When we start our workday, we are fully expecting that we will leave work in the same condition in which we arrived. For many Canadians, this is not the case, and workplace accidents continue to occur at alarming rates. Our young workers are especially vulnerable due to their lack of work experience and tendency towards impulsiveness.
Aside from that fact that workplace accidents are traumatic for the worker, the additional burden of not being able to support oneself and/or one’s family when we have been injured is what gave birth to Worker’s Compensation (WC).
In 1914 Ontario was the first province to enact compensation legislation that provided lost-time wages to most injured workers under the Workmen’s Compensation Act. It ensured that workers did not suffer financially because of a workplace injury, and forced employers to accept liability for the safety of their workers by establishing safer work environments through due diligence. Rather than sue the employer, and injured worker could now receive accident pay until he was well enough to return to his regular duties.
Following WWI other provinces along with the federal government had begun to follow suit and offer similar compensation models to employees injured on the job.
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