Labour Market Re-entry- What it means

The simple answer is "vocational rehabilitation"- steps taken for an injured worker who must change careers as a result of an injury. The simple answer is unfortunately profoundly misleading.

The major impact of labour market re-entry (LMR) decisions is on the long-term benefits of the worker. Workers who must change careers by virtue of an injury do not, on average, return to full-time employment. Most either do not work at all, return to part-time or sporadic employment, or occasionally set up a small business. The WSIB systematically ignores this reality, and attempts to use the LMR process for its justification. As part of this process, the Board attempts to enlist the agreement of the worker.

The way the process works is as follows. The WSIB Case Manager refers the file to a vocational rehabilitation agency with a set of restrictions for the worker. A representative of the agency (unfortunately called an LMR Case Manager) then typically arranges for an assessment of the worker's skills and abilities, with paper and pencil testing. The LMR Case Manager will then propose two "Suitable Employment or Businesses" (SEB), which match the worker's theoretical residual abilities and the requirements of classes of job, and the steps needed to attain these goals. Taken together, these SEB goals and the steps needed to attain them are called an LMR Plan. The LMR Plan is then sent to the WSIB for approval. Once the WSIB makes a decision, the worker has 30 days in which to appeal.

The catch is this. Workers receive full loss of earnings benefits while co-operating in the steps of the LMR plan. Once the plan is over, the WSIB will generally consider that the worker is capable of earning typical wages in full time employment in the SEB and reduce the worker's loss of earnings benefits, regardless whether the worker is actually employed. The higher the typical wages for the SEB, the greater the reduction is.

This means that workers must be especially careful about the viability of proposed labour market re-entry plans, notwithstanding that they may seem enticing, and take prompt steps to record in letters to the WSIB their disagreements with these plans.