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Privatization has eliminated 30 years of pay equity gains and has put BC at the bottom of the barrel nationally when it comes to wages and benefits for women working in health support occupations. This is the central finding of a study released today by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. It documents the dramatic reversal of pay equity resulting from the provincial government's push to contract out hospital support services (cleaners, care aids and laundry, food service and clerical workers). "Bill 29 has turned the clock back thirty years on fair wages for women in health support occupations," says co-author Marjorie Griffin Cohen, a CCPA research associate and Chair of SFU's Women's Studies Department. -- CCPA news release, April 21, 2004
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Professor Jill Rubery was commissioned by the ILO to write this Working Paper, as an input for the preparation of the 2003 Global Report on the elimination of discrimination in the world of work. The establishment of a floor to the wage structure is of paramount importance to groups of workers discriminated on grounds such as sex, ethnicity, national origin, age and disability, as these groups are disproportionately represented at the bottom of the occupational hierarchy. By identifying the role that minimum wages can play in reducing gender discrimination in pay, Jill Rubery’s paper contributes to our understanding of the forms of labour market processes compatible with the promotion of non-discrimination, equality and decent work.
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This assessment was prepared for the Ontario Public Service Employees Union. It examines the conditions of work at the Don Jail. I was asked by the union whether under-staffing and the resulting levels of overtime represented a health risk and to offer recommendations, if any, arising out of my assessment. The assessment provides evidence in support of the union's claim that long hours of work represent a potential health risk to the staff of the Don Jail.
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This report compares work organization and workload at three [Ontario] developmental service agencies in order to identify factors that precipitate and contribute to injuries, stress and health problems in the social services. The restructuring of services in this sector has resulted in reduced funding and therefore workloads and health risks associated with overwork and burnout appear to have increased dramatically in all three sites studied. Restructuring has also exposed workers and clients to higher levels of stress and violence. This study also uncovered serious incidents of workplace bullying and traumatic work cultures. While workplace bullying certainly predates restructuring, some studies show that it is a phenomena that has seen rapid growth within the context of restructured public sector and non profit workplaces. Given the serious under funding of this sector it may appear that there is little that can be done to improve health and safety in the short term. However, this report recommends several measures including an immediate increase in government funding, the incorporation of worker’s knowledge into how work is to be organized and planned, guarantees to part-time workers of enough hours of work to support themselves, an end to the use of split shifts, a cap on overtime and subsequent hiring additional fulltime staff in order to ensure workplace stability and the introduction of immediate, assertive, transparent measures to improve workplace morale and eradicate traumatic workplace cultures. --Executive Summary
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Over the past century agriculture in the Okanagan has relied heavily on low cost ethnic labour. The historical documentation of this ethnic agricultural labour is fragmented occurring primarily in photographs, personal diaries, minutes of organizations, newspaper articles, and in some journal articles and books where there is specific mention of a particular ethnic group. This research compiles some of this documentation and synthesizes it into a single document which provides an overall account of the presence and role of ethnic agricultural labour in the Okanagan Valley. More specifically, this research substantiates and examines the presence of the early British settlers and five ethnic groups. They are the First Nations people (1880s - early 1900s and 1940s to 1960s), Chinese (late 1800s to 1930s), Japanese (1942 - late 1940s), Doukhobor (early 1930s - late 1950s), and Portuguese (1955 - early 1960s). --From authors' introduction. Contents: Introduction -- The Early British Settlers: 1860s - 1920s -- The Chinese: Early 1900s-1930s -- The First Nations People: 1880s-present -- The Doukhobors: 1930s-1950s -- The Japanese: 1940 -- The Portuguese: 1940s -- Conclusion -- References.
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This assessment was prepared for the Ontario Public Service Employees Union. It examines the conditions of work in the offices of the Ontario Disability Support Program. I was asked by the Union to assess the extent to which the organization of work by the Employer makes reasonable provision for the health and safety of staff and to offer recommendations, if any, arising out of my assessment. The assessment provides evidence in support of the union's claim that "The employer is failing to make reasonable provisions for the health of its employees in the ODSP by failing to maintain sufficient staff to handle the workload required of its staff." --Introduction
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In recent years, poverty-level minimum wages have been the focus of considerable debate across the various provincial jurisdictions and at the federal level in Canada. Similar interest has been expressed in the United States as evidenced by many successful campaigns to raise the minimum wage. Some economists argue that raising the minimum wage will kill low wage jobs, hurting the very people it was intended to assist by pricing them out of the job market. Still others, primarily concerned with poverty and inequality, see raising the minimum wage as an important policy tool for eliminating poverty and promoting equality. How can the latter group engage with others so as to raise the minimum wage above the poverty line? How can they ensure that a person or family earn a decent living - what is commonly termed a “living wage”? -- Publisher's description