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Since the mid-1950s, the Canadian government has increasingly relied on precarious and/or temporary migrant workers to meet a growing demand for care work. Restrictive immigration policies and programs that promise a pathway to permanent residency but place limitations on workers’ rights and freedoms have led to the creation of a highly vulnerable workforce that is subject to working in low-wage and undervalued sectors with few protections. This report argues that, in addition to immediate reforms to current caregiver pilot programs to help protect vulnerable migrant care workers, Canada should work toward granting permanent resident status to all migrants upon arrival. Granting migrants permanent resident status and equal access to available supports and services is key to ensuring basic human rights for all. The report ends with recommendations to achieve this goal.

Legal Aid Ontario (LAO) lawyers provide legal advice and advocate for low-income individuals in the province of Ontario (1990), Canada, who would otherwise be unable to afford legal representation. As workers, LAO lawyers had limited ability to address workplace concerns with their employer, many of which negatively impacted their ability to advocate for their clients, or undermined their professional and ethical obligations. Lawyers as a job classification are excluded from the Ontario Labour Relations Act (OLRA), and are therefore unable to unionize using a defined legal process protected by legislation. Analyzing the example of a successful four-year long campaign led by LAO lawyers and the Society of United Professionals, IFPTE Local 160 (SUP) for voluntary union recognition, this case study examines organizing a union when labour legislation does not facilitate a unionization process; running a comprehensive organizing campaign for professional workers; framing issues to resonate with the public; and what motivates professional workers to unionize. --From introduction

This literature review presents an overview of the existing academic research on workers’ experiences of sexual harassment in order to better understand the factors influencing workers’ responses to these forms of harassment. We focus on the understudied intersection of precarious work and sexual harassment to address and investigate the higher rates of unwanted sexual attention reported by workers engaged in precarious work. --From Introduction

The COVID-19 pandemic has made the holes in our social safety net and the failures in our social infrastructure painfully obvious. A horrific example of these failures is the impact of the pandemic in long-term care (LTC) homes. This paper provides a cost estimate for adequately funded caregiving in Ontario long-term care homes, showing that it would cost about $1.8 billion to increase care levels and equalize wage rates across the sector in this fiscal year. This equates to just over 1% of overall provincial program spending in Ontario.

Migrant care worker organizations are releasing a report today documenting the experiences of hundreds of racialized migrant domestic workers during COVID-19. The report, “Behind Closed Doors: Exposing Migrant Care Worker Exploitation During COVID-19”, features shocking stories of abuse including working every day without a break, thousands of dollars in stolen wages, workers being trapped in employers’ homes for months, and being laid off and evicted. The report documents how these crises threaten workers’ ability to unite with their families and access permanent residency, and calls for full and permanent immigration status for all migrants as the only solution. --Press release 2020-10-28

The living wage was first calculated in Atlantic Canada in 2015 (Halifax). Antigonish was added in 2016 and Saint John, New Brunswick in 2018. Last year, we calculated the living wage rate for St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador. This year we have added two more Nova Scotia communities: Bridgewater and the Cape Breton Regional Municipality.

This literature review provides insight into the current state of LGBTQI2S workplace inclusion in Canada and beyond. The current national and international contexts through which LGBTQI2S people navigate at work are examined, and an overview of the gaps in research specific to LGBTQI2S workplace inclusion in Canada is explored. In our research, policy, and community engaged work, Egale has witnessed a culture of change in LGBTQI2S workplace inclusion. However LGBTQI2S people in Canada continue to face discrimination and exclusion in the workforce, and there exists particular harm for transgender and gender non-conforming people. Sexuality and gender oppression intersect with experiences of racism for Black, Indigenous, and people of colour within LGBTQI2S populations in Canada. Persistent issues for LGBTQI2S people in the workplace make visible the failure of organizations to protect LGBTQI2S employees and the failure of Canada’s current workplace and human rights frameworks. --Website description

Economic losses due to COVID-19 have fallen heavily on women, and most dramatically on women living on low incomes who experience intersecting inequalities based on race, class, disability, education, migration, and immigration status. The pandemic crisis has revealed the fragility of response systems and the urgent need for structural rethinking and systemic change.

In 2001, CCPA-Manitoba published a report titled The Minimum Wage and a Tipping Wage: A Survey of People Who Work At or Near the Minimum Wage in Manitoba. Researchers gathered data from 70 workers making minimum wage. The report concluded that minimum wage was insufficient to provide workers with anything more than a ‘subsistence wage’ and did not reflect the cost of living. This current research represents an update of the 2001 study and concludes that little has changed for minimum wage workers in Manitoba. This project utilizes both quantitative and qualitative data to explore the challenges of working for, and living on, minimum wage. Forty-two workers in Winnipeg and Brandon were interviewed to gain a better understanding of their experiences, challenges, and hopes for the future.

Although Canada’s migrant labour program is seen by some as a model of best practices, rights shortfalls and exploitation of workers are well documented. Through migration policy, federal authorities determine who can hire migrant workers, and the conditions under which they are employed, through the provision of work permits. Despite its authority over work permits, the federal government has historically had little to do with the regulation of working conditions. In 2015, the federal government introduced a new regulatory enforcement system - unique internationally for its attempt to enforce migrants’ workplace rights through federal migration policy - under which employers must comply with contractual employment terms, uphold provincial workplace standards, and make efforts to maintain a workplace free of abuse. Drawing on enforcement data, and frontline law and policy documents, we critically assess the new enforcement system, concluding that it holds both promise and peril for migrant workers.

The living wage rate for Charlottetown, PEI is $19.30 per hour. This 2020 living wage is calculated to follow the principles and methodology laid out in the Canadian Living Wage Framework. The calculation for Charlottetown follows how the wage has been calculated in our Atlantic Canadian jurisdictions, including the most recent report with wages calculated for various communities in Nova Scotia, as well as Saint John in New Brunswick. In 2019, the living wage was calculated for St. John’s in Newfoundland and Labrador.

This report presents an analysis of key findings from a survey completed by gym and fitness club workers in Ontario over several weeks in February and March 2019. The survey data, which is both quantitative and qualitative, offers important insights into gym and fitness club work, including levels of job satisfaction, opinions about fairness and respect at work, impressions of relationships between workers, clients, and supervisors, and views about how best to improve working conditions in the industry. -- From Summary

[This report is] based on interviews we conducted with 11 workers from the Chinese and Eritrean communities. The report details the migration and work stories of newcomer workers in this industry, as well as their concerns, hopes and dreams. OHC has made 21 recommendations in this report to improve the health and well-being of newcomer workers in the food processing industry. --MFL Occupational Health Centre website

Canada’s unions are proud to mark the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination with the release of a ground-breaking report on the impacts of Islamophobia in the workplace. [This report] explores the rise of anti-Muslim attitudes and discrimination in Canada. It provides recommendations for employers, trade unions, and government on how to address this pernicious phenomenon. --Website description

This report describes experiences of extreme employment precarity and impacts on health and well-being among South Asians in Toronto. In 2018, community advocates from the South Asian Women’s Rights Organizations (SAWRO), Injured Workers Community Legal Clinic (IWC), and researchers from McMaster University came together to develop a health and safety workshop for South Asian workers. The initiative grew from a need identified at the community level for more information and advocacy around health and safety in the South Asian community, and among South Asian women in particular. It was funded by a Multicultural Community Capacity Grant from the Government of Ontario. Advocates and researchers developed a 2-hour training workshop on precarious employment, employment rights and workers’ compensation. They trained 10 outreach workers from SAWRO on these topics, and the outreach workers went into their community to share the knowledge they gained and advertise the workshop. The workshop, held in February 2019, was attended by 53 men and women. In March 2019, researchers held two focus groups with a total of 20 South Asian men and women to discuss and document experiences of work and health. This report is ased on the stories shared with us during the training session for outreach workers, the workshop, and the focus groups. --From Introduction

Saskatchewan's migrant workers rights regime has been characterized as a "positive national standard" for the rest of the country. Introducing the legislation in 2012, then-Minister of the Economy Bill Boyd argued it would "position Saskatchewan as having the most comprehensive protection for newcomers of any province in Canada." In Safe Passage: Migrant Worker Rights in Saskatchewan, Dr. Andrew Stevens reviews the impact of Saskatchewan's Foreign Worker Recruitment and Immigration Services Act (FWRISA) since its implementation. Using cases of employers and recruiters investigated under the FWRISA, this report explores how the government has addressed the exploitation of migrant workers in Saskatchewan. Dr. Stevens argues that the FWRISA deserves recognition as an important piece of legislation that has strengthened migrant worker protections and explicitly recognizes foreign labour’s unique vulnerabilities in the workplace. However, despite the strengths of the legisltion, Dr. Stevens argues that enforcement still remains a problem, with the complaints-based system too often putting the onus on precariously employed workers to self-report violations. Moreover, there is no requirement for employers to demonstrate comprehension of the province’s migrant labour regime in advance of accessing workers from abroad, resulting in employers that are ill-informed or ignorant of their responsibilities. Dr. Stevens concludes that Saskatchewan's existing migrant worker rights regime could be further improved by investing in a more rigorous audit and inspectorate system and through an expansion of community supports for newcomers.

On February 6, 2018, the Minister of Labour appointed us as a Labour Relations Code Review Panel with a broad mandate to review the B.C. Labour Relations Code, RSBC 1996, c 244 (the “Code”) and to provide recommendations for any amendments or updates to the Code. The terms of reference directed us to consult with the community, consider labour law developments in other Canadian jurisdictions and to: "….assess each issue canvassed from the perspective of how to “ensure workplaces support a growing, sustainable economy with fair laws for workers and business” and promote certainty as well as harmonious and stable labour/management relations. The conceptual and structural framework for the Code was established 45 years ago and there have been significant changes in the B.C. workforce, workplaces and economy in theintervening decades. --Introduction

In times of economic growth, it is fair to expect that wages and job quality will improve with positive benefits being experienced throughout society. But between 2011 and 2017—a period when Ontario’s economy experienced significant gains—our research found that these expectations did not come true: the adage that a rising tide will lift all boats proved to be false in Ontario.

A specialized agency of the United Nations that predates both the United Nations and the establishment of the Bretton Woods institutions, the International Labour Organization (ILO) was founded at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919, and was part of the Treaty of Versailles. This paper is a deliberate exercise in remembering the history of the ILO. It recalls the historical ideal of international labour law (ILL) in the ILO’s founding to explain the renewed relevance of ILL in the midst of global restructuring. The paper traces a similar trajectory through the story of ILL in the Canadian courts. Throughout, the paper suggests that the evolution of ILL, internationally and in Canada, constitutes a crucial basis upon which to build ILL’s transnational futures.

Have Indigenous people in Canada been active as wage labourers and union members? If so, what have been the circumstances? When and where and for what reasons have Indigenous people worked for wages and been union members and how have they fared in these roles? In this short paper we examine a wide range of recent studies that have looked at various aspects of these questions.