National AccessAbility Week: Canada’s unions committed to barrier-free workplaces

The Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) proudly supported the historic adoption of the Accessible Canada Act in 2019. This groundbreaking legislation is committed to realizing a barrier-free Canada by 2040. Canada’s unions are ready to tackle the task alongside governments and employers to make this goal a reality.

“Delegates at the CLC’s most recent convention reaffirmed our commitment to fight for justice for workers in all their diversity. This includes combatting inequities and barriers facing people with disabilities by advocating for barrier-free workplaces and creating pathways—alongside employers and governments—towards meaningful employment opportunities for people with disabilities across Canada,” said Bea Bruske, President of the CLC.

Against the backdrop of a worsening affordability crisis—which is leaving more than 1.5 million people with disabilities below the poverty line in Canada—approximately one third of people with disabilities who are actively looking for work are shut out of the labour force, with racialized people with disabilities in particular facing significantly higher rates of unemployment.

In addition, persistent discrimination and ableism in the workplace continue to impact the experiences of workers with disabilities. Twenty percent of workers with disabilities consider themselves overqualified for their positions, which is a form of underemployment, and one-third of workers with disabilities aged 25–64 do not ask for accommodations for fear of negative consequences.

The impacts are serious:

• The hourly wage gap between workers with and without disabilities widened from $1.91 in 2023 to $2.22 in 2024. 
• Workers with disabilities get fewer hours on average due to involuntary part-time work, which results in a weekly wage gap of $115.20, almost $6,000 per year.

Unions have a proven track record of success when it comes to employment outcomes and persons with disabilities. In fact, sectors with higher unionization rates also tend to have better rates of hiring and retention of workers with disabilities. For example, workers with disabilities have been more successfully employed in the federal public sector (with a unionization rate of 76%), compared to the private sector (with a unionization rate of only 34%).

Unions are also powerful partners in designing and implementing employment programs that target workers with disabilities.  

• Unions work to eliminate physical barriers that limit workplace accessibility.
• Unions negotiate health benefits and leaves that are often crucial to workers with disabilities and push to extend these benefits to all workers by lobbying for universal pharmacare, leaves, and other supports.
• Unions have negotiated, or arbitrated, the accommodation needs of individual workers when necessary.
• Finally, unions have lobbied for improvements to legislation, including workers’ compensation legislation, short- and long-term disability plans, and accessibility improvements in our workplaces and our union spaces.

“The trailblazing work of union-driven inclusion models in workplaces across Canada means that the blueprints for success and effective partnerships with worker organizations are already there. Unions are ready to work together to eliminate barriers to accessibility in the workplace and in our communities,” said Bruske.

This year, National AccessAbility Week will also coincide with the recently adopted Injured Workers Day in Ontario. Canada’s unions have always recognized that any worker can become a worker with a disability at any time during their employment life cycle. That’s why we continue to fight for strong workers’ compensation and vocational supports that meet the needs of workers injured on the job.

Addressing workplace culture by promoting inclusivity and accessibility through education, awareness raising and training initiatives, while ensuring adequate workplace accommodations are already in place, and working proactively together with employers, government, and worker organizations, means that we can all enjoy safer, healthier and more accessible workplaces.

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Learn more about what unions are doing to promote safer, healthier and more accessible workplaces. Check out the Workplace Health and Safety resources available on the CLC’s website.