Improving workplace injury compensation requires input from vulnerable workers

The study's findings can help workers' compensation systems communicate more effectively with injured workers. Understanding the ways in which workers in precarious employment react to work injury and claims processes they see as unfair can help employers, legal representatives, physicians and others respond appropriately, according to a new study. Precarious workers are defined as those who earn low or inconsistent wages. Often, they are uncertain how to access work compensation programs or are reluctant to speak up for fear of losing their jobs. The types of injustices faced by workers in the study included being laid off during a claim, receiving inadequate modified work or medical attention, employer claim suppression and unresponsive claim adjudicators. "Precariously employed workers are vulnerable to unfair treatment and studies have shown that recent immigrants are over-represented in precarious employment," said Ellen MacEachen, director of the School of Public Health Sciences and co-author of the study. "When unfair treatment takes place, it has adverse repercussions on workers, affecting their mental health, quality of life and future success.