TORONTO, Oct. 31, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — The Ford authorities’s introduction of the Keeping Students in Class Act is a full-frontal assault on primary labour freedoms in Ontario, says the Ontario Federation of Labour (OFL). The laws pulls the plug on bargaining with training employees and imposes an unreasonable four-year contract.
“Today is a dark day for Ontario workers. By introducing this legislation before education workers have even exercised their Charter-protected right to strike, the Ford government is attempting to short-circuit the bargaining process and strip workers of a fundamental freedom,” mentioned Patty Coates, Ontario Federation of Labour President. “Doug Ford and his government are once again telling workers across the province that their rights don’t matter.”
The Charter of Rights and Freedoms enshrines Canadians’ proper to a free and truthful collective bargaining course of, and the Supreme Court of Canada has discovered that the proper to train financial sanctions (i.e., the proper to strike) kinds an integral half of that course of. In addition to violating employees’ constitutional proper to strike, the Keeping Students in Class Act enforces a concessionary contract on Ontario’s 55,000 training employees – the lowest paid employees in the training system – many of whom are girls employees and employees of color.
The invoice unilaterally imposes woefully low wage will increase – properly under inflation – on low-income workers who’ve beforehand been subjected to three years of 1 per cent will increase beneath Bill 124; insufficient protections in opposition to job cuts; no paid prep time for training employees who work immediately with college students; a reduce to the sick depart/short-term incapacity plan; and lots of different imposed phrases which penalize workers. All advised the imposed compensation modifications quantity to a mere $200 in the pockets of employees incomes on common $39,000 and dealing with 7 per cent inflation.
Ford’s Conservative authorities plans to ram by this laws that tramples on employees’ rights by as soon as once more invoking the however clause; this time, the Keeping Students in Class Act overrides Ontario employees’ constitutional rights for as much as 5 years. This clause permits the authorities to override nearly any part of the Charter by a vote of the legislature. The Ford authorities’s use of these extraordinary powers is a transparent assault on the democratic rights of employees, in response to the OFL. The Ford Conservatives are the first Canadian authorities to make use of the however clause to override constitutionally protected labour rights.
“The labour movement calls on the government to withdraw this legislation, get back to the bargaining table, and negotiate in good faith. Education workers deserve a fair deal, not a contract imposed on them by law,” added Coates.
“The Keeping Students in Class Act is an attack on every union member, every worker, every student, and every parent in this province. If we allow Doug Ford to get away with it, all other workers will face the same threat: contracts imposed by law instead of free collective bargaining. We won’t let it happen. We will defend the right to fight for our schools, good jobs, decent wages, and a better life.”
The OFL will probably be holding an emergency rally on November 1, 2022 at 5:00 p.m. at the Ministry of Labour headquarters, 400 University Ave., Toronto.
The Ontario Federation of Labour represents 54 unions and a million employees in Ontario. For data, go to www.OFL.ca and observe @OFLabour on Facebook and Twitter.
For extra data, please contact:
Melissa Palermo
Director of Communications
Ontario Federation of Labour
[email protected] l 416-894-3456
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