Thousands of Ontario workers die each year because work-related hazards are left unchecked. This truth, however, is rarely told.
 
Instead, worker death claims allowed by Ontario’s Workplace Safety & Insurance Board (WSIB) are the default statistic shared by most when discussing the tragic outcomes of unsafe and unhealthy work. The WSIB reports approximately 300 allowed worker death claims for 2023. Research evidence suggests, however, upwards of 3,000 workers died. Much of this underreporting or under recognition is for cancer-related deaths and other occupational illnesses with long latency periods between workplace exposure(s) and disease onset. 
 
Even this alarming toll though is a conservative estimate according to this same research evidence. Regardless, many argue without a more accurate picture of work-related suffering, much needed workplace and government interventions will be stalled or fail to materialize altogether.

The evidence

More than 40 years ago, Dr. Annalee Yassi, now a highly regarded University of British Columbia researcher, authored a ground-breaking report for Ontario’s then-Workers Compensation Board, entitled, “Occupational Disease and Worker Compensation in Ontario”. She estimated 6,000 workers die annually in Ontario from work-related cancer, cardiovascular and pulmonary diseases alone.
 
In a 2018 study, University of Ottawa researchers suggested a more accurate picture of worker deaths would number between 9,800 and 13,200 Canadians — or 10 to 13 times higher than fatalities reported by provincial and territorial compensation boards.
 
A government commissioned study by Dr. Paul Demers, Occupational Cancer Research Centre (OCRC) director, published in 2020 found less than 10 per cent of Ontarians with occupational cancer ever get compensated. In the final report, he cited findings of the OCRC's Burden of Occupational Cancer Project estimating 3,000 cancers diagnosed each year in Ontario because of occupational exposures to 16 of the most well-established carcinogens.
 
Research undertaken between 2020 and 2022 by Ontario’s Institute for Work and Health (IWH) has found upwards of 64 per cent of injuries and illnesses go unreported to a workers’ compensation board. In their most recent study, they discovered approximately 40 per cent of emergency department visits for the treatment of work-related injuries or illnesses are not reported to the WSIB. The IWH researchers went on to explain this discrepancy represents about 50,000 cases a year that do not correspond to a claim in WSIB records.
 
More recently in December 2024, the Toronto Star reported on a research project that uncovered tens of thousands of cases filed with the WSIB by Ontario health care professionals between 2019 and 2023 that neither the employer nor the worker filed corresponding documentation. In short, no actual compensation claim was filed.
 
Stephanie Premji, a member of this research project and a McMaster University associate professor in the School of Labour Studies also collaborated recently with Toronto-based South Asian Women and Immigrants' Services. They documented the persistence of claim suppression in the precarious labour market, despite 2015 legislation making it an offense in Ontario. “Our results suggest the avoidance of employer responsibility for work-related injuries and illnesses, including their overt and subtle efforts to suppress workers' compensation claims, was embedded in a ‘culture of denial,’” she says. “All the workers we spoke with talked about their experience of claim suppression or knew someone who had experienced it. It’s seen as just the way things are, but it’s a perversion of the system.” 

The law

Within three days of learning that a worker has suffered a workplace injury, illness, or fatality, the employer must report it to the WSIB. Employers also have legal requirements under the Occupational Health & Safety Act (OHSA) to notify the workplace joint health and safety committee (JHSC) or worker health and safety rep in smaller workplaces, trade union, if any, and Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development.
 
Not reporting an injury, illness or death to the WSIB or pressuring a worker to not report, abandon, or withdraw a claim, known as claim suppression, is an offence under the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act (WSIA) with resulting fines upwards of $25,000 for individuals and $500,000 for businesses. 
 
Workers should inform their supervisor or employer about any injury or illness they suffer because of work as soon as possible. They should also file a claim with the WSIB as soon as possible, but no more than six months after the incident or, in the case of an occupational disease, after the worker learns that he or she suffers from the disease.
 
Health-care providers are also required to submit a report to the WSIB when they’ve treated someone with a workplace injury or illness.
 
Of course, with accurate reporting comes the chance for just worker compensation. Even seemingly minor injuries or ailments should be reported as they may develop into something major over time. And with accurate reporting the case for prevention becomes more urgent. But without accurate reporting inaction prevails.

The data

“It [underreported claims] creates a false sense that workplaces are way safer than they actually are,” explains Steve Mantis of the Ontario Network of Injured Workers Groups, who participated in the above-mentioned research reported by the Toronto Star and who shared his thoughts with them for the article.
 
Researchers associated with the University of Ottawa study likewise conclude, “We argue that what is counted matters because the data not only shape the perceived seriousness of the matter but also set the parameters of relevant legal and policy debates and decisions.”
 
This logic was also at the root of our decision at Workers Health & Safety Centre (WHSC) to highlight for this Day of Mourning the difference between 2023 WSIB data and what the research tells us the data should look like, instead of making this comparison with more recent 2024 WSIB data. Since we reported on 2023 data in April 2024, 40 more worker deaths for occupational disease were recognized by the WSIB. While far from the true number, still this represents a significant increase in deaths when considered within the context of a few hundred recognized deaths.
 
“Yes, as the research tells us issues of claim suppression and even denial are real,” say Andrew Mudge, WHSC Executive Director. “Unfortunately, though, when it comes to occupational disease, latency factors figure into the equation in more ways than one. They delay the reporting and recognition of a claim. But they may prevent the claim from happening altogether. With occupational disease cause and effect are harder to observe. Many don’t make the link between their disease and hazardous exposures. And when they are fighting for their lives, workers may not pause to ask why they are sick.”

On April 28 and every day

Mudge explains this is where WHSC comes in. Helping workers, their representatives and employers to ask questions, make connections early on, and seek workplace solutions before workers are killed, injured or made ill by hazardous work is what WHSC training is all about.
 
“So, on April 28, Canada’s National Day of Mourning, let’s gather to recognize and remember ALL workers who have suffered because of unsafe, unhealthy work,” says Mudge. “A more accurate picture of the true toll of suffering will drive home the pressing need for prevention now.”  
 
For the most recent Day of Mourning event information be sure and check out WHSC’s province-wide listing. We continue to update this information when we are informed of new events or new details are provided.
 
You will also want to review WHSC’s latest training offerings, including our limited-time, special discount on workplace mental health training. As Andrew Mudge says, at WHSC our work is designed to support yours. We are Ontario’s only government-designated health and safety training centre and an approved provider of training that is both essential and legally mandated. We provide quality, instructor-led training in both in-person and virtual classrooms for workers, their representatives, supervisors, and employers, in public and private sector workplaces of every size, industry, and region of Ontario.

Related resources
2025 WHSC Day of Mourning resources
Tens of thousands of potential workplace injury reports filed by doctors are sitting in limbo. Are they a sign of a deeper problem?
Claim Suppression of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses Among Precariously Employed Immigrant Workers in Ontario
OCRC Occupational Cancer Burden Study

Need more information?
Contact a WHSC training services representative in your area.
Email: contactus@whsc.on.ca
Visit: whsc.on.ca
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