Disability Prevention at Work
Niagara Regional Labour Council 2025 Health & Safety/WSIB Educational – In-Person
July 21 - July 25
Niagara Regional Labour Council Health and Safety/WSIB Educational
July 21, 2025 at 9:00 AM – July 25, 2025 at 5:00 PM EST
Best Western St. Catharines Hotel & Conference Centre
2 North Service Road, St. Catharines, Ontario, L2N 4G9
Prevention Link
WSIB Level 1 & Level 2: 5-Day
Rights & Obligations: Provides an overview of Ontario’s compensation system, the development of Legislation and the general principles of the system. Worker and employer obligations, roles and responsibilities with respect to work reintegration are covered. The WSIB work reintegration policies are discussed and the new direction that the Board is taking with respect to returning workers to their pre-injury job with the accident employer. Disability Prevention best practices and shared responsibilities are discussed and ways in which unions should participate in work reintegration are explored. Protections under other legislation are discussed should a work reintegration plan not provide sufficient protection to a worker.
Benefits and Services: Participants learn: the significance of legislation (OHSA and WSIA), regulations and policy, changes to the legislation and the effects these changes have had on benefits; and the benefits available under the WSIA in the three different eras, including PT, TT, FEL, NEL, and LOE. Detailed examples of benefit calculations and parameters affecting final number to be explored. The structure of WSIB and the appeal system are described in relation to the New Delivery Module and the roles of each WSIB position. Participants will also learn how to make a case plan for a successful outcome and different types of evidence to use. The organization of a Board file is presented and participants will explore how to effectively review a file.
Prevention Link
WSIB Level 4: Return to Work: 5-Day (Pre-requisite is Levels 1 & 2)
The fourth of six certification courses offered within Prevention Link’s core curriculum, is designed for participants who will or currently assist injured workers, individually or collectively, through a therapeutic return to work (RTW) and provides workplace parties with the tools necessary to develop strategies that ensure successful outcomes. Through the exploration of leading research, law, and evidence-based best practices, participants learn: The principles of good return to work practices and the Duty to Accommodate; Legal lessons from precedent-setting cases and their practical use; Barriers to successful return to work and their elimination using the social model of disability and therapeutic return to work principles; An in-depth comparison between older methods of disability management and the newer progressive disability prevention model; The paradigm shift from management to prevention and the roles of the parties involved (employer, an injured worker, representative, H&S representatives) including their rights and responsibilities in the process.
WHSC
Level 1 Occupational Health & Safety: 30 hours
WHSC Level 1 is a comprehensive foundational program build from a worker perspective focusing on the legal right to know about all workplace hazards and the right to participate in efforts to eliminate or control hazardous exposures. It is also an essential onboarding point for workers and worker representatives thinking of expanding their occupational Health and Safety advocacy. This course is also the pre-requisite for Instructor training.
WHSC
3-Day Bundle: Wednesday to Friday
Making the Link Between Occupational Disease and the Workplace: 15 Hours
Occupational disease claims more worker lives than traumatic fatalities yet remains greatly under recognized and unaddressed. WHSC Making the Link Between Occupational Disease and the Workplace is a two-day program designed to equip workers and their representatives with the knowledge, skills, and tools to understand and advocate for occupational disease prevention. Through engaging activities, participants will learn about the science of epidemiology and environmental monitoring and their limits, body mapping exercises, workplace inspections, job hazard analysis, worker surveys and exposure profiles and their role in occupational disease prevention.
UPDATED GHS/WHMIS: 3 Hours
Training workers about hazardous exposures on the job is legally mandated but its’ also a tool to help identify and prevent exposures that can lead to disease. Research evidence suggest between five and 16 per cent of cancers are work-related. When we fail to link toxic workplace exposures to occupational diseases cases also go unreported and undercompensated. This is especially true for occupational illnesses including cancer which typically have long latency periods between workplace exposure(s) and disease onset.
UPDATED Documenting Health & Safety: 3 Hours
The WHSCs three-hour program, ‘Documenting Health and Safety’ is a hands-on, jump-start documenting system developed in response to this need. Participants will examine six basic areas: (1) why documenting health and safety is critical, (2) ways to document, (3) specific types of documents to use (4) what to document (5) when to document, and (6) how to organize their documents. Participants take part in a work refusal and sit in on a JHSC meeting to practice their note taking skills while listening to interactive audio-led worksheets. Action Objective: Identify, track, document and detail health and safety issues at work to improve working conditions and protect workers from reprisals