Safety Reporter
Canadian
www.safety-reporter.com
March 2019
Workers' compensation
benefits for injured worker
after employer shuts down
No comparable positions available for worker performing
modified duties years after workplace injury: Tribunal
BY JEFFREY R. SMITH
AN ONTARIO worker has won his appeal for workers' compensa-
tion benefits following the closure of his employer while he was per-
forming modified duties.
The 47-year-old worker began working with the accident em-
ployer, a truck manufacturing company in 1992. Within a few
years, he was employed in the company's customer ready centre,
where assembled trucks were brought for fixing problems that
Lac-Mégantic train engineer's
firing overturned by arbitrator
Railway didn't conduct investigation required by collective agreement
before firing engineer involved in tragic Quebec train derailment
BY JEFFREY R. SMITH
AN ARBITRATOR has over-
turned the dismissal of the en-
gineer involved in the tragic
train derailment disaster in Lac-
Mégantic, Que., in 2013 because
of the employer railway's failure
to hold a sufficient investigation
before terminating his employ-
ment as required by the collec-
tive agreement.
Thomas Harding was a loco-
motive engineer for the Mon-
treal Maine & Atlantic Railway,
hired in January 1980. He was
serving in that role on the train
carrying oil that, while left unat-
tended overnight, rolled down
NEW ENTITLEMENT LEVELS AFTER
WORKER'S CONDITION WORSENS
New workers' compensation
for deterioration of injury unrelated
to underlying condition pg. 5
HARASSING CONDUCT
REASON ENOUGH TO FIRE
PROBATIONARY EMPLOYEE
Failure to follow expectations
in non-disciplinary letter enough
to show unsuitability for position pg. 6
INSIDE
NEWS BRIEF
TSB investigation > pg. 4
Credit:
Shutterstock/meunierd
Similar > pg. 2
PM
#40065782
CHRONIC PAIN TOP USE
FOR MEDICAL MARIJUANA
(Reuters Health) — Almost two-
thirds of U.S. patients who use
medical marijuana are using it for
chronic pain, a new study suggests.
Thirty-three U.S. states and the
District of Columbia have legalized
cannabis for medical use and 10
have for recreational use. Patients
receiving cannabis for medical use
need a license that requires a doc-
tor to certify they have a condition
qualifying for such treatment.
Overall, 65 per cent of medi-
cal marijuana patients used it for
chronic pain. Other common rea-
sons were for multiple sclerosis,
chemotherapy nausea, and post-
traumatic stress disorder.
"The vast majority of conditions
for which people use cannabis have
substantial or conclusive evidence
of cannabis being an effective
treatment," said lead study author
Kevin Boehnke of the University of
Michigan in Ann Arbor. However, that
doesn't mean it's going to be easy
for them to determine how best to
use it, he added.
That's because the federal gov-
ernment still classifies marijuana
as a substance with no medical use
and a high potential for abuse, with
no clinical guidelines for medical
treatment, Boehnke said.
PERMANENT IMPAIRMENT
ENTITLEMENT A LONG
TIME COMING
Years of enduring increased symptoms
and being unable to work after workplace
accident aggravated condition pg. 3