On Oct. 23, the provincial government officially scrapped Bill 148, which had called for a rise in minimum wage to $15 in 2019, in addition to a number of protections for workers. Premier Doug Ford claims that Bill 148 was “too much, too fast” and a “job killer.”
The Ontario Chamber of Commerce has opposed the labour reforms and further minimum wage hikes, arguing that the recently instituted higher minimum wage has hurt small businesses and the overall economy. However, the government did say that the minimum wage will stay at $14 an hour for 33 months.
Fight for $15 and Fairness, a prominent province-wide labour rights advocacy group, has strongly opposed this announcement. The organization’s McMaster chapter has been active in raising awareness about the current situation.
Fight for $15 and Fairness McMaster organizer Chloe Rockarts said that having a relatively high minimum wage has been beneficial both for students and for university workers such as food staff.
Rockarts also stressed that if the bill is scrapped, there will be more consequences beyond just affecting minimum wage workers, citing the “equal pay for equal work” principle and paid sick day provisions as examples.
“For those that are not necessarily in those workplaces where people are getting paid minimum wage do not see it directly affecting them, but what we would like to do is focus less on the ‘15’ aspect and more on the fairness,” said Rockarts.
McMaster labour studies professor Stephanie Ross echoed many of the same concerns, adding that the minimum wage increase has resulted in an improved economy.
“We see job growth in those provinces that increased their minimum wage,” said Ross. “The negative effects of repealing Bill 148 will be serious for Mac students, as people most likely to work in minimum wage jobs and who are struggling to make and save money for tuition and living expenses.”
To push back against the minimum wage freeze, Fight for 15 McMaster held a rally at Jackson Square as part of a province-wide “day of action” to support Bill 148 and the scheduled wage increase. The next day, they held a bake sale to promote discussion on the topic.
“We are just trying to raise awareness around all of these things right now,” said Rockarts. “Generally, a lot of the campaign work that we do is focused on outreach.”
Beyond outreach, they are planning on contacting local MPPs to urge them to support the bill.
The bill was planned to be fully implemented in 2019. In January 2019, certain scheduling protections for employees along with the minimum wage increase were scheduled to come into effect.
Despite the sealed fate of Bill 148, Rockarts is feeling optimistic about Fight for 15 McMaster’s campaign this year so far.
“This is our third year and we are only getting bigger and doing more,” said Rockarts, who notes that the group has seen increased engagement since the implementation of Bill 148 and the election of Doug Ford.
“Because it has been in the news so much, and because people are being directly affected at work, people are way more interested and way more willing to engage,” said Rockarts.
While the provincial government goes forward with their plan to cut Bill 148, it remains increasingly clear that they face immense opposition.
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By: Moleen Makumborenga
No one gets a student job thinking they will eventually start to feel unsafe or uncomfortable at work. I do not believe McMaster University thinks that student jobs can be precarious. This would explain why I found myself unprotected and unsupported when my supervisor who works for a research organization on campus tried to illegally demote me in order for my current wage to match a job title and description that was unlike the tasks I completed.
The situation arose from the implementation of Bill 148 also known as the “Fair Workplaces, Better Jobs Act”. In order for the university and my organization to be compliant with the law that came into effect April 1, 2018, I had to sign a new contract that assigned my work to the new classification model created by McMaster University.
As with any immigrant and international student, my first concern was how this would affect my permanent residence application. To those not familiar with the PR application process, it works on a point system whereby you are awarded more points based on the type of job experience you have. The more specialized your role, the better your chances of earning an invitation to apply for your PR status.
My first concern was about how the last year in this position would essentially be a waste of time as the job title and description they were suggesting I should sign on to was classified as administration work, which is something Immigration Canada does not value.
When I was hired, I had signed a contract that stipulated that I would be the student Digital Communication Specialist. I was intent on taking on the position not only because it matched my experience, but because it would also help with my PR application.
After careful consideration about what my supervisor and the faculty director were suggesting, it was pretty clear these people were misaligning my work in order to keep paying me at the current wage rate. There was no attempt on their part to find a position on the McMaster employment directory that matched my current position or upheld the contract I had signed, which was still in effect.
In a meeting with managers, I brought emails that documented projects I had completed on behalf of the organization, which in their numbers and level of technicality were clearly not administrative projects. Upon this evidence, my supervisor then tried to pass off to the director that she had made a mistake and had not looked at the employment directory carefully, and she realized that perhaps she might have made a minor mistake.
Now this so called “minor mistake” had led me to two nights of sleeplessness because without my PR, I cannot afford to go graduate school. It had caused my family to panic because they had to consider the possibility of helping pay $30,000 for my grad program and undergoing the financially invasive student visa application process to extend my current status.
This worry piled onto the fact that I am in my final year, and only two weeks out from exams and needing to complete all my major final grade influencing, graduate-school gatekeeping courses. One of the moments I remember so vividly in the meeting was when my supervisor said to me in a tone so sarcastic and condescending, “Sorry I stressed you out for those two days.”
And in that moment it became clearer to me, if it had never been in my last six years in Canada, that I am a black woman navigating white privilege waters, and my God, I am drowning. I understood what it is to hold onto your pain in fear of being labelled an angry black woman even when you have a legitimate reason to feel this way. I was reminded I am a black woman and these people will never be conscious of themselves in the way that I am.
And I am not saying my manager and the director are racist, but I am saying they lack a sensitivity and introspection that would make it obvious to anyone of colour that we are faced with varied challenges in life. You telling me a Zimbabwean girl, coming from one of the worst economies in the world, that you are demoting me is not the same thing as telling someone born and raised with a better financial background.
This notion that my manager did not carefully review all the job descriptions and titles is incorrect because meeting notes from almost two months prior show that she knew exactly what the correct correspondence for my current job would be in the incoming job directory. In the meeting, these women belittled me by insinuating that I did not understand the legislative process when repeatedly I said I understood the legal requirements they were trying to meet. They were still misaligning my work with the position they wanted me to sign onto.
I reported the situation to International Students Services, and the head officer directed me to another office who directed me to another office, then another one because no one thought the situation was theirs to handle. It is upsetting to know that as international students we pour so much money into Canadian institutions. Not providing us with people to help us in times of need shows that they see us as cash cows.
The human rights officer said that my supervisor and I have a right to differing opinion on what my job description should be under the new law. And to that I wonder, but did my supervisor not have an obligation to refer to my previously signed contract when suggesting the new position?
The only office that took the situation seriously and saw how this was not just a minor mistake, but potentially gross misconduct was the Ombuds office. They told me if HR does not fix this, she would have to refer the situation to the Ministry of Labour.
Over 40 per cent of jobs in Canada are classified by Statistics Canada as precarious work, and immigrants are more likely than Canadian born workers to be in precarious work. We are talking about the institutionalization of disadvantageous working conditions for racialized minorities.
Whilst this issue is the main reason I brought attention to my unsuitable work environment, this job had historically made me feel uncomfortable. It was only last year my fellow colleagues, white health science students, made jokes about including me in the digital media for the organization because it was clear that they had a “diversity problem”.
One of the jarring lessons from my experience is that white people are the gatekeepers of what constitutes as pain or a problem. That you can tell someone you are uncomfortable and being unfairly treated and it can be ignored because people cannot relate to your racialized experience felt like I was drowning.
So I am speaking up now because I was not sure about the nuances of precarious work then and I was not sure about how my voice would be treated. I think it is time we really look at this problem on our campus and do something.
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