatico.ca