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...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