One-third of Ontario’s 6.6M workers vulnerable, says new report
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TORONTO — New technology, a shrinking manufacturing sector and fewer union jobs, among other factors, have left approximately one-third of Ontario’s 6.6 million workers vulnerable, says a government-commissioned report that recommends a major overhaul of the province’s labour and employment laws.
The Changing Workplaces Review — released Tuesday — contains 173 recommendations that aim to create better workplaces with decent working conditions and widespread compliance with the law, according to report authors C. Michael Mitchell and John C. Murray, who consulted with workers, unions and businesses for two years on a wide range of work-related issues.
“We heard that the combination of low income, lack of control over scheduling, lack of benefits such as pensions and health care, personal emergency leave or sick leave, all together or in various combinations, creates a great deal of uncertainty, anxiety, and stress which undermines the quality of life and the physical well-being of a wide swath of workers in our society,” they wrote.
The recommendations include ensuring part-time, temporary and casual employees are paid the same as full-timers for the same work, extending the right to unpaid personal emergency leave — but not paid sick days — to all employees, increasing paid vacation time to three weeks for employees of longer than five years, and introducing harsher penalties for employers who violate workers’ rights.
