Workers in Ontario have long-awaited the release of the Changing Workplaces Review recommendations and today we got our first look at what the panel is recommending to the government. While there are some positive recommendations in the report, the proposed reforms fail to deliver justice in the workplace for Ontario’s working class.

We Are Oshawa supports the report’s recommendations to abolish the student and liquor server minimum wage, eliminating the domestic worker and agricultural worker exclusions from the Labour Relations Act, and to place the burden for paid doctor’s notes on employers. The government should take immediate action to adopt these recommendations.

However, the report fails to ensure all workers have access to paid sick days and paid vacation. Without paid sick days and time off, many workers and their families are being punished for simply being sick and forcing people to choose between their mental health or putting food on the table. We are tired of corporations and governments talking about mental health without any meaningful action to improve the lives of workers and their families.

The report also largely maintains the intolerable status quo for temp agencies, placing the profits of temp agencies and their accomplices ahead of justice for workers caught in the cycle of temporary work and poverty wages.

But these are just recommendations. We cannot allow the government to use this report as a scapegoat for not acting to bring justice to workplaces across Ontario. We can no longer tolerate systemic discrimination against the most marginalized workers in Ontario. We Are Oshawa will be turning up the heat on local MPPs in the coming weeks to make sure both Liberal and opposition representatives in Durham Region understand what is at stake. Our demands also include a $15 minimum wage for all workers with no exceptions.

We Are Oshawa will keep fighting hand in hand with our community against corporate greed until all of our demands are met.

In solidarity,

We Are Oshawa