Archive for the ‘Policy Context’ Category
« Older Entries | Newer Entries »
Precarious employment a full-blown crisis
Sooner or later workers need to be paid a living wage… Workers need to have more options around buying benefits… Ontario’s Employment Standards Act needs to be updated to reflect this new reality… more than half the workers in the GTHA alone work in precarious employment positions. The Act is silent on fair scheduling. It doesn’t deal with paid emergency leave and excludes more than one million people who work for small companies and don’t have the right to even a single paid sick day.
Tags: economy, ideology, participation, poverty, rights, standard of living
Posted in Policy Context | No Comments »
Ontario’s ‘eye-popping’ shift to low-wage work
Ontario’s low-wage work force has skyrocketed by 94 percent over the past two decades, compared with just 30 percent growth in total employment… the share of Ontario workers labouring for the minimum wage is now five times higher than in 1997… from less than 3 per cent of all employees to about 12 per cent in 2014… Ontario’s outdated Employment Standards Act… is also almost completely silent on the matter of fair scheduling — despite the growing proportion of workers who are saddled with erratic shifts
Tags: economy, featured, ideology, participation, standard of living
Posted in Policy Context | No Comments »
Here’s Canada’s way forward on supply management
there is a win-win solution, one that uses part of the system itself… Before dropping the tariffs… we must determine the amount needed to compensate farmers for their quota and for transition assistance… the fund would be large, but it could be paid for over time, using the mechanics of the price-support system… Canada would be able to go to trade talks – including the TPP – with clean hands, unencumbered by supply management and ready to benefit from global opportunities.
Tags: economy, globalization, ideology, standard of living
Posted in Policy Context | No Comments »
Free Trade Deals Put Profits over Public Interest
Trade and investment agreements were designed to be the quintessential globalization mechanism aimed at effectively erasing borders and making the nation state increasingly irrelevant — and impotent. But … The economic meltdown suddenly challenged the notion that the only entity that could efficiently allocate capital (that is, make economic decisions for all of us) was the “market place”… for capitalism to actually succeed (that is, to grow) it needs the check on financial power that the states can provide… There are signs that at least a few countries are trying to get some of their governing power back from transnational corporations.
Tags: economy, featured, globalization, ideology, participation, rights, standard of living
Posted in Policy Context | No Comments »
Ontario allowing employers to fire workers without cause
Ontario’s outdated employment laws, currently under review, were designed to create basic protections for the majority of the province’s non-unionized workers. Instead, millions are falling through the gaps created by a dizzying array of loopholes, from the dangerous to the downright bizarre… critics argue that its confusing web of exemptions makes it harder for the so-called precariously employed to defend their rights — and easier for bosses to ignore them.
Tags: economy, featured, Health, ideology, poverty, rights, standard of living
Posted in Policy Context | No Comments »
Ontario employers cashing in on temporary workers
Under Ontario’s antiquated Employment Standards Act… there is no limit on how long a company can employ a worker as temporary before giving him or her a permanent job. There is nothing to stop employers from paying temp workers less than their permanent counterparts, nothing to prevent them from hiring their entire workforce on a “temporary” basis if they so choose… they don’t have to give you benefits, they don’t have to give you a pension, they can hire you for a lot less, there’s no incentive for them to hire permanently.
Tags: economy, featured, ideology, participation, rights, standard of living
Posted in Policy Context | No Comments »
‘Wild West’ scheduling holds millions of Ontario workers hostage
Many low-wage workers desperately need to take on second jobs but can’t, because employers expect full-time availability from their part-time employees… a practice that causes havoc in the lives of millions of Ontario workers but is almost completely ignored by provincial law. The result in many industries is a “brutal combination” of unpredictable schedules, insufficient hours and poor wages
Tags: economy, featured, ideology, participation, poverty, rights, standard of living, women
Posted in Policy Context | No Comments »
Jobless insurance needs a new manager
… the Conservative government, raids the $23.1-billion fund at will; collects more in premiums than it pays out in benefits; denies coverage to the most vulnerable workers; dispatches officials to recipients’ homes to catch them loafing; and withholds income support from laid-off Canadians who get one computer keystroke wrong… Take responsibility for rule-setting out of the hands of the employment minister and Ottawa would no longer have the authority to deny 60 per cent of the jobless EI benefits.
Tags: budget, economy, featured, globalization, ideology, participation, standard of living, tax
Posted in Policy Context | No Comments »
Long-overdue tax revolt is finally under way in Britain
The revolt is aimed at wealthy individuals and corporations who game the system so expertly that they pay hardly any taxes, or less tax than fairness would dictate. Europe is riddled with tax havens whose role is to deprive high-tax countries from the resources they need to support their social systems… Unless they are reined in, the notion that the European Union is a level playing field will remain a farce.
Tags: budget, economy, globalization, ideology, standard of living, tax
Posted in Policy Context | No Comments »
Ontario’s Employment Standards Act is in desperate need of reform
… more than 40 per cent of work in Ontario is now done “outside of standard, full-time, permanent employment with a single employer.” An increasing number of people now work part-time, or on contract, or are classed as “independent contractors” — designations that may allow employers to deprive them of basic gains such as overtime pay, benefits, regular work schedules, a modicum of job security, and a minimum wage.
Tags: economy, featured, ideology, participation, poverty, rights, standard of living, women, youth
Posted in Policy Context | No Comments »
Recent Comments