Bill 47 scraps many worker protections

Bill 47 scraps many worker protections

Secretary-Treasurer’s Message, Kelly Tosato

On November 21, 2018, the Ontario government approved Bill 47, which will see many worker protections eliminated. Bill 47 will:

• Scrap two paid sick days per year and replace those with three unpaid sick days.

• Throw out the 8 Personal Emergency Leave days per year.

• Freeze minimum wage at $14 per hour for 33 months.

• Ditch Equal Pay for Equal Work.

• Toss out legislation that made it easier for workers in some sectors to join a union.

Every time we roll back real protections and progress for workers, we start our fight all over again.

Bill 47 is short-sighted and reveals that the government is systematically leaving the well-being and protection of workers out of the equation in their future plans.

Workers’ rights, labour law, equality, and your Union collective agreement are all connected in important ways.

The last time we had a PC government was between the years 1995 and 2003. During those eight years, and the following year under the Liberals, minimum wage remained frozen at a meager $6.85 per hour. That's nine years.

Bringing the minimum wage to $14 per hour in 2017 was equivalent to workers having received an increase of about 30 cents per hour every year since 1995. But, because the minimum wage sat, stagnant, workers missed out and had to make due.

So, was $14 per hour too much too fast? Or, was it workers getting what they were owed? The timing of Bill 148 may have been a transparent re-election bid but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t necessary. There was a two-year labour review, which found that far too many Ontario workers weren’t receiving some of their most basic rights, and that changes were long overdue.

Rolling back paid and unpaid emergency days disproportionately punishes women far more than men, as women continue to be primary care-givers in many households.

When women must make decisions between caring for a child or other relatives and going to work, it has a further impact on the ability to reduce the gender wage gap.

Add to that, a frozen minimum wage of $14 per hour. So, not only are workers fending for themselves when it comes to emergency leave days, the government is freezing how much workers get paid when they do go to work.

Is the situation better for Unionized workers? Absolutely.

Your collective agreement language cannot be undone by the government. The standards we set in our agreements help raise up non-Union workers too. But, when the government sets the bar so low, it becomes more difficult to get any employer to do better.

This government is not worker-friendly and it is not For the People.

We need policy and legislation that moves us forward on a more humane level. Working people, government, unions, and employers all need to work together to strategize to fix the intrinsic problems in our labour model and better equip workers and businesses to deal with the future in real and relevant ways.

The nature of employment and the jobs we do will absolutely continue to change as we become more global and more technologically advanced. But, let’s ensure we advance our humanity and social responsibility too.

Thank you to all of our Stewards Health and Safety committees, and Members who work day in and day out to help make sure their workplaces are as safe and healthy as possible. I hope you all enjoy the warmth and kindness of the holidays with family and loved ones, and I wish you all the best that the new year has to offer.

In Solidarity, Kelly Tosato

treasurer@ufcw175.com