According to the Association of Workers Compensation Boards of Canada, an astounding 348,747 lost time claims were made in 2022, the last year for which complete data is available.

Shockingly, this number doesn’t even count those who decline – or are illegally persuaded by their employers not – to report their injuries.

On Day of Mourning, Canada’s unions issued a demand for “Safe work now!”, a call to action for employers and governments to make work and workplaces truly safe for all workers.

“Every workplace injury is preventable, says Bea Bruske, President of the CLC. ” These injuries – be they physical or psychological – should never be seen as “part of the job”. Employers have a legal and moral responsibility to ensure that workers aren’t hurt or maimed.”

To ensure that every worker returns home whole from the job at the end of every work day, Canada’s unions demand from every level of government:

• Holding criminally negligent employers accountable through proactive enforcement of the Westray Law – not just for fatalities, but injuries as well;
• Substantive action to ensure workers know about the hazards in their work and workplace, regardless of the type of products they use;
• Development and implementation of comprehensive strategies to remove toxic substances from the workplace;
• That every workplace be free from violence and harassment; and
• Increased proactive workplace health and safety investigations and stronger enforcement of health and safety laws.

“Workers compensation systems must also provide workers with the compensation they deserve in a fair and transparent manner,” says Bruske. “Easy access to the rehabilitation and vocational services they need is also essential.”

Workers demand that governments have their backs, so they can get back on track: “Any shirking responsibility for injured workers by employers and governments is simply unacceptable: it’s time for safe work, now.” 

The post On Injured Workers Day, Canada’s unions say: safe work now! appeared first on Canadian Labour Congress.

Thousands of workers come to Canada each year to work through the TFWP; Statistics Canada reports that temporary foreign workers represented around one-quarter of all agriculture workers in 2021. Many of these workers face exploitation and abuse.

Following a visit to Canada earlier this year, United Nations Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, Tomoya Obokata reported that “the agricultural and low-wage streams of the Temporary Foreign Workers Programme (TFWP) constitute a breeding ground for contemporary forms of slavery.”

Last year, migrant farm workers from Jamaica working in the Niagara Region expressed similar grave concerns in an open letter to Jamaica’s Ministry of Labour. The workers were seeking increased support, stating: “As it currently stands, the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program (SAWP) is systematic slavery.”

A significant issue impacting migrant workers is employer-specific work permits, which bind migrant workers to a single employer. These work permits grant the employer control over the employment, compensation, working conditions, and immigration status of the migrant worker. Permits such as these can bar migrant workers from job security and mobility and make them vulnerable to abuse and exploitation by unscrupulous TFWP employers, labour recruiters and labour traffickers.

“It is imperative that, as a nation, we commit ourselves to upholding the rights and well-being of all workers, regardless of their immigration status,” said Larry Rousseau, Executive Vice-President of the Canadian Labour Congress. “It’s time to put an end to employer-specific work permits that ensure migrant workers remain in precarity and at risk of exploitation, abuse and mistreatment.”

Employer-specific work permits make it impossible for migrant workers to exercise their rights as workers and seek protections while working in Canada. Legitimate concerns about getting deported or losing employment traps these workers in involuntary servitude.

This exploitative system gives employers steady access to vulnerable migrant workers with precarious work and immigration status. This has led many TFWP employers to use the program as an ongoing business model, as opposed to a program of last resort to fill acute and temporary labour skill shortages.

On this International Migrants Day, Canada’s unions call on government to take concrete steps to enhance the protections afforded to migrant workers as it relates to the low-wage Temporary Foreign Workers Program (TFWP) streams:

• Replace the employer-specific work permits with open work permits;
• Provide permanent residency opportunities for low-wage workers; and
• Provide permanent residency opportunities for former low-wage workers who are undocumented.

The post Canada’s unions: Migrant workers in Canada deserve equal rights, protections appeared first on Canadian Labour Congress.

“Investments in care are essential if we’re going to reduce and redistribute women’s unpaid work and pave the way for women to take on paid work, or to access education or training,” said Bea Bruske, CLC President. “If women are going to have equal opportunities and equal access to the labour force, then Canada must address its care crisis. In addition to unpaid care duties, many women work in care jobs: jobs that are undervalued, underpaid and often have poor working conditions. We need drastic change to achieve true gender equality.”

It is estimated that Canada’s care economy employs roughly one in five workers in the Canadian labour force. Whether it’s health care, education, child care, elder care, domestic work, social services, care for persons with disabilities, community centres and more, care work is crucial to the wellbeing of our communities and our economy.

However, years of chronic government underfunding, coupled with increased privatisation and a worrying shift of care to for-profit businesses has left us with a broken care system. According to the OECD, Canada falls near the bottom among wealthy countries in its public expenditure on social services. This has led to a decreasing level of quality of care as well as an overall erosion of decent working conditions for workers in the care economy.

This is why Canada’s unions recently launched Show We Care, a national campaign aimed at highlighting care workers in Canada and calling for investments to fix the struggling systems.

In Canada, women make up nearly 75 percent of Canada’s care workers and research shows that their involvement in care work, particularly unpaid care, is a critical factor in shaping women’s employment and trajectories for lifetime earnings. Statistics Canada estimated that in 2019 alone, the economic value of unpaid household work in Canada was equivalent to between $515 billion and $860 billion. That amounts to a quarter or as high as 37 percent of Canada’s nominal GDP that year.

“Gender Equality Week is a significant opportunity for our federal government to take stock of the gender inequities in our broken care systems and commit to action,” said Siobhán Vipond, Executive Vice-President of the CLC. “It’s past time for federal decision makers to take action and show they care by repairing Canada’s failing care systems.”

Unions are calling on the federal government to address the care crisis by:

• Forming a Care Economy Commission to study, design and implement a comprehensive Canadian care strategy;
• Making significant and on-going investments in public social infrastructure and care work to ensure an equitable and sustainable economic recovery;
• Implementing standards and investments to address shortfalls and inequitable levels of care for seniors and persons with disabilities, including in long-term care, home care and palliative care;
• Ensuring that the new investments in early learning and childhood education in every province and territory address the child care workforce crisis;
• Ratifying the International Labour Organisation’s Convention 189 to ensure decent work and protections for domestic workers; and
• Establishing pathways to permanent residency for migrant workers, many of whom deliver care, and ensure migrant workers have comprehensive worker protections to prevent exploitation and abuse.

“Our jobs, our families and our economy depend on having our care needs met,” said Bruske. “We need federal leadership to make Canada a place where everyone has the care they need, and caregivers have the recognition, support and compensation they deserve.”

The post To achieve gender equality, Canada’s decision makers must prioritize investments in care appeared first on Canadian Labour Congress.

Today we also celebrate workers, the people who built this country and power our communities. From the shop floors and rugged landscapes, to the glass towers and transit systems, workers are the Canadian economy. We keep Canada moving, powered and producing.

“Today is an opportunity to take stock, and acknowledge the impact unionized workers have had on this country. Roughly 30 percent of workers in Canada are currently unionized. And yet, if you look at all the gains won by unions, it’s undeniable that we are helping to improve the lives of all workers, union and non-union. Now imagine if 50 percent of workers were unionized. Or more. The far-reaching impact and positive influence of unions is undeniable,” said Bea Bruske, President of the Canadian Labour Congress.

The last two years were a challenge for working people. They exposed great levels of precarity for many workers, and redefined what an essential worker is. They taught us all that we must do better.

The good news is that working together for the good of all workers is where Canada’s unions shine brightest.

Following the last global pandemic, through the Great Depression and World War II, workers organized in unions to build a better future. In the resulting decades, Canada’s middle class was created. Through collective organizing, workers rebuilt a fairer economy and paved a pathway to prosperity for millions of families.

With the challenges facing workers from the current pandemic, the solution to a better future remains the same as it was a hundred years ago; workers must organize.

“Over the course of the pandemic, workers have developed a renewed appreciation for union representation. Workers have seen firsthand how employers will prioritize profit over people, and how governments can’t always be trusted to have workers’ best interests at heart. Unionization allows workers to collectively bargain better wages, better working conditions and benefits like pensions and sick leave. Unions also help implement important health and safety protections, something workers have a newfound appreciation for two years into a global pandemic,” said Bruske.

Through collective organizing into unions, workers can build a better future for themselves. And through collective organizing, we can ensure life is fairer for everyone. We can bring down the costs families face with pharmacare, affordable housing and dental coverage. We can ensure care is there and accessible for our loved ones when they need it. We can tackle the climate crisis head-on, while creating good, sustainable jobs in communities across Canada.

When workers unite, we know that the future will be bright. So on this May Day, we call on all workers to celebrate the best way possible and organize.

The post Celebrate May Day the best way possible: organize! appeared first on Canadian Labour Congress.

OTTAWA –– Replacing frontline workers with exploited offshore workers, as the restaurant chain Freshii is now doing, moves us towards a low-wage economy that weakens our communities and exploits workers, according to Bea Bruske, President of the Canadian Labour Congress.

“This is about replacing Canadian workers with low-wage offshore ones and using technology to skirt around our country’s labour laws and workplace standards. If this isn’t illegal, it should be,” said Bruske. “The workers serving Canadian customers aren’t paying taxes in Canada and aren’t protected by Canadian labour standards. Companies that profit off of Canadian consumers shouldn’t use low-wage offshore workers to serve customers here in Canada. It’s bad for workers and bad for our economy.”

Bruske said this isn’t about an inability to attract workers, which can be done through competitive wages, real benefits and proper working conditions, but instead another sign of corporate greed and exploiting a low-wage offshore workforce.

“Gig workers in Canada already don’t have proper workplace protections. But with the use of offshore workers, the exploitation of employees and move to a low-wage economy is being super-sized,” said Bruske. “Companies must wake up to the long-term benefits to both the communities they operate in and their business when they invest in the people who work for them.”

Bruske added that there are things consumers can do to voice their objections to this new concerning trend towards offshoring and automation.

“Is an employee 3000 kms away going to know if the avocado is fresh today or whether field greens or kale would make a better salad bowl?” asked Bruske. “Customers should understand they can vote with their wallets on the kind of communities they want to live in.

Choose companies that treat employees properly, with a fresh attitude towards workplaces, not greedy corporations with their stale approach of exploiting workers.”

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To arrange an interview, please contact:
CLC Media Relations
media@clcctc.ca
613-526-7426

The post Building a low-wage economy with stomach-churning greed appeared first on Canadian Labour Congress.

I think almost everyone can agree 2021 was a rough year. The pandemic we hoped was ending now rolls on with new variants and new disruptions.

But in 2021 we also saw some hopeful signs of what’s possible when people work together in common cause. Workers with newfound confidence demanding better. People seeking out jobs that offered regular schedules, better wages, and less precarity. Increased unionization rates in the middle of a pandemic.

That’s the energy Canada’s unions are bringing into 2022. So as everyone gets going on their New Year’s resolutions, we’ve got a few of our own. And we intend to keep them.

This is our time to build and our time to demand better. By lunchtime on January 4, Canada’s highest paid CEOs had already made the same pay that an average worker will take home for the year. Which is why Canada’s unions have resolved that 2022 is the year that the country’s top earners will pay their fair share.

Enough of these $10 million pay days for high-ranking executives. Enough of tax loopholes and bailout programs that support millionaires and billionaires. Frontline workers have been the ones to keep us all afloat through the last 22 months. It’s unconscionable that they’ve struggled to make ends meet while Canada’s top earners had one of their most profitable years ever in 2020.

In 2022 we must also resolve to permanently fix Employment Insurance and stop letting so many workers and their families fall through the cracks in hard times. As Omicron is teaching us, we can’t keep lurching from wave to wave; we must instead get ready for the next crisis. Supports for people thrown out of work were inadequate before the pandemic and the federal government’s new Lockdown Benefit is falling far short of the mark.

Our public health care has struggled under the strain of the pandemic and chronic staffing shortages. Health care workers are overextended and underpaid, and burnout rates among health care workers are at an all-time high. We must resolve to strengthen public health care, starting with investments in more nurses and health professionals. And we can save lives and improve living conditions by taking profits out of long-term care.

With so many drowning under the rising costs of essentials, we must resolve to make life more affordable in 2022. We can save families thousands through investments in affordable housing, making child care available and accessible to every parent, and actually implementing pharmacare.

Positive change is within our grasp – if we in the labour movement can work together with governments, civil society, and business. But we must learn the right lessons from the past 22 months of pandemic and make the right investments – so our communities are ready when the next crisis hits.

2021 showed us the road may be hard at times. We must resolve, together, to respond with resilience, determination, and real ambition to do better in 2022.

Bea Bruske is the president of the Canadian Labour Congress. Follow her on Twitter @PresidentCLC

The post Resilience, Determination and Ambition in 2022 appeared first on Canadian Labour Congress.

We believe every worker deserves the same high standard of protection under the law. Employers have long used excuses to misclassify their employees as independent contractors, and have lobbied for exceptions and special categories that restrict workers’ rights. In recent years, platform companies like Uber, Lyft and Skip the Dishes have taken that effort to new extremes that threaten workers everywhere.

Globally, app-based workers are standing up, overturning misclassification as independent contractors, and coming together to improve their working conditions. Courts and legislatures in France, Spain, Belgium, Chile, Australia, and numerous other countries are recognizing the presumption of employment status for food delivery workers and other app-company gig workers. The new European Union Commission directive, establishing the presumption of employee status unless the company can prove the platform worker is an independent contractor, shows us that around the world, the tide is turning towards full employment rights for app-based workers. The OWRAC report recommendations are offside and out of step with this global trend.

We repeat our call from March 2021 for governments to give app-based gig workers the same legal protections as other workers, and to end employee misclassification. The CLC and Canada’s central labour bodies urge all governments to apply employment standards universally and eliminate exceptions and special categories that restrict worker rights. We urge governments to end the misclassification of workers as independent contractors and reverse the legal onus so employers must prove a worker is not an employee and is truly an independent contractor.

The OWRAC report has recommended the opposite. In line with the wishes of the digital platform companies like Uber, Lyft and Skip the Dishes, OWRAC recommends the government of Ontario create a new category of dependent contractor under employment standards legislation which would give gig workers fewer rights and entitlements than employees. Workers classified as dependent contractors would continue to have reduced or restricted access to the Canada Pension Plan, Employment Insurance, and workers’ compensation that are the bedrock of decent work. Instead, OWRAC recommends the government establish a ‘portable benefits’ scheme which will unquestionably provide inferior benefits for these workers.

As the report of the Expert Panel on Modern Federal Labour Standards recognized, the best portable benefits are universal social programs like Canada Pension Plan, Employment Insurance and national Pharmacare. Ontario workers need and deserve full access to EI and CPP, not crumbs tossed into an individual savings account.

OWRAC has heard and responded to the wishes of the platform companies, whose business model exploits the fact that workers are denied basic minimum employment standards. At the same time, OWRAC has ignored the recommendations of gig workers themselves and labour groups that are demanding governments and advisory groups protect workers’ rights, not the gig employers.

The Canadian labour movement remains firmly united with the growing global movement demanding full rights and protections for gig economy workers. We reject the platform companies’ efforts to pressure governments to invent a niche category for app-based employment. Like Proposition 22 in California, Uber and other platform companies are hoping the Ford government will enshrine insecurity and inferior work conditions into Ontario’s legislation while undermining the right of workers to organize.

Gig work is vitally important work but commonly underpaid and undervalued. Grocery store workers, delivery drivers, bike couriers and many others play a critical role in keeping our economy moving and ensuring that we have essential supplies. This work matters, and these workers matter.

Governments have a responsibility to make work better – to provide workers with security, safety and fair pay. We reiterate our call on the provincial, territorial and federal governments to protect gig and app based workers by:

• Applying employment standards universally and eliminating exceptions and special categories that restrict worker rights;
• Proactively addressing the misclassification of workers as independent contractors and reversing the legal onus so employers must prove a worker is not an employee and is truly an independent contractor; and
• Ensuring all workers have the right to organize into a union should they choose and making that right meaningful by addressing barriers to organizing.

Endorsing bodies:

Canadian Labour Congress
Alberta Federation of Labour
British Columbia Federation of Labour
Manitoba Federation of Labour
New Brunswick Federation of Labour
Newfoundland and Labrador Federation of Labour
Northern Territories Federation of Labour
Nova Scotia Federation of Labour
Ontario Federation of Labour
Prince Edward Island Federation of Labour
Saskatchewan Federation of Labour
Yukon Federation of Labour

The post Statement of the CLC and provincial and territorial federations of labour in response to the Ontario Workforce Recovery Advisory Committee Report appeared first on Canadian Labour Congress.

OTTAWA – Health care systems are on the brink. Alberta is witnessing 1,500 new cases a day and rising while their health care system is on the verge of collapse. Saskatchewan saw a record 506 new cases. Cases are spiking in New Brunswick.

To make matters worse, Statistics Canada reported that nearly one-in-five job vacancies in Canada was in health care and social assistance. Many workers in the care economy are underpaid and working under poor conditions – most are women, and many are Black, Indigenous, racialized or recent immigrants and migrants.

“From coast-to-coast-to-coast, our health care systems are strained to the breaking point,” said Canadian Labour Congress president Bea Bruske. “Erin O’Toole talks like he supports public health care but when you look at his policies, he’s just another Conservative opening the door to privatization and leaving care workers behind. The bulk of his promised new health funding – if it ever actually happened – would be years down the road.”

While Alberta’s health care system is buckling under premier Jason Kenney’s mishandling of the fourth wave, his Conservative government is still planning cuts. In Ontario yesterday, the independent Financial Accountability Office revealed that the Doug Ford Conservative government spent $2.6 billion less than planned in the fiscal first quarter.

“From Ontario to Alberta to Saskatchewan, we have seen health cuts and health care systems on the brink. Conservative mismanagement is putting our public health care system at risk,” concluded Bruske. “And Mr. O’Toole already has a track record of cutting health care. In power now, he would make things even worse.”

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To arrange an interview, please contact:
CLC Media Relations
media@clcctc.ca
613-355-1962

The post O’Toole another Conservative who would put our public health care system at risk appeared first on Canadian Labour Congress.

“Nobody goes to work asking for more insecurity and vulnerability, but that’s what Uber is offering their workers. These workers are being asked by a giant multinational to give away their rights as employees, and that’s wrong.

“This raises the question of whose time is it, anyway? A driver may work many hours while logged on to the app. Does the company intend to pay workers for only a portion of these hours of work? That would be like an employer demanding their employees to come to work for 8 hours, but only paying for what the employer deemed productive or profitable work.

“Uber has dictated the terms of their workers’ employment, offloading costs like gas and car repairs onto its employees and isn’t even held accountable for providing basic employment standards, like a minimum wage and vacation pay.

“Meanwhile Canada’s laws exclude gig workers from unemployment benefits and even the protections of basic labour standards.

“This is what happens when policy makers ignore the voices of workers and listen instead to the companies and their advocates. These vulnerable, low-paid workers are only asking for the same rights and protections as other workers.

“Sadly, this mirrors the Conservatives’ campaign proposal, which gives giant app companies the freedom to keep exploiting our country’s most vulnerable workers.

“Canada’s unions will stand up for all workers and fight this every step of the way.

“The writing is on the wall. Courts in other jurisdictions, like California, have already called out companies like Uber. The company is now asking the Canadian government to pre-empt the courts, deny workers’ rights and set in stone the second-class status of gig workers. This is wrong.

“All workers should have workplace protections and benefits. We are demanding all parties work with us and give low-paid gig workers fair employment standards and real access to EI and CPP benefits.”

The post Bruske: Uber’s flex work proposal would continue to fail to protect gig workers appeared first on Canadian Labour Congress.

Uber drivers successfully petitioned the court to certify a class action on behalf of all Uber drivers and delivery workers who submit they are employees misclassified as independent contractors.

“All workers should have workplace protections and benefits. Canada’s unions support the decision to certify this class action and invite Uber drivers from coast-to-coast to unionize and collectively bargain their rights,” said Bea Bruske, President of the CLC. “For too long, Uber has dictated terms of workers’ employment but hasn’t been accountable for providing basic employment standards like a minimum wage and vacation pay.”

In June of last year, an 8-1 decision of the Supreme Court of Canada found that Uber’s private arbitration clause in its contract with drivers is unfair, unconscionable and invalid. The company required Ontario drivers raising a dispute with the company to go to court in the Netherlands and pay legal and other fees amounting to most of their annual income.

“Courts cannot continue to be the main avenue through which workers demand their rights. It is too costly and time consuming, and companies like Uber have very deep pockets to drag out any legal challenge,” said Bruske.

“Governments must act to address the blatant misclassification of workers contained in gig economy employers’ business models. The competitiveness, growth strategy and business model of companies like Uber is built on denying workers their statutory and collective bargaining rights. Governments must step up and rectify the massive power imbalance between digital platform giants and low-paid gig workers,” Bruske added.

The post Canada’s unions welcome certification of Uber class action appeared first on Canadian Labour Congress.

A few short weeks ago, I was truly honoured to be elected to serve the working people of Canada as president of the Canadian Labour Congress. My fellow officers and I do not take this responsibility lightly – and it is not a job anyone can do alone. We are counting on you for your support … and your action.

Lily Chang, Siobhán Vipond, Larry Rousseau and I have already hit the ground running because we know that Canadians may very well be headed towards a federal election in the middle of a pandemic – making it one of the most important elections in a generation.

My first experience in the labour movement was as a young worker fighting for fair wages, benefits and protections at a corner grocery store in Winnipeg. My spirits were lifted by the incredible support we received from other workers and community members.

That memory has continued to inspire me to stand up for other people, speak out against injustice, and to always – always – try to make the world a better place.

But that memory also stands out because of how relevant that lesson is today.

When the global pandemic plunged our economy into uncertainty, it was front line workers in every sector who kept our families safe and healthy, and our communities running.

After being celebrated as heroes for the first few months, most of those workers lost their wage premiums, despite their continued dedication and exposure to risk. Meanwhile, many of the corporate CEOs clawing back their benefits continue making record profits.

I am sure that every worker in Canada has a unique story about the impact of the pandemic.

The upcoming federal election will be our opportunity to define Canada’s priorities.

It is our opportunity to fight for decent wages, standards, and equity to ensure no one is left behind, and we know that workers’ rights are human rights.

It is our opportunity to fight for paid sick leave and social programs – like universal pharmacare, affordable childcare, better healthcare and a stronger social safety net – to put an end to precarity and insecurity.

And it is our opportunity to protect the planet for future generations, by demanding bold climate action and a sustainable recovery.

That’s why I am asking you, and every worker in Canada, to sign up to be a part of this fight.

Click here to join our Action Team to help amplify worker issues and priorities in the upcoming federal election. We will call on you to share messages, send letters, and press local candidates and national parties to support worker issues.

I also invite you to follow me on Facebook and Twitter to be a part of my team too.

After all, I know that we are much stronger when we work together.

In Solidarity,

Bea Bruske
President

The post Open Letter to the Working People of Canada appeared first on Canadian Labour Congress.

The Canadian labour movement stands united with the growing global movement demanding full rights and protections for gig economy workers.

The COVID-19 pandemic has taught us many lessons. It has shown the depth and breadth of precarious work in our country. And it has shone a light on the essential labour delivered by many workers — work that is typically underpaid and undervalued. Grocery store workers, delivery drivers, bike couriers and many others play a critical role in keeping our economy moving and ensuring that we have essential supplies. This work matters, and these workers matter.

Governments have a responsibility to make work better – to provide workers with security, safety and fair pay. Workers are making it clear they want this too. Globally, app-based workers are standing up, overturning misclassification as independent contractors and coming together to improve their working conditions. The recent Supreme Court decision in the UK and similar decisions in Spain and South Korea show us that around the world, the tide is turning towards rights for app-based workers.

Uber is playing hardball politics while attempting to block the movement for fairness and justice for gig economy workers. If Uber wanted to provide its workers with benefits or enhanced training, it could do so right now.

Further, workers drawn to Uber and other app-based employment by the promise of flexibility find they are left at the mercy of swings in consumer demands and algorithms that determine when they should work and how much they will earn. They have little to no protection or recourse from arbitrary deactivation or changes in the terms and conditions of their work. Many workers report their pay has steadily declined, and during the pandemic, they experience working conditions that endanger their safety.

App-based workers should have the same full protections and employment rights as other workers. They must also have the fundamental right to organize and bargain collectively. There is too much at stake for us to get this wrong. Worker rights are about more than just individuals; they are the foundation of many of our most important social programs. The Canada Pension Plan, the Quebec Pension Plan and Employment Insurance rely on the participation of workers and employers. It’s a commitment to our economic security while at work and in retirement. The rights of gig workers are entwined with all of us.

We call on the provincial, territorial and federal governments to protect gig and app based workers by:

• Applying employment standards universally and eliminating exceptions and special categories that restrict worker rights;
• Proactively addressing the misclassification of workers as independent contractors and reversing the legal onus so employers must prove a worker is not an employee and is truly an independent contractor; and
• Ensuring all workers have the right to organize into a union should they choose and making that right meaningful by addressing barriers to organizing.

Endorsing bodies:

Canadian Labour Congress
Alberta Federation of Labour
British Columbia Federation of Labour
Fédération des travailleurs et travailleuses du Québec
Manitoba Federation of Labour
New Brunswick Federation of Labour
Newfoundland and Labrador Federation of Labour
Northern Territories Federation of Labour
Nova Scotia Federation of Labour
Ontario Federation of Labour
Prince Edward Island Federation of Labour
Saskatchewan Federation of Labour
Yukon Federation of Labour

The post Labour: protect worker rights, not gig employers appeared first on Canadian Labour Congress.

“Recover Better – Stand Up for Human Rights” is the United Nations theme for this year’s International Human Rights Day, which is observed December 10.

“It is critical that Canada’s COVID-19 recovery efforts tackle the human rights failures that have been exposed by the pandemic. Significant government investments in the care sector will help level the playing field for those most affected by this virus,” said CLC Executive Vice-President Larry Rousseau.

“We welcome the federal government’s recent commitments to invest in public care systems. Canada must focus on creating better jobs, improving working conditions, and addressing the deep disparities within our economy,” he added.

The pandemic has demonstrated how our communities rely on precarious, low-wage work and unpaid labour in critical care sectors. This includes child care, early childhood education, elderly care, mental health, and other social care services that serve the health and safety of our communities.

Many of the workers in these sectors are Black, Indigenous, women of colour and recent immigrants. While this work is deemed “essential”, it is undervalued and workers face poor working conditions, violence, harassment and numerous other risks to their health and safety. They also face a higher risk of exposure to COVID-19 and a lack of job security and access to benefits.

“This global crisis has laid bare what we’ve been saying for years: systemic discrimination and marginalization have put certain groups at a disadvantage. Entire communities are having a much harder time recovering due to unequal access to opportunities and services such as employment, health care and housing,” said Rousseau. “Long-term investment in care is crucial to disaster-proofing our economy, safeguarding our social safety net against future crises, and ensuring our collective well-being.”

Sign our petition urging the government to increase investments in our public care systems so we can move forward together and build a more sustainable and inclusive economy.

The post Human Rights Day: equitable COVID-19 recovery requires investment in care appeared first on Canadian Labour Congress.

The pandemic exposed deep disparities and vulnerabilities in our economy and society. It has also radically changed the lives of people across Canada.

Workers want the federal government to disaster-proof the economy by committing to investments in job creation, pharmacare and child care, among others.

CLC President Hassan Yussuff is available to comment on the Action Week priorities and to discuss the importance of hosting such a large-scale virtual lobbying event, even in the midst of the current crisis.

To arrange an interview, please contact:

CLC Media Relations
media@clcctc.ca
Office: 613-526-7426
Cell: 613-355-1962

The post Canada’s unions hosting virtual Action Week appeared first on Canadian Labour Congress.

Workers around the world want investment in public health and care services including mental health, child care, early childhood education, elderly care and other social care services that serve all our communities. In Canada, unions are also calling for a federal Care Economy Commission.

Decades of austerity-driven fiscal policies and a market-based approach to the delivery of care have created inequities and gaps.

“We have been sounding the alarm about the crisis in care services for years,” said CLC Secretary-Treasurer Marie Clarke Walker. “The added pressure of the COVID-19 pandemic has compounded these problems. Our economy is relying more than ever on unpaid labour, and on precarious, low-wage work done by women, a disproportionate number of whom are racialized.”

Canada needs care-focused solutions for the recovery. These solutions must meet the needs of our most vulnerable, create better jobs and disaster-proof our economy and our social safety net against future crises.

The proposed federal Care Economy Commission would study, design and implement a care strategy for Canada that would:

• Create a broad and inclusive labour market strategy to achieve high-quality, equitable care jobs;
• Examine paid and unpaid care work and develop a roadmap to meet the increasing demands for care; and
• Reduce and redistribute women’s unpaid care work by improving access to public care services for children, the elderly and people living with disabilities.

“This pandemic has shone a light on what’s been broken for too long,” said Walker. “We need to rethink our approach to care. Strong public care systems – whether health care, child care, long term care or care services for persons with disabilities – are central to the well-being of individuals, families and communities.”

Canada’s unions are calling for a Canadian plan that’s rooted in our way of doing things – and that means taking care of one another. Public investments in services – not austerity – are a key part of a robust response and recovery that ensures our collective well-being.

The post Canada’s unions join Global Day of Action on Care appeared first on Canadian Labour Congress.

Before the pandemic, ever-increasing globalization meant many workers were employed in precarious, low-wage work with few, if any, benefits. Now millions of people across Canada and around the world have seen their jobs disappear. We need a worldwide recovery focused on secure employment and social protection.

This context serves as the backdrop for the annual commemoration of the World Day for Decent Work today, October 7.

“It’s clear that we need a recovery that is focused on shared prosperity and sustainability,” said Hassan Yussuff, President of the Canadian Labour Congress. “Better jobs are at the core of a robust recovery and that is true both nationally and internationally.”

The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) is calling for a new social contract to ensure a strong global economic recovery. Canada’s unions have similarly launched Forward Together: A Canadian Plan, a campaign calling for a similar focus on better jobs and reducing inequality.

“With millions of jobs lost across Canada, and hundreds of millions globally, we have to turn our focus to job creation. That includes focusing on secure employment, living wages, the universal right to collective bargaining and occupational health and safety,” said Yussuff. “The current economic model has failed working people. It’s time for us to rise to the challenge we’ve been presented with and to move forward, together.”

The CLC is marking the World Day for Decent Work with a webinar that aims to explore the issues at stake. It will be held on Wednesday, October 7 at 2 PM EDT. To register, click here.

Read ITUC’s statement on A New Social Contract for Recovery and Resilience here.

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Millions of people have been relying on the CERB for financial support after losing their jobs because of the pandemic. The benefit was set to terminate but will now be extended for another month.

In the meantime, the temporary changes to EI will support those who still need help once the CERB expires and who wouldn’t otherwise be eligible under previous rules.

“Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Employment Minister Carla Qualtrough are clearly listening to the palpable fears of unemployed workers and are ensuring support for the hardest hit. Today’s extension of the CERB and the various changes to EI are going to provide a lifeline for people who are worried about how they will make ends meet,” said CLC President, Hassan Yussuff. “As much as people want to get back to work, many jobs are still not there. Today’s announcement will be a huge relief for workers and their families who deserve to live in dignity.”

Today’s reforms include:

• a new stand-alone unemployment benefit of $400 for contract, self-employed, freelance and gig-economy workers that is modelled on CERB, and outside EI;
• a rule that effectively lowers the eligibility threshold for maternity/parental benefits from 600 hours to 120 hours of insurable earnings;
• a two-week flat-rate paid sick leave benefit.

“Canada’s unions have long called for paid sick leave. With this new benefit, workers can return to work with confidence knowing they can take time off without fear of lost pay or of losing their job,” says Yussuff.

“Today’s temporary reforms should help set the stage for a future permanent overhaul of EI that has been long overdue. That overhaul should include changes that would see employers who currently avoid paying EI premiums by claiming their workers are independent contractors be compelled to pay into EI programs.”

Last month, CLC released its own recommendations for EI reform, read more here.

To arrange an interview, please contact:
CLC Media Relations
media@clcctc.ca
613-526-742

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“This decision underscores the message that a worker is a worker,” said Canadian Labour Congress President, Hassan Yussuff. “This ruling sends a clear message to employers that they can’t skirt around workers’ rights by using legalese to pretend they are ‘independent operators’ instead of employees.”

The Supreme Court ruling reaffirms a ruling by the Ontario Court of Appeal that Uber drivers may be subject to the Ontario Employment Standards Act. With this ruling, a class-action suit against Uber can proceed.

“There is an imbalance of power in organizations like Uber, with precarious workers fighting for better job conditions against a behemoth enterprise hiding behind complex international legal loopholes,” said Yussuff. “Given this ruling, provincial governments have a responsibility to examine the misclassification of employees and protect all gig economy workers.”

Canada’s unions have been raising the alarm about the rise of the gig economy and precarious work for years and will continue to fight for workers in these jobs.

To arrange an interview, please contact:

CLC Media Relations
media@clcctc.ca
613-526-7426

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“As we face the COVID-19 pandemic, the importance of the public sector has never been more evident,” said Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) President Hassan Yussuff. “Public sector workers have kept our communities running day-to-day, ensuring that Canadians can rely on the services they need. It is critical that governments safeguard these services against bids towards privatization.”

The CLC Task Force on New Forms of Privatization report, For the Public Good: The growing threat of privatization and workers’ proposals to protect our future, calls on governments to:

• Strengthen and expand public services and infrastructure for all;
• Expand public revenue;
• Expand and enhance public services;
• End the financialization of and the facilitation of privatization globally; and
• Expand public control over infrastructure development.

“As important as public services have been during this pandemic, they will be even more important as we re-open and re-build our economy,” said Yussuff.

The report’s recommendations on strengthening and expanding public services and infrastructure are especially relevant in the post-COVID-19 era. The report contains immediate actions to address threats and provides a long-term vision to build a sustainable and equitable public sector.

Read the Summary Statement here.

Read the Full Report here.

For more information:
CLC Media Relations
media@clcctc.ca
613-526-7426

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The images, the stories, the experiences of our seniors during this pandemic are enough to bring a grown man to tears.

In fact, it has.

Even Ontario’s Premier Doug Ford has, at times, become emotional while talking about the conditions in the province’s long-term care facilities. It’s a dire situation right across the country.

No one is doubting the sincerity of every single politician who is expressing frustration and helplessness at the pandemic’s scourge within these facilities. But we do have to question why it took the global crisis, hundreds of deaths and intervention by the armed forces for the message to finally get through: our system is broken.

It’s a message that unions and advocates have been communicating for decades. Long-term care should never have become the hodgepodge of private-public system it is today. This system has allowed for-profit agencies to take significant control, some of them led by politicians like Mike Harris who handed over 68% of 20,000 new spaces created during his tenure to the private sector. Ironically, Harris is now the Chair of the Board of Directors at Chartwell, a private company that runs many long-term care facilities.

Just over a year ago, the head of SEIU Healthcare joined fellow union members and advocates at Queen’s Park to call for better treatment and pay for workers in these facilities, which receive hundreds of millions of dollars from the government. By the way, the CEOs of these facilities have in the past received more than $9.2 million dollars of public money with nary a peep out of the same Premier who is now upset about the state of things.

The expansive growth of the private long-term care industry has led to a further devaluing of care work and driven down workers’ wages in order to boost corporate and shareholder profits. 

What we are witnessing is no accident. The horrific conditions that frontline care workers now describe occurred in spite of repeated warnings that have persisted for years.

Facilities are led by managers and owners who are looking after the bottom line, not the well-being of some of society’s most vulnerable. This has meant that workers are paid very little, forced to take on multiple shifts at different facilities and paid just under full-time hours so owners avoid paying benefits and therefore failing to adequately care for staff who take care of their clients.

“Private, for-profit services are necessarily more fragmented, more prone to closure and focused on making a profit. The research demonstrates that homes run on a for-profit basis tend to have lower staffing levels, more verified complaints and more transfers to hospitals, as well as higher rates for both ulcers and morbidity,” conclude Pat Armstrong, Hugh Armstrong, Jacqueline Choiniere, Ruth Lowndes and James Struthers in a recent research paper titled Re-imagining Long-term Residential Care in the COVID-19 Crisis.

It’s time to fix what is broken. The only way to do that is to take immediate steps to make private for-profit long-term care facilities part of the public health care system aligned with the principles of the Canada Health Act.

In fact, it is the exclusion from the Act that has allowed for the proliferation of private for-profit care in our country. We have repeatedly called on the federal and provincial governments to stop the funding cuts and to ameliorate the health care system so every Canadian can access vital health care services based on need, not an ability to pay. 

Whether you are worried about a loved one, or whether you or someone you know is one of the invaluable workers caring for Canada’s seniors, this is the solution we need.

Besides, we’re all ageing. Someday, it may be one of us on the other side of the window, looking out at a world that failed us.

Unless we act now.

Hassan Yussuff is the president of the Canadian Labour Congress. Follow him on Twitter @Hassan_Yussuff

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The current pandemic presents a monumental challenge in the fight to prevent workplace injury, illness and death. As Canadian jurisdictions begin to open up sectors of their economy, it is critical that working people have the protections they need to be able to do their jobs safely and to get home to their loved ones at the end of each day.

Workers are on the front lines of this pandemic and yet do not always have the protections they need to stay safe.

The first priority is to prevent worker exposures, illness and deaths from COVID-19. However, workers also need to know that their workers’ compensation system will provide adequate benefits and supports if they become ill as a result of their work.

This requires broadening coverage to include all workers – including those in workplaces currently exempt from mandatory compensation coverage, as well as precarious and gig economy workers.

It also requires ensuring coverage for workers who must be quarantined or have to self-isolate as a result of a workplace exposure but may not yet have symptoms of the illness. This will require streamlining processes for workers and protecting the right to appeal decisions. This will further require the removal of systemic financial incentives for employer claims suppression related to COVID-19 infections.

Governments should also implement presumptive compensation coverage for COVID-19 related illness, so that workers are not denied access to supports, waiting for their claims to be accepted.

So far, only the province of British Columbia has moved towards implementing presumptive compensation coverage for some frontline workers, recognizing that streamlining the process for accessing supports will result in better health outcomes and safer return to work for workers at higher risk of COVID-19 infection.

Other Canadian jurisdictions must move quickly to do the same in order to ensure that workers have the supports and compensation they need when their work makes them sick.

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We are in the midst of a global pandemic. The federal government is introducing new programs almost daily to support millions of Canadians who have been affected by this crisis. Public service employees are doing amazing work getting that support to the people who need it.

Meanwhile, the calls for austerity are already coming fast and furious, heralded by right-wing conservatives, including former Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Even as we see our health care workers struggle with staffing and supplies as the result of decades of cuts in health care spending across the country.

The opinion pages are full of columnists explaining why program spending needs to be cut immediately – without any idea when a recovery will begin. Even arguing that the public service employees who have been doing unprecedented work processing millions of claims at unbelievable speeds should be punished for having job security.

Public service employees play a fundamental role in our democracy, informing our elected representatives and allowing them to make decisions based on evidence – which is a good thing, despite what some say. Our public service is full of subject-matter experts who our political representatives rely on to help them craft the best policies and programs. We should be glad when our leaders take their advice, rather than ignore it – as we’re seeing to the south.

Judging the amount of government spending that goes to public service salaries without referring at all to the work those employees actually do day to day to keep the country running is ludicrous. You cannot reference a productivity agenda without acknowledging the producers of the work.

Equally ludicrous is the leader of the opposition repeating the false message that applications to the CERB benefit are rampant with fraud daily. A vocal minority is concerned that a $2,000 per month benefit will create a population that doesn’t want to work, but waste no time and effort examining the conditions we are asking them to work in.

Being on government benefits should never mean being treated like a criminal – but perhaps especially now as we face global uncertainly and a new future ahead. The real criminals are the ones who are hoarding wealth on the backs of workers.  

We are about to crown the world’s first trillionaire. One man could single-handedly solve world hunger. The same man who gave workers a $2 per hour pay raise in these unprecedented times and is now clawing it back even as his own warehouses continue to see outbreaks and workers demand safer conditions. In Canada, we see employers like Loblaws boosting employee wages by 15 per cent – $2 an hour for those working minimum wage. Meanwhile, the company estimates that the pandemic has resulted in a $751 million increase in quarterly profits.

The wages and benefits of public sector employees do not represent a problem, they represent an example of what is possible. Every working Canadian deserves the security of a good job with a living wage, benefits and paid sick leave. Access to paid sick leave would give workers leeway so they wouldn’t have to choose between their job and their health, meaning fewer workers would feel forced to work while sick – key in slowing the spread of illnesses like COVID-19.

Getting to the recovery has been a group effort. Canadians, as a population, moved swiftly to protect each other.

We are a society that lifts everyone up, and now is not the time to start punching down.

When we plan out the recovery, we cannot return to the careless individualism that has led to the growing inequality we’re seeing globally. Collective action is what flattened the curve, and collective action is where progress lies.

The most important thing that we have seen over the past nine weeks is this: Canada has the capacity to move quickly to protect the most vulnerable. The money is there when we need it and when there is political will.

It’s time to leave the right-wing, me-first thinking in the past where it belongs. We can’t afford to work against each other anymore.

Hassan Yussuff is the president of the Canadian Labour Congress. Follow him on Twitter @Hassan_Yussuff

The post A call for collective action appeared first on Canadian Labour Congress.

The impacts of the coronavirus are being felt differently across communities, hitting certain groups particularly hard. For instance, people working in precarious jobs are often racialized and many are women. As essential workers, they are at greater risk of contracting the virus, or infecting others in their communities.

“Anytime governments rush to address a crisis like the one we are facing, they must take adequate time to ensure that human rights are protected and upheld,” said Hassan Yussuff, president of the Canadian Labour Congress. “They must ensure that systemic barriers and discrimination aren’t getting in the way of supporting the most vulnerable. This requires a deliberate effort to consult with experts and with communities themselves.”

The Canadian Labour Congress joins other human rights advocates and organizations in calling for the establishment of independent oversight committees to ensure human rights obligations are met during this unprecedented time.

“As governments are quickly realizing, there cannot be a one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to addressing a public health and economic crisis of this magnitude,” said Yussuff. “Governments have a duty to take into consideration the consequences of actions taken, or of inaction.”

In order to be effective, independent committees must have broad representation from stakeholder communities and hold official advisory status to government bodies established to coordinate and implement COVID-19 response.

The committees must be mandated to identify any measures needed to strengthen human rights protection in COVID-19 response strategies; monitor for violations; provide information and recommendations to governments; and provide public updates.

“In times of crisis, governments have a responsibility to protect the most marginalized,” said Yussuff. “Human rights must not be an afterthought.”

The post Canada’s unions call for urgent focus on human rights during pandemic appeared first on Canadian Labour Congress.

“There are 4.9 million workers across the country who have been deemed essential, and many of them have been struggling to make a decent living for years,” said CLC President Hassan Yussuff. “The current pandemic has shown that these workers are the backbone of our society. Yet, society has failed to value them adequately, which is reflected through inadequate wages, the lack of supports and the precarious nature of temporary, part-time employment. That must end now.”

Since the start of the public health crisis, Canada’s unions have brought attention to the issues workers have been facing, including a lack of paid sick leave, the low wages of many frontline workers, and the lack of proper protective equipment and inadequate safety measures across the country.

The campaign is titled; “Heroes Deserve Better” and it will put a spotlight on the struggles frontline workers are facing, while at the same time giving Canadians a way to show gratitude for the critical services these workers provide.

“Heroes deserve paid sick leave and heroes deserve a living wage. They deserve jobs with benefits and proper health and safety measures,” said Yussuff. “Canada’s unions will ensure that they are not forgotten in the recovery.”

The online campaign launches today, May Day. Frontline workers are invited to share their experiences and to express what they hope happens as the crisis goes on, and once it is over.

Canadians across the country are also invited to share stories of a frontline worker they know and would want to see profiled in this special series. Share a story here.

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According to Statistics Canada, employment fell by one million in March and the ranks of the unemployed grew by 413,000. Canada’s unemployment rate rose by 2.2 percentage points to 7.8 per cent, the largest single-month increase since comparable data became available in 1976.

“Today’s alarming unemployment numbers underscore the devastation this pandemic is having on workers and has made clear the enormous task in front of us,” said Hassan Yussuff, CLC’s president.

“Right now, working people need secure and adequate incomes, rent and mortgage relief, and a break on bank and credit card fees. The federal government’s commitment to increasing the Canada Child Benefit and expanding the GST/HST credit was welcomed news. As are the emergency benefits package and wage subsidy programs which are integral to preserving jobs and getting money to many of these workers. However, the scope of coverage simply needs to be broadened.”

The latest numbers highlight the impact of current efforts to curb coronavirus infections on communities across the country. Losses were concentrated in accommodation and food services where employment fell by 294,000 jobs, or 23.9 per cent compared to the previous month. Women and vulnerable workers have been hit hardest in this sudden downturn.

All provinces saw increases in the unemployment rate, with the exception of Newfoundland and Labrador and Prince Edward Island. The largest increases were in Quebec (+3.6 percentage points to 8.1 per cent), British Columbia (+2.2 percentage points to 7.2 per cent) and Ontario (+2.1 percentage points to 7.6 per cent).

April employment numbers are expected to show even higher numbers of job losses. The critical need for social distancing will continue to impact the country’s economic well-being. Beyond that, it will take cross-sector efforts to ensure that a full, robust recovery benefits everyone.

“Economic recovery will take all orders of government, business and industry, workers and labour being at the same table building durable, long-term solutions. The CLC will continue to demand action to support the livelihoods of all workers in Canada, now and in the recovery to come,” said Yussuff.

The post Historic job losses represent enormous challenge appeared first on Canadian Labour Congress.

“The Bank of Canada has reduced its lending rate to historically low levels and that means it’s cheaper for financial institutions to borrow money,” said Canadian Labour Congress President, Hassan Yussuff. “Passing those saving on to help struggling families weather this storm is the right thing to do.”

The CLC is calling on all financial institutions to reducing interest rates on all purchases made after March 15th, and all balances carried forward from prior to that date, for the duration of the COVID-19 health crisis.

“This is a defining moment in our country’s history, and I am urging CEOs to step up and take action to support the common good,” said Yussuff.

The CLC is collecting signatures to put more pressure on the banks and credit card companies to respond to this call, you can sign on here.

A letter has also been sent from CLC to the CEOs of financial institutions asking them to take steps to reduce the debt families are facing.

The post Credit card relief now appeared first on Canadian Labour Congress.

“It takes 16 months for women’s median earnings to catch up to what men make in twelve. We mark Equal Pay Day to draw attention to the continued realities of wage discrimination and gender inequality in our country,” said Marie Clarke Walker, Secretary Treasurer of the Canadian Labour Congress. “This year we must also recognize the gendered impact the COVID-19 crisis will have. The pandemic has exposed the lack of concrete protections for workers, especially for workers in sectors where women are often employed, and for women who work in low-wage and precarious jobs.”

The pandemic has demonstrated how important the work traditionally performed by women is to the maintenance of healthy and safe communities. Many undervalued workers have now been deemed essential, but these workers are still underpaid. Their work is often invisible and unrecognized, marked with poor working conditions, exposure to violence and harassment and other health and safety risks, limited job security and access to benefits, including paid sick leave.

“These workers are putting themselves and their families at risk so the rest of us can stay home to slow the spread of COVID-19,” said Clarke Walker. “Not only do these workers deserve higher wages, they should have predictable hours and job security, paid sick days and emergency leave, access to the equipment to do their job safely, support to meet their child care needs, and access to Employment Insurance and health benefits.”
“It’s time to usher in a new normal for our most vulnerable—and valuable—workers.”

According to the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, 13 percent of all working women in Canada are at risk of layoff, compared to nine percent of working men. Low-wage workers, who are disproportionately women, are most at risk.

Canada’s unions say that this is a time for bold, feminist action to recognize the value of women’s work and to end wage discrimination. Canada must make women’s economic justice a priority in the COVID-19 response and in the plan for recovery.

“This crisis has exposed who falls through the gaps in our system. The government has taken an important step with the Canada Emergency Response Benefit, but much more needs to be done to ensure that we leave no one behind as we respond to COVID-19. Every level of government must apply a gender-based analysis plus (GBA+) to how it’s responding to this crisis,” said Clarke Walker.

Join the cross-country Equal Pay Day Virtual Rally on April 4 at 1:00 p.m. by registering here: https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/9119266283687928587

To learn more about Equal Pay Day, go to the Ontario Equal Pay Coalition website.

Click to access the CLC COVID-19 Resource Centre.

The post Equal Pay Day: Recognizing the Value of Women’s Work appeared first on Canadian Labour Congress.

“We continue to share our recommendations with the federal government as this situation progresses. While there has been an important move in easing measures around Employment Insurance (EI) benefits, the government will need to go much further to protect the most vulnerable,” said Hassan Yussuff, President of the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC).

After decades of cuts, Canada’s unemployment safety net is wholly inadequate and paid sick leave policies across the country are insufficient.

In 2018, only 33 per cent of unemployed women and 38 per cent of unemployed men received EI benefits. Seasonal workers, those with precarious employment and the self-employed are most vulnerable and will require urgent support.

“While we acknowledge the important measures all levels of governments are taking to ease the burden on the business community to help save jobs in the private sector, more must be done to assist front-line workers in health care fields who are vital in the fight against COVID-19,” said Yussuff.

Further, CLC urges the federal government to:

• Reduce the entry requirement for EI regular and sickness benefits;
• Immediately increase the current benefit rate from 55 per cent to 60 per cent;
• Establish an emergency benefit with a low minimum contribution requirement to support otherwise ineligible workers;
• Implement regulations to waive the requirement that claimants obtain a doctor’s note if they require quarantine;
• Make additional government funds available to provide special income relief for health sector workers who may be subject to quarantine or who become sick;
• Instruct utilities, banks, landlords, credit card companies and financial institutions to extend and relax mortgage, rent and bill payment requirements, loan servicing obligations, and other responsibilities facing consumers and households;
• Work with First Ministers to declare that no one be fired for self-quarantining or recovering from infection, and that if a worker loses their job for these reasons, they will be reinstated;
• Double the GST/HST credit to provide income support to low-income Canadians; and
• Increase the Canada Child Benefit (CCB) paid to low- and modest-income families.

“Single and vulnerable parents living paycheck to paycheck are going to struggle to pay rent and utilities if they have to scale back hours and turn down shifts to deal with the child care crisis. We know that these measures will disproportionately affect women.

“All across Canada, working people have been listening to public health authorities and doing their part to slow the spread of COVID-19—it is now time for Canada to support them.”

Read more: Supporting workers in a time of crisis — Key steps for governments and employers.

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The World Day for Decent Work is a global day of action for trade unions around the world. The theme for 2019, Investing in care for gender equality, recognizes that work in the care sector remains significantly undervalued, despite a growing demand.

The majority of workers who provide care for children, sick or elderly adults or people with disabilities are women. Many care workers are racialized, new to Canada, or working here temporarily.

Canada’s low investment in care, with the expectation that women will care for loved ones, unpaid, is a huge barrier to increasing women’s workforce participation, to tackling the gender pay gap and to achieving equality between women and men at work and in society.

Care work is characterized by poor pay and bad working conditions. These jobs are often precarious, offer little to no benefits or job security, involve long hours and heavy, challenging workloads.

Workers in the care sector experience astonishingly high rates of violence and harassment, including physical and sexual violence. Many care jobs are informal, leaving workers without the protection of employment or health and safety legislation, access to employment insurance or CPP.

A task force on care work would:

• Examine paid and unpaid care work;
• Develop a federal strategy to meet the increasing demands for care;
• Reduce and redistribute women’s unpaid care work by improving access to public care services; and
• Create a labour market strategy for care jobs.

Investing in the care economy by providing universal and affordable access to care services would double down on the benefits to gender equality in Canada – by creating good jobs for women with fair compensation and safe, decent working conditions, and by making it possible for more women to get a decent job and support their families.

Without a significant investment in our already-stretched public care services, women will most likely be left to pick up the slack.

It’s time to build and grow the care sector and promote decent work for care workers.

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You can be forgiven if you’ve avoided thinking about the upcoming federal election all summer, but Labour Day is here. That means it’s time to return to the fall routine and start thinking about how you are going to cast your ballot.

You may have seen politicians working the barbecue circuit, vying for the support of workers and their families. They often claim to know what voters need. Let’s tell them what voters want.

After all, voting for the country we want is both a cherished right, and a significant responsibility.  And it’s under threat.

Lies, misinformation, and propaganda proliferating online are dividing and distracting people like never before.

We know that domestic and foreign actors will likely continue to foment division through contentious topics like immigration and the environment. We must remain united and focused on what truly matters: a present and future that leaves no one behind.

Not only are we facing an uncertain future, but the strides working people have made in the last four years are also in jeopardy. 

Canada’s unions are cutting through the noise with a simple message to voters: Canadians must elect a government that is committed to a fair Canada for everyone.

This is much more than a slogan but a clear call to action on five key areas that will shape the future of this country. Each of them centre on the health and well-being of Canadians.

Canada’s unions have successfully worked with governments and health experts to make universal pharmacare a ballot box issue this fall.

That’s because over 3.5 million Canadians struggle to pay for the medications they need. Private insurers and pharmaceutical companies have a vested interest in preserving a status quo that sees Canadians paying some of the highest drug prices in the world. Canada remains the only developed country with universal health care, without a universal pharmacare plan. A single-payer system would rein in drug prices and save Canadians over four billion dollars per year, according to the Parliamentary Budget Officer.

Also key to the well-being of Canadians is the assurance that they will be able to live in dignity in retirement. Following the Conservative party’s defeat in the last federal election, Canada’s unions lobbied for an expansion of public pensions and won a 50% increase to Canada Pension Plan benefits, along with top-up payments for 900,000 low-income single seniors and the restoration of Old Age Security and Guaranteed Income Supplement for those over the age of 65, down from 67.

We need a government that is committed to improving public pensions and protecting hard-earned private pensions when employers go bankrupt. 

We also need to talk about the economic health of our nation’s working people. With a rise in precarious, temporary, and low-wage work, more and more people are struggling to get by. We need to vote for a government that clearly defines what it will invest towards creating good jobs for all Canadians.

It’s also time for bold action that tackles our climate emergency while creating economic opportunities in green industries. We deserve a government that is committed to clean air and water, invests in public transportation, and supports workers and communities transitioning to a greener economy.

With hardline Conservative governments now running the majority of the provinces, we cannot forget what a decade of Stephen Harper’s Conservatives did to working people and their families and risk the rollback of hard-won social gains and the rewriting of the Canadian constitution.

Can Canadians afford a government that cares more about private corporations and tax cuts for the super-rich than it does about everyday working people? Can we risk electing a government that refuses to address the climate catastrophe? Can we accept a government that is prepared to exploit people’s fear and insecurity to fuel racism and intolerance?

This Labour Day, let’s recommit to standing together for an inclusive Canada where everyone prospers.

Hassan Yussuff is the President of the Canadian Labour Congress. Follow him on Twitter @Hassan_Yussuff.

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That means unions will be calling on Canadian workers to vote for candidates who support universal pharmacare, retirement security, climate action, equity and inclusion, and good jobs for everyone.

“Over the last four years, our work has resulted in impressive gains: expanding public pensions, protecting victims of domestic violence, investing billions in infrastructure projects, banning asbestos, and making pay equity the law,” said Hassan Yussuff, President of the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC).

“While these have been substantial victories, we are only getting started. Low wages, precarious work and underemployment continue to hurt too many Canadians; fear and insecurity are fueling racism and intolerance, and climate change threatens the survival of our planet.”

“We will do our part to mobilize Canadians to choose candidates who will make Canada more fair for workers and their families,” said Yussuff.

“We will be urging every candidate to commit to creating good jobs. We will be pushing the political parties for climate action for a sustainable planet. We will be challenging hate and divisiveness with equity and inclusion.”

By launching a national campaign, “A Fair Canada for Everyone”, the CLC will be working with labour councils, federations of labour and unions across the country to advance the issues at stake for workers and their families.

“Labour Day is a national reminder that workers can come together to improve workplaces and communities, so it is a fitting time to launch our election campaign for a fair Canada for everyone,” adds Yussuff.

To read details about what unions are calling for in this election, visit faircanadaforeveryone.ca

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While unemployment rates continue to fall overall, many Canadians aged 15-29 are staying in school or giving up looking for work altogether.

In particular, the number of people aged 25 to 29 who are not in employment, education, or training (NEET) has remained high since the 2008-2009 recession. This is when most Canadians have finished their formal education and should be able to find meaningful work that matches their education and training.

The Labour Market Snapshot is a quarterly report, which examines Canada’s employment landscape to spotlight trends in the economy. Analysis is based on Statistics Canada’s Labour Force Surveys.

Read the full Labour Market Snapshot here.

The post Labour Market Snapshot – Q2 2019 appeared first on Canadian Labour Congress.

Introducing a new Pay Equity Act will bring in long-awaited legislation requiring federally-regulated employers to create proactive pay equity plans that will begin to address Canada’s gender wage gap. The government also announced the establishment of a Pay Equity Commissioner to independently oversee implementation and hold employers accountable.

“Canada’s unions have been fighting for proactive pay equity legislation for over a decade and we’re glad to see the government take meaningful action to close Canada’s shameful gender pay gap,” said CLC President, Hassan Yussuff.

For all federally-regulated employers with ten or more workers, the new legislation will adapt existing compliance frameworks to include pay equity, and set out specific timelines for implementation and compulsory maintenance reviews.

Changes to Part III of the Canada Labour Code were also included in the omnibus bill, and are being heralded by Canada’s unions as an important modernization of federal labour standards in Canada. These changes will restrict exploitation by prohibiting employers from misclassifying workers and paying them less, simply because they work for a temp agency or on a part-time, casual or term basis.

Canada’s unions were also pleased with new measures that will prevent employers from using contract flipping as a means of undermining the wages, benefits, and job security of workers.

“The Canada Labour Code used to be upheld as the gold standard across the Country but federal labour standards were significantly eroded over a decade by the Harper government,” said Yussuff. “Providing additional vacation time and leave provisions, as well as new scheduling notice protections, are important steps that will lift employment standards for Canadian workers,” said Yussuff.

After an intensive campaign by Canada’s unions, survivors of domestic violence working in the federal sector will now receive five days of paid leave. This will help to set a national standard as many provinces move to allow people experiencing violence at home to seek the support and services they need to help keep themselves and their children safe.

“Canada’s unions will continue to push to elevate labour standards for everyone working in Canada,” said Yussuff. “Along with this week’s announcements, immediate action to establish a $15 federal minimum wage would raise the bar across the country.”

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