Friday, March 21, 2008

Nova Scotia Government Complicit In Abuse

Nova Scotia Workers'Compensation Board; Halifax, Nova Scotia










This building, built on the blood and bones of those injured workers who suffered at the hands of a very abusive system, exists today as a means of denying injured workers their just rights. If only these walls could talk … we would learn just how many injured workers committed suicide. This building is a fortress; a refuge for those who hide behind the protection of a"BAD FAITH LEGISLATION". (click on bad faith legislation and read all of Doctor Fillini's statement and you tell me if Doctor Bourke acted in "Good Faith" ?)

We have documentation which was turned over to me, in which the families are prepapred to pull the wraps off how the WCB really operates and caused deserving claimants so much shame and pain they were eventually stripped of all hope ... to the point that suicide was their only release. Heartfelt stories from wives, now nearly destitute, because their spouses chose suicide rather than trying to fight against an organisation that had stacked all the cards against them ... through legislation sanctioned by the Nova Scotia government and the policies of this Board. Something the WCB should be proud of ? I think not. I have been collecting and documenting this information since 1999.

No matter where you go in Canada, you don't have to look or listen very hard to find an horrific story about a provincial Workers Compensation Board that has used and abused injured workers at their most vulnerable.

Sad but true ...and, always "legal"... these legislated employer insurance providers, (W.C.B. Boards) are well known for their
demonstrated incompetence, mismanagement, bungling, deceit, apathy, political meddling,( all expressed in the Dorsey Report) and their obvious bad faith actions ... excused and masked as innocent omissions while, in reality demonstrating the worst kind of cynicism and hypocrisy.

The Board of Directors are usually made up of political appointments, by one party or the other, three from the business community and, three or four union associates, nevertheless, all hand picked . The Nova Scotia Compensation Board and the Department of Labour went out of their way to hand pick and finance their own injured workers groups, which they only acknowledge as exisiting … the real reasons for their existence is a “secret”. I would also like to know just how involved the
Nova Scotia Barristers Society is with the WCB? For sure, the Nova Scotia Department of Labour has fully cooperated and assisted in setting up one of the most vile, and untouchable, agencies of “government”.

Arms length, is the term the Office of the Minister of Labour likes to use …whenever anyone should dare to question the abuse administered by that vile agency. This is the sort of crap the Minister and his minions would have us all continue to believe, even though this flies in the face of the truth.

This board is to the “government” … and the business community who fund it, what Osama Bin Laden is to Al-Qaeda.

That opinion might sound a little extreme … unless you are in the position of one of the many hundreds of unlucky injured workers here in Nova Scotia that are dependent on the WCB to help them put their lives back together.

It is time we put a face on the Workers Compensation Board and point out, who the real stakeholders are. The truth is, you only become a stakeholder at the time of the workplace accident … while the business community, medical community, legal community and the unions, are always active within the board, plotting and conniving, who they will help … or more importantly from their perspective, who they will let hang. Because, injured workers in the province of Nova Scotia, certainly, is a big business. A lot of money changes hands as the result of workplace injury … the problem today is that very little of that money reaches those who truly need it most … injured workers.

For a start, let’s examine how it is that the injured worker has been subjected to such abusive treatment by a system that can act with impunity … because it is “legal”. Start with the business community which finances this vile agency of “government”.

Good corporate citizens all … or so they would have us all believe. Eagerly participating in an organization that was sold to workers and the public as a vehicle to “take care of” workers who succumb to injuries while on the job. Lofty and laudable reasons? Yes, they would be if there wasn’t a strong element of lying as to the real purpose behind the setting up of the WCB. Where do the business organizations like the Chamber of Commerce and The Federation of Independent Small Business stand? Do they approve of way the Workers Compensation Board does business? I would like to know if the Nova Scotia Barrister Society and the Atlantic Provinces Trial Lawyers Association agree with the abuse of injured clients by the Nova Scotia Workers Compensation Board?


In reality, this Board was set up to protect these fine corporate citizens from legal action and starve out injured workers and their families. After all, many of those claimants are simply charlatans ( in the eyes of the WCB ) who are goldbricking and really should be working. So what if their arms and legs may have been amputated, or, they’re in constant pain, half blind, crippled, can’t sit or stand for any length of time? There’s nothing wrong with them … they can work at something … there is no reason why they should sit home and collect a cheque from the WCB.

Because there is the WBC , and the “insurance” it provides, the employer, now, cannot be sued by the injured employee. Isn’t that great ? And the Board...can help those they are told to help, if the injured workers employer give the nod, the system is not flawed, it is corrupt.

In the months ahead we will be posting a story about a lady who was abused royally by this "government" legislated system. You’ll get to see all of these players in action: the Nova Scotia Workers Compensation Board; the Workers Advisor Program, the physiotherapy clinic the WCB sent her to, not to mention the way she was treated by her union. You will see the tactics used by various people in these offices to cheat her out of the monies she needed to live and survive. I will post documents signed and you will also get an opportunity to sit in on a meeting, taped of course, but nevertheless ...you will hear the crap that was pulled on her.

She was, misled and coerced into signing an agreement, which her union should never have let her sign. At the time, she was under so much pressure and intimidation, she was not capable of making a sound decision.

She was even told that I was not permitted to accompany her to any meeting related to her case … even though she had given me full access to her WCB file. This is just one more example, where her Charter of Rights where impinged upon or, should I say, abrogated.

This June, this injured worker will be terminated from receiving further benefits, she then will be free to talk openly about the mess the Office of the Minister of Labour and that agency created for her.

I will walk you all through this very abusive ordeal and, at the end of the day, you can be the judge. On trial will be a vile system … the very system that James Dorsey reviewed and said should be stripped down to nothing … and then rebuilt. Mr. Dorsey said that in 2002 and this lady was beat up since his review was done, so what has changed? Nothing ! And I am still waiting for a call from the Office of the Ministry of Labour.

Injured Workers wanting to tell their story, please contact:
wcoady@accesswave.ca

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

We are fighting for our rights and life.

Here I have four series about the Nova Scotia Workers Compensation Board & Legislation; #I, #2,#3 and #4 which are audio, thanks to Youtube, please click on the centre of the picture to hear the audio.



Injured workers here in Nova Scotia pretty much resemble an abused wife in a bad relationship. Only our abusive spouse just happens to be the employer’s insurance provider, better known as The Nova Scotia Workers’ Compensation Board. ( Read this this part of the 2002 Focus Review Final Report on the WCB , by James Dorsey; pages 13, 14 ( LINK HERE ). And please go ( LINK HERE ) for the full Review.

Keep in mind, that the Nova Scotia Workers’ Compensation Board’s bargaining agent, is the (NSGEU) Nova Scotia Government and General Employees Union Local 55. This is the same union that negotiates the benefit packages for all public servants and guess what, this includes our elected MLAs. Is there any wonder why it is so hard for injured workers to be heard? What we have here is one cozy little unionized politicized family , putting the screws to injured workers here in Nova Scotia, not to mention the relationship those MLAs have with this union.

Regards

Wayne Coady; Cole Harbour ..
wcoady@accesswave.ca