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This article explores the hidden work of workers employed in precarious jobs which are characterized by part-time and temporary contracts, limited control over work schedules, and poor access to regulatory protection. Through 77 semi-structured interviews with workers in low-wage, precarious jobs in Ontario, Canada, we examine workers’ attempts to challenge the precarity they face when confronted by workplace conditions violating the Ontario Employment Standards Act (ESA), such as not being paid minimum wages, not being paid for overtime, being fired wrongfully or being subject to reprisals. We argue that these challenges involve hidden work, which is neither acknowledged nor recognized in the current ESA enforcement regime. We examine three types of hidden work that involve (1) creating a sense of positive self-worth amidst disempowering practices; (2) engaging in advocacy vis-à-vis employers, sometimes through launching official claims with the Ontario Ministry of Labour; and (3) developing strategies to avoid the costs of precarity in the future. We argue that this hidden work of challenging precarity needs to be formally recognized and that concrete strategies for doing so might lead to more robust protection for workers, particularly within ESA enforcement practices.
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COVID-19’s impact on the home care sector has been devastating. Across Canada, it is well documented that workers and older people receiving care have experienced gruelling and isolating working and living conditions respectively. In Manitoba, most home care workers are im/migrants. While there is some emerging research on the experiences of im/migrant home care workers in Manitoba, there is a dearth of public knowledge about their experiences working and living in the province. As the provincial government struggles to recruit and retain home care workers, there is an increasing need for more research on im/migrant home care workers already in Manitoba. --Website description
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Without a public home-care system, disabled people are forced to choose between living in a long-term care home, medical assistance in dying, and hiring an underpaid migrant home-care worker. ...As organizers, former care workers, and care receivers, we – Megan Linton, Mary Jean Hande, and Ethel Tungohan – know the transformative potential of building common cause between migrant care workers and low-income home-care users. We write this article as part of the Towards Just Care project, which brings together the perspectives of low-income home-care receivers and migrant care workers to imagine a more just home-care system that doesn’t rely on global labour exploitation that displaces workers from their families and communities and that provides inadequate home-care services that endanger care receivers.
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Prior to entering Canadian workplaces, immigrants generally expect strong legislative protections based on Canada’s global reputation for equity and equality as reported by Hardwick and Mansfield (Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 99(2), 383-405, 2009). However, after exposure to poor working conditions, employment standards (ES) violations, and challenges with filing claims for recompense, immigrant workers’ perceptions of work in Canada often diminish significantly. Although scholars have explored Canadian immigrants’ experiences with unemployment and poor working conditions, little research has uncovered the effects of these experiences on their shifting perceptions of Canada and their overall experience of adjusting to a new life in Canada. Our narrative data, collected in Ontario, Canada, reveals (1) the exploitation of immigrant workers’ perceived limited access to and knowledge of workplace rights and (2) limited access to employment opportunities and protections for immigrant workers. These two factors lead to workers’ diminishing perceptions of Canada as they navigate poor working conditions on the precarity track according to Goldring and Landolt (Goldring and Landolt 2013). This analysis offers insight into the everyday experiences of immigrant workers and the impacts of precarious employment on perceptions of Canada.
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