The Employment Standards Act is supposed to set the minimum floor of standards for workers in non-unionized jobs. But a dizzying array of exemptions, loopholes, and gaps in the law have eroded that floor of rights and protections, and too many workers are falling through the cracks. Read this week’s article, ‘Ontario allowing employers to fire workers without cause’, the third in a four-part series.
As the government embarks on a review of the Employment Standards Act and Labour Relations Act in Ontario, the Toronto Star is doing a four-part series on some of the key issues facing workers in precarious and low-wage jobs in the province. The series features interviews with workers, many of them members of the Workers’ Action Centre, talking about the ways in which the law doesn’t do enough to protect them – either because the law has not kept up with the changing nature of work, or because it has been hollowed out and is not adequately enforced.
The Toronto Star series highlights key issues and recommendations for change that the Workers’ Action Centre raised in its recently released report, Still Working on the Edge: Building Decent Jobs from the Ground Up, which provides a full assessment of the current weaknesses in employment standards and presents a comprehensive set of recommendations for change.
Every Monday in May, read the stories and listen to the voices of workers who are demanding change, who are saying that it’s time for decent work now.