This week, we’re speaking about workplace compensation law with Michelle Alton, general counsel at Ontario’s Workplace Safety and Insurance Appeals Tribunal.
Topics: COVID-19 and workplace benefits; a new employer rate framework and mental stress claims in the workplace
Full Episode (54:58) Download
⚫ How does COVID impact workers’ eligibility to benefits under the WSIB framework? (7:57)
⚫ How does a new employer rate framework change the way that employers measure and assess their own risk management?
⚫ How has the shifting legal view of chronic mental stress been applied to the workplace? (27:25)
⚫ Our Ask-Me-Anything segment, featuring five questions submitted by patrons of the Lawyered community (38:44)
? How does your role as tribunal counsel shape the way that you think about access-to-justice? (39:27)
? How can tribunals strike the balance between creating a user-centric process while also ensuring fairness for all parties? (43:00)
? How has COVID impacted the way that workplace compensation law and workplace safety operate? (45:27)
? What are some of the ways in which you foresee this area of law changing in the next few years? (48:18)
? Are virtual hearings here to stay? (50:03)
1. COVID-19 and Workplace Compensation Benefits (13:27) Download
– “FAQs about claims and COVID-19”, WSIB Ontario
2. WSIB’s New Employer Rate Framework (18:04) Download
– “Rate Framework (Archived): Our new model”, WSIB Ontario
3. Mental Stress Claims and the Workplace (14:32) Download
– Decision No. 693/20, 2021 ONWSIAT 295 (CanLII)
– Decision No. 1227/19, 2019 ONWSIAT 2324 (CanLII) – Decision No. 1227/19R, 2020 ONWSIAT 1151 (CanLII)
4. Ask-Me-Anything: Workplace Compensation Lawyer (16:16) Download
? How does your role as tribunal counsel shape the way that you think about access-to-justice?
? How can tribunals strike the balance between creating a user-centric process while also ensuring fairness for all parties?
? How has COVID impacted the way that workplace compensation law and workplace safety operate?
? What are some of the ways in which you foresee this area of law changing in the next few years?
? Are virtual hearings here to stay?
About the Guest:
Michelle Alton is General Counsel at the Workplace Safety and Insurance Appeals Tribunal (“WSIAT”). In this role, Michelle oversees all of the WSIAT’s external litigation and provides strategic and legal advice and assistance in relation to the WSIAT’s own adjudication, as well as corporate matters, including contracts and procurement, privacy, labour and employment, and corporate governance. Prior to joining the WSIAT in 2014, Michelle practiced in the areas of labour and employment law at a leading employer-side law firm in Toronto.
Michelle has appeared before numerous Ontario administrative tribunals and courts, including the Supreme Court of Canada. Michelle is a frequent speaker at conferences and is an active member of the Ontario Bar Association, the Society of Ontario Adjudicators and Regulators, and the Advocates’ Society. In addition to her law degree, Michelle has a B.Sc. and an M.Sc. in biology and has been published in several different publications, including the Journal of Cell Science and the Canadian Journal of Administrative Law and Practice.
Michelle’s LinkedIn Bio
Workplace Safety and Insurance Appeals Tribunal