Employment & labour

Exploitable and deportable by design: Why migrant workers’ housing is harmful to their health

Sep 11, 2024
Canada’s treatment of migrant workers is drawing international scrutiny after UN investigator Tomoya Obokata warned that its Temporary Foreign Worker Program “serves as a breeding ground for contemporary forms of slavery, as it institutionalizes asymmetries of power that favour employers and prevent workers from exercising their rights.” Migrants, activists, and researchers, however, have known for… View Article

Addressing the racism of the Temporary Foreign Worker Program

Sep 2, 2024
There is renewed attention on Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) in the wake of the recent damning report from the UN Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Slavery that calls the program “a breeding ground for contemporary forms of slavery.” Yet, the central critiques and recommendations made in the UN report are being ignored… View Article

Trapped in the wage gap

May 30, 2024
On June 1, BC’s minimum wage is going up to $17.40 per hour. Despite this welcome pay raise for the 240,000 lowest-paid workers in the province, the minimum wage remains over $3 per hour lower than the lowest living wage in BC ($20.64 in Dawson Creek). In BC’s largest cities, Metro Vancouver and Greater Victoria,… View Article

The case for expanding democratic employee ownership in Canada

Apr 29, 2024
Workers lack democratic rights in the corporations and institutions that govern their work lives. As we find ourselves in an era of high inequality the question of ‘why shouldn’t working people be the owners and beneficiaries of the fruits of their labour?’ becomes timely and necessary. Read this research report on what it’d take to make democratic employee ownership a reality in Canada…. View Article

Beyond Recovery: A paradox in COVID-19 pandemic recovery | Panel discussion

Apr 23, 2024
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This year, the CCPA–BC Office, in collaboration with SFU Faculty of Health Science researchers and UNITE HERE Local 40, published ‘A paradox in COVID-19 pandemic recovery: Increased precarity of women hotel workers in British Columbia’. A panel discussion held on April 10 featured the report’s authors and hotel industry workers. They explored the report’s findings,… View Article

New labour legislation to continue gig worker precarity

Feb 1, 2024
Gig work is widely recognized as having all of the characteristics of precarious employment: typically temporary, part-time or casual, low paid, lacking in predictable work hours and job security without health and welfare benefits and protections.  Research into precarious gig work in BC has revealed that app-based ride-hail and food delivery gig workers are predominantly… View Article