Ontario’s labour minister speaking at work injury research symposium

November 14, 2011 (Toronto, Ontario)—Ontario’s new Minister of Labour will be addressing injured workers, researchers and policy-makers this week when they come together to discuss the use of research to bring about positive change for people disabled by work injury.

On Thursday, November 17, the Honourable Linda Jeffrey will deliver the closing remarks on the first of day of the two-day 2011 Symposium on the Consequences of Work Injury, taking place in Toronto.

The symposium is sponsored by the Research Action Alliance on the Consequences of Work Injury (RAACWI). RAACWI is a joint community-university research initiative that came together in 2005 to investigate how the workers’ compensation system helps and/or hinders injured workers. Over the last six years, it has supported more than 25 critical research studies, some of which have had substantial uptake in the policy arena.

We have accomplished so much over the last few years, says RAACWI’s academic lead, Dr. Emile Tompa, a scientist at the Institute for Work & Health in Toronto. We’re excited to be able to share what we’ve learned with people from across the country, and to introduce our initiative to the new Ontario Minister of Labour.

RAACWI currently includes academics, injured workers and injured worker advocates from across Ontario. One of the aims of the 2011 symposium is to broaden the initiative’s scope within Canada. It hopes to establish partnerships among injured worker and academic groups across the country, initially by identifying common research interests related to the consequences of work injury.

Our participation in RAACWI has been very positive, and has helped to validate many of the experiences of injured workers and to confirm that room for improvement exists in Ontario’s workers compensation system, says Steve Mantis, RAACWI’s community lead and secretary of the Ontario Network of Injured Workers Groups. By collaborating with other groups outside the province, we may find common ground to help improve compensation systems across the country.

Over the course of two days, the symposium will:

• showcase RAACWI research and knowledge-to-action activities in the areas of health, disability and well-being following work injury;
• explore related research from other parts of Canada;
• identify research gaps and priorities, as well as areas for collaboration across the country; and
• highlight the impact of research and the RAACWI experience on the lives of participating injured workers.

The 2011 Symposium on the Consequences of Work injury takes place November 17-18 in Toronto, in the Hart House Great Hall at the University of Toronto. Media representatives are welcome to attend. The full program is available here.