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The Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences, Tomoya Obokata, visited Canada from 23 August to 6 September 2023. During his visit, he travelled to Ottawa, Moncton, Montréal, Toronto and Vancouver.

This report provides an assessment of Canada’s progress in meeting the goals for gender equality set out in the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. Adopted unanimously by 189 countries including Canada in 1995, the Beijing Declaration is the most progressive global blueprint ever for advancing women’s rights. The report examines Canada’s progress over the last 30 years in areas ranging from reproductive health to women’s economic standing and the status of marginalized women in Canada. The report was produced by the Beijing +30 Network which represents more than 70 women’s rights and equality-seeking organizations, trade unions and independent experts representing millions of members from across the country.

The COVID-19 pandemic wiped out 35 years of women’s economic gains in two short months. At the height of the lockdown, women were working 27 per cent fewer hours, in the aggregate, than in February 2020. In total, 2.8 million women lost their job or were working less than half of their regular hours because of the March 2020 economic lockdowns. This report examines what’s happened to women in the workforce since. It finds mixed reviews: many women in higher-paying jobs are now doing better than before the pandemic. However, women in low-paying, pandemic-vulnerable jobs and in the care economy are still having a rough time of things. The COVID-19 crisis illustrated both the shortcomings of existing policies and institutions and what’s possible with strong public leadership. The imperative now is to apply the lessons of COVID-19 in service of a more resilient and inclusive labour market and gender-just future. Institutional reforms and greater awareness of the damaging impacts of gender disparities may yet create opportunities for systemic change. --Website description

The Centre for Future Work has released new research regarding union coverage and wages across different racialized categories of Canadian workers. The report also contains a review of efforts by Canadian unions to improve their representation of Black and racialized workers, and recommendations for strengthening the union movement’s practices.

In 2026, the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement will be up for review—and the possibility of political shakeups means that governments should start preparing now. This report assesses the functioning of CUSMA to date and suggests ways to expand on the rights-based and worker-centred novelties in the agreement that improved upon the original NAFTA. Though national elections will transform governments in all three countries between now and the 2026 review, the worker-centred trade policy of the current U.S. administration will likely live on. For political, geoeconomic and national security reasons, a bipartisan consensus has emerged on the need to renew North America’s manufacturing base and better protect workers from subsidized—financially or through weaker labour and environmental standards—foreign competition. This report examines how Canada could prepare, and goals to strive towards, starting today.

In this report, we, the research team, are going to consider the policies that come together to create an exploitative and precarious labour conditions for migrant care workers, who are predominantly financially challenged racialized women. We have conducted a systematic narrative synthesis analysis of the policies that are relevant to migrant care workers. In our consideration of these myriad policies, we will present a narrative that emerges in the coordinated design of these policies. The narrative that has emerged presented a journey to precariousness through a heightened likelihood of human rights violations that is facilitated by a network of policies and practices. We identify policies and practices that obscure care workers and the conditions of their labour, as well as the discriminatory impact of various policies and practices that support devaluing and delegitimizing the identities and labour of care workers. Finally, we consider the ways in which multiple policies and practices come together to create significant authorities with the capacity to surveil, restrict, and punish workers.... Executive summary

...The growth of the gig economy presents a number of opportunities for workers, with a potential for added flexibility and freedom in how, where, and when they choose to work. However, gig workers can also face a number of challenges, putting many of them in difficult working conditions and precarious economic positions. Recognizing these challenges, the Prime Minister mandated the Minister of Labour to improve labour protections for gig workers, including those who work through digital platforms. --From introduction

This report calls on the provincial government to work with school divisions, unions, and the ministry of education to equalize wages for educational support staff across the province. Pay disparities are not present for teachers across the province. The Manitoba government, which controls all significant funding sources in our school system, must play an active role in ensuring that these wage gaps are eliminated and ensure that rural school divisions operations are no longer subsidized by substandard wages paid to a predominately female workforce. Equal pay for equal work and work of equal value should be a priority for the new Manitoba government. --Website summary

The arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020 triggered the introduction of public health measures that would close large sectors of the economy and send millions of workers home. In two short months, the unemployment rate reached 14.1 per cent—the highest level since 1936, in the midst of the Great Depression. In all, 2.7 million workers lost their job outright, while another 2.2 million lost all or half of their working hours. Many more would be affected in the months ahead as the economy recovered in fits and starts. Canada, like countries around the world, quickly responded with a raft of income security tools and strategies to cope with the economic fallout. Programs such as the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) and its successor programs. There are few sources of information that document people’s experiences while on CERB. This research project has been designed to help fill this gap. Working with Abacus Data, the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives conducted focus groups and an online survey of 1,500 Canadians to help better understand the program’s impact on recipients and to explore the role CERB played in shaping their decisions with respect to skills, education or training and the pursuit of new work opportunities during this period. The focus groupswere hosted in mid-September 2022 and the survey was fielded between Nov. 18 and 25, 2022. The focus groups surfaced and explored key issues for CERB recipients, information which, in turn, informed the content and design of our larger survey. CERB and other emergency benefit programs have ended, but there is still much to learn about the experience and its impact given current economic stresses and the pressing imperative to ensure public programs are recession ready. The introduction of emergency pandemic benefits offers a unique opportunity to examine important questions about Canada’s current income security safety net and how it works (or does not) to support individuals in their efforts to achieve greater economic security and enhanced well-being. --Website description

This brief addresses the specific discussion questions posed in the Ministry’s Paper and highlights several other priority areas for reform that are essential for ensuring that app-based workers have access to the full range of rights and protections afforded to other workers in our province, including the right to collectively bargain.

The rise of the ‘gig economy’ and on-demand work using online platforms like Uber and Skip the Dishes has ignited public debate about precarious work and what makes a “good job.” Precarious work is not a new phenomenon, nor is it limited to the gig economy—but we don’t know just how widespread a problem it has become, mainly because Statistics Canada does not collect timely data on many of its dimensions. As part of the Understanding Precarity in BC project we conducted a pilot BC Precarity Survey—the first of its kind in BC—to address this gap and collect new evidence on the scale and unequal impacts of precarious work in our province. The survey, conducted in late 2019, reveals a polarized labour market in which precarious work is far more pervasive than many assume and includes much more than “gig work.” It also shows that the burden of precarious work falls more heavily on racialized and immigrant communities, Indigenous peoples, women and lower-income groups. --Website description

Employees living with disabilities often experience negative social attitudes about disability from employers and co-workers in their workplaces, as well as both overt and subtle forms of violence, discrimination, and harassment.... Our findings show that ableism often shows up in the context of employees needing accommodations to best do their job and is also present in the daily experiences of existing as a person living with a disability in a workplace. --From Introduction

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

In our first report, A Sustainable Jobs Blueprint - Part I: Governance recommendations to support Canada’s clean energy workforce and economy, we examined the shift net-zero based on current global trends. The first report underscored the importance of sound sustainable jobs planning; a robust governance approach with internal structures and accountability mechanisms; and inclusive decision-making that brings workers to the table. This second report offers advice on the tactics the federal government can use as it makes investments and develops programs, with the goal of better and more fair outcomes for present and future workers as well as communities. We recommend the federal government take steps to advance the following seven worker- and economy-focused actions, discussed in greater detail in the report. --Website description

Proactive and responsive governments can put in place the foundations for stability through transitions that empower worker and community resiliency and ensure those socioeconomic changes are positive. These foundations include key enabling factors and mechanisms for collaboration, accountability, and implementation. The Pembina Institute and the Canadian Labour Congress have partnered to develop a Sustainable Jobs Blueprint, which identifies policy and investment recommendations tosupport the Canadian workforce in the transition to a net-zero economy. This is the first report in a series on sustainable jobs planning in Canada to support the creation and maintenance of decent jobs across Canada. Part one outlines a governance framework needed for a robust sustainable jobs approach in Canada and includes recommendations for government action. Part two will offer recommendations for an implementation plan, supported by the governance framework, that will best support workers and communities. --Website description/Introduction

Unionization and collective bargaining continue to deliver material gains for workers by way of higher wages and access to supplementary benefits like health insurance and pensions. While researchers have charted a declining union wage advantage over the last few decades, collective bargaining still yields important gains for workers. Unions have sought to remedy stagnating real wages and growing inflation by seeking wage increases that align with the cost of living through bargaining processes and labour militancy. This report provides comparison of wages and benefits for unionized and non-unionized workers across industries in Canada and in the province of Saskatchewan by drawing from Statistics Canada’s Labour Force Survey (LFS) as well as custom tabulations acquired from Statistics Canada, retrieved from the LFS. --Executive summary

The Canadian labour market has experienced numerous changes over the last four decades. Employment has moved away from manufacturing and towards service sector jobs. Technological changes have brought computer-based technologies and, more recently, robotics and artificial intelligence to the workplace. World prices of oil and natural resources have fluctuated considerably. International trade with China and other emerging countries has risen. E-commerce has become a growing part of firms’ sales. Since March 2020, work arrangements have been altered substantially, with thousands of employees starting to work from home. In this context, how have unionization rates evolved in Canada? The goal of this note is to answer this question. --Introduction

UFCW Canada has helped protect agricultural workers’ rights and has enforced their entitlements while advocating for changes to the laws, which still contribute to worker vulnerability and employment insecurity. Agriculture is an essential pillar of the Canadian economy. The agriculture and agri-food manufacturing sector contributed $143 billion to Canada’s gross domestic product (GDP) in 2018, accounting for 7.4% of total GDP. Agriculture industries, meanwhile, contributed $32.3 billion.1 Agricultural workers are essential food workers. They feed our communities. However, our society tends to hide their vital contribution to securing our food supply, deeming them low-skilled workers. Nonetheless, these women and men who farm the land possess a valuable and unique skillset that few others have. Yet, because they are considered low-skilled, they are frequently subjected to terrible working conditions and pay. Through its Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP), the federal government has built an employer-demand-driven and employer-oriented program. It has been designed to support and facilitate employers’ needs while migrant workers and their labour organizations are excluded. Without the workers’ participation in the policies and regulations, the employer holds all the power and control. --From Executive Summary

Misclassification — when employers label their employees as "independent contractors" — is the single biggest reason precarious work is precarious. That’s been a long‑standing issue, but it's increasingly widespread with the rise of the so-called gig economy and the boom in app-based work. Misclassification drives up corporate profits by denying workers basic employment, health and safety protections. And it costs all of us, because it means there's less government revenue to support critical social services. Learn more about worker rights in the gig economy in our latest report on precarious work. --Summary at bcfed.ca/precariouswork

The Centre for Research & Education on Violence Against Women & Children at Western University, together with researchers at the University of Toronto and the Canadian Labour Congress launched a bilingual, national survey on workplace harassment and violence in Fall 2020. Closing in Spring 2021, thousands of workers across Canada completed the survey and a significant number volunteered to participate in in-depth interviews. The results of this research shed light on the prevalence of different forms of harassment and violence in the workplace, including how workers who are marginalized due to their social location and/or their precarious employment status are uniquely impacted. --Website description