Workplace Safety & Insurance

The proactive management of Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) claims and financial issues can significantly reduce employers’ costs.

We help our clients deal with practical day-to-day issues relating to workplace safety and insurance including:

  • representation before the WSIB and the Workplace Safety and Insurance Appeals Tribunal
  • accident investigation and reporting
  • return of injured employees to work
  • employee absences and the accommodation of disabilities in the workplace
  • advice on the legal rights and responsibilities of employers and workers
  • re-employment and duty to cooperate penalties
  • the return to clients of interest owing on over-assessments
  • prosecutions under the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act, 1997
  • penalty assessments

Attendance Management

Employee absenteeism has a major impact on an employer’s costs, efficiency and workplace morale. We help clients:

  • understand the legal and practical issues that arise in attendance management
  • develop customized attendance-management programs and policies to manage and reduce absenteeism
  • implement attendance-management processes
  • deal with litigation arising from attendance-management issues, both in arbitrations and in the human rights area

Disability Management

We frequently assist employers with the development and implementation of disability-management programs and we work with third-party adjudicators and administrators to achieve successful outcomes. In cases involving complex disability issues, we advise employers on the practical and legal issues involved, assist them in managing the return-to-work process, advise on disability-related terminations and represent employers in litigation arising from disability-management issues.

Litigation Solutions

When matters cannot be resolved satisfactorily, we provide representation in litigation before the courts, boards of arbitration, human rights tribunals and workplace safety and insurance tribunals. We successfully acted as client counsel at one of the first WSIB criminal prosecutions—with all charges dismissed—and we have been involved in leading cases under the Occupational Health and Safety Act on machine guarding, search warrants and the jurisdiction of the courts.

 

The Hicks Morley Advantage

We offer our clients a unique and comprehensive approach to workplace health, safety and attendance-management issues. We understand the larger context and can provide expert advice on the interaction between these areas and others such as human rights and collective agreement obligations. We are able to guide clients on how to use and manage documents from WSIB proceedings in other litigation.

This approach provides great efficiencies for our clients, promotes effective and consistent systems and solutions across an organization and ensures many potential issues are addressed proactively—before major problems emerge.