VANCOUVER – Governments, employers and unions must all work urgently to address several critical weaknesses in Canada’s employment laws and policies to ensure the re-opening of the economy in the wake of COVID-19 can be safe and sustained.
Employment and labour
The strange times we’re living in are bringing many issues into sharp focus for the public at large. This is true with regard to the relationship between workers and employers, where old issues are taking on a different hue.
Manitoba is slowly coming back on line, with restrictions loosening for a variety of businesses, including restaurants, hair salons and retail establishments. Employees will begin being called back to work, but some employers are surprised to learn that not all employees are eager to return.
VANCOUVER - The need to work multiple jobs to make ends meet has contributed to the tragedy in seniors homes during the COVID-19 crisis, but even beyond nursing homes, working more than one job is common across all regions of BC. That’s the central finding of new research released today by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives BC Office and SFU’s Labour Studies Program, from a province-wide workforce survey conducted not long before the pandemic began.
A Bangladeshi worker (photo from ILO Asia-Pacific, Flickr Creative Commons)
“COVID-19 will be a catastrophe for Bangladeshi garment workers.”
Photo by Elvert Barnes (Flickr Creative Commons)
Photo by GoToVan (Flickr Creative Commons)
Illustration by Maura Doyle
Sometimes it takes one crisis to bring another into the light.
In our first issue following the outbreak of COVD-19 in Canada, Monitor contributors assess the federal and provincial government responses to date and propose how we might use this moment of government activism to fix the gross inequalities in our society—by improving social programs such as employment insurance, income assistance and our health care system, for example.
OTTAWA – As new federal policies are created and adapted to attempt to counter the worst-case economic impacts of COVID-19, new analysis today by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) shows 862,000 unemployed workers will receive nothing from either Employment Insurance (EI) or the new Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB).
OTTAWA—New analysis by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) estimates that the unemployment rate has likely already doubled or more due to COVID-19, with 2 million workers who have been laid off or are at immediate risk of layoff in Canada. Half to three-quarters of them will lose their jobs by the end of March.