Ontario's Divisional Court has decided that the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act's age cut-off for loss of earnings benefits for older workers did not violate the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Subsection 43(1) of the WSIA cuts off loss of earnings benefits when an employee reaches 65 years of age, if the worker was less than 63 years of age on the date of the injury; or two years after the date of the injury, if the worker was 63 years of age or older on the date of the injury.
The appellant worker, Daniel Gouthro, worked for the City of Toronto. He was injured at work when he was 63 years old. Because of subs. 43(1) of the WSIA, the WSIB cut off his loss of earnings benefits two years after the date of the injury, when he was 65 years old. Gouthro argued that that cut-off was discriminatory and thus violated the Charter.
The Court noted that one of the stated purposes of the WSIA was that the WSIB operate in a "financially responsible and accountable manner", so loss of earnings benefits cannot be paid for life. If the WSIA provided that injured workers were to receive loss of earnings benefits until they died, that would imply that people work until they die. Both intuitively and statistically, that seemed incorrect. The Court noted that loss of earnings benefits should be replaced by retirement income benefits at an age reflecting typical retirement.
The Court also noted that the WSIA's cut-off of loss of earnings benefits "does not create a disadvantage based on a stereotypical attribute. It is grounded in the statistically verifiable facts referred to earlier; namely that as of 2008 approximately 90% of Canadian workers stop working at the age of 65 years and 90% of workers injured after the age of 61 return to work within two years."
As such, the WSIB's age cut-offs were not discriminatory and remained in effect.
Gouthro v. Workplace Safety and Insurance Appeals Tribunal et al., 2014 ONSC 7289 (CanLII)
For more information, visit our Occupational Health & Safety Law blog at www.occupationalhealthandsafetylaw.com
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