Media Advisory-28% of Employers Freeloading as Taxpayers Foot the Bill for Injured Workers:

TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwire - May 31, 2011) - When one of the over 38 percent of Ontario's workers who are not covered by the province's workers' compensation system gets injured on the job, the impact can be devastating. With little recourse beyond a costly legal quagmire, injured workers not protected through the Workplace Safety Insurance Board (WSIB) – many of them women – are forced to rely on social assistance and the provincial health care system, instead of the employer who injured them.

The Ontario Federation of Labour (OFL) will mark June 1^st as Injured Worker's Day with a media conference highlighting the injured workers who fall through the cracks in Ontario's workers' compensation coverage. Injured worker, Maryam Nazemi will be on hand to discuss her experiences managing her injury on her own. Workers' compensation legal expert, Dave Wilken will join OFL President Sid Ryan in discussing the need for mandatory WSIB coverage for all workers and the social and economic benefit to the province.

Despite reports calling for mandatory WSIB protection for all workers and a 2003 recommendation by the WSIB Board of Directors to expand coverage, 28 percent of Ontario employers continue to be allowed to get away without paying into Ontario's workplace health and safety prevention and enforcement systems.

After the media conference, injured workers will rally outside the Queen's Park legislature to call on the government to end the poverty of injured workers and the unfairness in workers' compensation.

The Ontario Federation of Labour represents 54 Ontario unions and over one million members.