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This report on Nova Scotia’s labour market finds that precarious employment is widespread and leaves many workers just one setback away from deeper insecurity. The report shows that 30.4 per cent of paid employees — approximately 131,000 workers — are in precarious jobs, with low wages, limited protection and job instability. About 43 per cent of employees show at least two signs of precariousness, leaving many workers on the edge of precarity, and at risk of deeper insecurity if their job conditions worsen. Too many workers in Nova Scotia are working hard without the stability they need to make ends meet,” said Dr. Daniel Cerdas-Sandí, co-author and CCPA-NS research staff. “This is not a marginal issue. Precarity is a defining feature of our labour market,” says Cerdas-Sandí. The study uses two complementary tools: an Employment Precarity Index based on Statistics Canada’s 2024 Labour Force Survey, and for the first time a 2025 survey of workers across Nova Scotia conducted by Angus Reid, which captures the day-to-day experiences such as unpredictable schedules, on-call demands, and fear of losing work.--Publisher's description (press release)
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This report...examines the need for paid sick leave in Nova Scotia and what it should look like. Authored by a team of researchers at Acadia University, the report underlines that for paid sick leave to be effective, it must be universal, paid, adequate, permanent, accessible and employer-provided. It recommends that employers be legislated to provide 10 paid days per year to allow workers time to access preventative health services or to recover from common illnesses. Prior to the pandemic, only 46% of Nova Scotia workers had paid sick leave provided by their employers. A total of 69% of workers who earn $25,000 do not have access to paid sick leave. The data also shows that younger workers and those with high school education or less have the least access. Only 28% of those who work in seasonal, term or on-call jobs have access to paid sick leave. This report also reviews temporary sick leave policies from federal, provincial, and territorial jurisdictions in Canada to demonstrate how they must be improved.
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This article assesses whether a deterrence gap exists in the enforcement of the Ontario Employment Standards Act (ESA), which sets minimum conditions of employment in areas such as minimum wage, overtime pay and leaves. Drawing on a unique administrative data set, the article measures the use of deterrence in Ontario’s ESA enforcement regime against the role of deterrence within two influential models of enforcement: responsive regulation and strategic enforcement. The article finds that the use of deterrence is below its prescribed role in either model of enforcement. We conclude that there is a deterrence gap in Ontario.
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This article critically assesses the compliance model of employment standards enforcement through a study of monetary employment standards violations in Ontario, Canada. The findings suggest that, in contexts where changes to the organisation of work deepen insecurity for employees, models of enforcement that emphasise compliance over deterrence are unlikely to effectively prevent or remedy employment standards violations.
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The nature of employment is changing: low wage jobs are increasingly common, fewer workers belong to unions, and workplaces are being transformed through the growth of contracting-out, franchising, and extended supply chains. Closing the Enforcement Gap offers a comprehensive analysis of the enforcement of employment standards in Ontario. Adopting mixed methods, this work includes qualitative research involving in-depth interviews with workers, community advocates, and enforcement officials; extensive archival research excavating decades of ministerial records; and analysis of a previously untapped source of administrative data collected by Ontario’s Ministry of Labour. The authors reveal and trace the roots of a deepening "enforcement gap" that pervades nearly all aspects of the regime, demonstrating that the province’s Employment Standards Act (ESA) fails too many workers who rely on the floor of minimum conditions it was devised to provide. Arguably, there is nothing inevitable about the enforcement gap in Ontario or for that matter elsewhere. Through contributions from leading employment standards enforcement scholars in the US, the UK, and Australia, as well as Quebec, Closing the Enforcement Gap surveys innovative enforcement models that are emerging in a variety of jurisdictions and sets out a bold vision for strengthening employment standards enforcement. -- Publisher's description.
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