Workplace illnesses added to WCB list

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 01/09/2023 (772 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Workers Compensation Board of Manitoba has established a list of 23 illnesses workers will no longer have to fight to prove they contracted on the job.

The list — the first of its kind impacting workers in the province other than firefighters — goes into effect today, according to the Manitoba Federation of Labour.

However, it doesn’t go far enough, MFL leadership argued.

Workers diagnosed with the nearly two dozen highlighted illnesses will now have them treated as presumptive occupational diseases.

The list includes mesothelioma (if there is occupational exposure to airborne asbestos dust), skin cancer (where there is occupational contact with coal tar products), and tubercle bacillus infection (if there is occupational contact with a source and employment includes nursing or treating patients or testing body fluids).

It’s similar to the list of 20 cancers Manitoba firefighters are compensated for because it is presumed they were contracted through work duties.

MFL president Kevin Rebeck said he is glad for impacted workers, but unhappy many diseases known to be connected to workplaces were left off.

“We thought having the most modern list (in Canada), we would have a good one,” Rebeck said. “It’s pretty shameful we end up with a substandard list which leaves Manitoba workers behind.”

The labour group cited 24 more illnesses the province’s leading workplace disease medical expert says should be on the new list — and which are on the schedules of many other Canadian regions.

“All 24 should be on the (WCB) list, we should follow the science on this,” Rebeck said. “They didn’t include mercury poisoning, and that is on the schedules of every province except Manitoba.

“This was meant top stop workers falling through the cracks, and now they will continue to fall through the cracks.”

A WCB spokeswoman said the new initiative is a work in progress.

“The WCB is working to ensure that any additions to the list take place in the current scientific, legal and policy environment,” the spokeswoman said Thursday.

“The WCB will be closely monitoring scientific developments and initiatives in other jurisdictions, and will be regularly adding to the list.”

Dr. Allen Kraut, a specialist in occupational medicine, said the initiative will make for “quicker adjudication.”

“Most of the conditions on the list are fairly rare, I would say,” Kraut said. “But that’s the way with occupational diseases. You often don’t get sick and have a sign on you saying, ‘I got sick because of X at work.’

“But now, with something like mesothelioma, if you have it and work with asbestos, there is now a presumption there. If people have a significant exposure and get a disease, they are automatically accepted.”

Kraut, who helped the MFL compile its list of diseases it wanted included on the WCB schedule, said he doesn’t understand why the agency didn’t add them all.

“We didn’t make it up,” he said. “They are accepted in other provinces.”

Tom Bilous, president of the United Fire Fighters of Winnipeg, said it took years to convince the provincial government various cancers were work-related diseases for firefighters.

“We were able to have five cancers included in 2002 — the first in Canada — and now we have 20 cancers,” Bilous said. “I would say, keep up the good fight, and I know the MFL will.”

The WCB spokeswoman said it is important to remember, even if an occupational disease isn’t on the new list, may still be covered by the WCB.

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“An occupational disease that is not on the schedule is still compensable, and the inclusion of an occupational disease on the schedule does not guarantee claim acceptance,” the spokeswoman said.

“Claims involving illnesses on the schedule are presumed to be related to employment, as long as certain other conditions are met.”

The spokeswoman said any diseases not on the new list will be “adjudicated on their own merits.”

The WCB accepted 25,632 injury claims from Manitoba workers in 2022.

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca

Kevin Rollason
Reporter

Kevin Rollason is a general assignment reporter at the Free Press. He graduated from Western University with a Masters of Journalism in 1985 and worked at the Winnipeg Sun until 1988, when he joined the Free Press. He has served as the Free Press’s city hall and law courts reporter and has won several awards, including a National Newspaper Award. Read more about Kevin.

Every piece of reporting Kevin produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.