Ontario’s labour ministry says it’s reviewing concerns brought forward by the Canadian Football League Players’ Association and other professional athlete unions.
The review is part of the Ontario government’s larger plans to improve compensation for injured workers in the province.
The statement comes after a lobby of athlete unions led by the CFLPA called for changes to workers’ compensation across Canada.
Pro athletes are currently exempt from workers’ compensation, and it’s up to each province to determine if it will extend them coverage.
If one does, coverage would only apply for games played within that province.
The unions have targeted British Columbia as the first province in which to press the issue because WorkSafeBC, its workplace safety agency, sets its own policies so changes wouldn’t have to come through legislation.
The CFLPA has been fighting to have its members covered by workers’ compensation since 2018. That’s when the Supreme Court of Canada decided against hearing former player Arland Bruce III’s concussion lawsuit against the CFL and former commissioner Mark Cohon.
The decision came after two B.C. courts — the Supreme Court of British Columbia and British Columbia Court of Appeal — dismissed the suit, saying the Supreme Court previously ruled unionized employees must use labour arbitration and not the courts to resolve disputes arising from their collective agreement.
Other leagues join CFLPA in the cause
Bruce’s lawyers argued the CFL’s collective agreement was unusual because athletes individually negotiated their pay and it had no long-term disability insurance plan, but players were also excluded from occupational health and safety regulations and ineligible for workers’ compensation.
The CFLPA has since been joined in the cause by unions from several other pro sports leagues.
Last fall, the CFLPA contends, B.C. was prepared to move forward with the process to cover athletes in the province, with the CFL the only group to dissent. It added the league made the initial argument athletes shouldn’t have access to workers’ compensation because they have the courts, then argued during Bruce’s case the judicial system shouldn’t be used and the process had to go through the collective agreement.
Pro athletes are exempt from workers’ compensation coverage across Canada and it’s up to each province to determine if it will extend them coverage. If it does, coverage would only apply for games played within that province.
So the CFLPA would have to reach agreements with all provinces to secure coverage for its entire membership. It could be forced to go back to the drawing board with a newly elected provincial government that felt it had more important issues to address than workers’ compensation.
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