The Ontario Liberal government has announced proposed changes to our existing labour laws, including:
- Increasing the provincial minimum wage to $15 an hour by January 1, 2019.
- Equal pay would be mandated for part-time workers doing the same job as full-time workers.
- After 5 years with the same employer, the minimum vacation would rise from 2 to 3 weeks per year.
- Employers would be required to pay a worker 3 hours of wages if the employer cancels a shift with less than 48 hours notice.
- All workers would be given 10 personal emergency leave days a year, and a minimum of 2 of those days must be paid.
- The extension of card-based certification to temporary workers, building services workers and community care workers.
These proposed changes are a direct result of the Labour movement and community groups in Ontario demanding changes that would make the lives of workers better, through the Make it Fair campaign.
However, the government has been dragging its feet on implementing the recommendations of the changing workplaces review, and has fallen extremely short of the many changes proposed, including:
- Implementing card-based certification in every sector and for all workplaces.
- Providing automatic access to first-contract arbitration.
- Prohibiting replacement workers.
- Providing seven paid sick days for all workers separate from Personal Emergency Leave.
- Providing ten designated paid job-protected days for survivors of domestic and sexual violence.
- Legislating three weeks paid vacation for all Ontario workers upon employment.
Please contact your Member of Provincial Parliament and demand that they support these changes to our laws to Make it Fair for workers.
In Solidarity,
Sharon DeSousa,
PSAC Ontario Regional Executive Vice-President