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Workers from across Ontario were at Queen's Park recently to meet with members of the Legislature to garner their support labour law and employment standards changes to address the increasingly precarious nature of work today.
"Contract work, irregular hours, holding down two or three part-time jobs to make ends meet – this is increasingly the reality for workers today, particularly young people," said Ontario Regional Director Katha Fortier, who will lead the delegation of 40 workers.
"The legal framework around work in Ontario has not kept up with this fundamental shift."
Labour Minister Kevin Flynn thanked Unifor for its submission.
“We know what’s wrong. We look at our own kids and we see what’s wrong,” Flynn said. “What we’re looking for is solutions.”
Workers from such workplaces as grocery, retail, manufacturing, social services, school busing, media, aerospace, healthcare, telecommunications, and freelancers, took part in the delegation.
Unifor's 156-page submission to the Ontario government's Changing Workplace Review makes 43 recommendations, including scheduling rules and more opportunities for full-time work, making employers responsible for temp agencies, access to benefits, a modernizing union certification and first contract rules and ways for non-union workers to act collectively.
Unifor's submission argues that improving the working conditions and economic situation of workers can have a strong positive impact on the economy as a whole.
Unifor's full submission is available at www.unifor.org/WorkplaceChanges.
