UP–BC

Canada’s broken promises to migrant care workers

Jun 18, 2024

By Alicia Massie, Anita Minh and Jennifer E. Shaw

On June 3, 2024, Immigration Minister Marc Miller announced new migrant care worker pilot programs, which take important steps to address some of the concerns raised by workers and advocates. Unfortunately, Canada has a long track record of broken promises to migrant care workers and it is not clear how the new pilot programs would… View Article

Why BC needs sectoral bargaining now

Apr 4, 2024

By Iglika Ivanova and Veronique Sioufi

Too many BC workers lack meaningful access to the benefits of collective bargaining and the failure of our labour laws to keep up with the evolving nature of work is a key culprit…. View Article

Budget fails to fund enough supports for newcomers to BC

Mar 26, 2024

By Veronique Sioufi

New immigrants, temporary foreign workers and international students are bearing the brunt of the blame for the housing crisis and strain on public services where the provincial budget is failing to keep up with demand…. View Article

New labour legislation to continue gig worker precarity

Feb 1, 2024

By David Fairey and Pamela Charron

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

uber eats delivery person of colour on their bike looking down on their phone

New protections for BC platform workers entrench racism

Dec 13, 2023

By Veronique Sioufi and Iglika Ivanova

In November 2023, the BC Ministry of Labour announced new employment standards that claim to “bring fairness” to the estimated 40,000 ride-hail and food-delivery workers in BC. The move comes after a year of public engagement with platform workers, platform companies and labour experts, which brought to the fore the precarious working conditions of platform… View Article

Raising the bar: Our recommendations for equitable gig work in BC

Nov 2, 2023

By Veronique Sioufi and Iglika Ivanova

Platform companies like Uber, Lyft and Skip the Dishes derive profits at the expense of taxpayers’ contributions and workers’ health and safety. The BC government has a unique opportunity to set high standards for sustainable, responsible platform work and we are pleased to support the government’s deliberations on this issue. Read our 12 recommendations. … View Article

Fires and farmworkers: Climate justice means improving protections for migrant farmworkers

Sep 15, 2023

By Veronique Sioufi

The impacts of the climate crisis are socially and geographically uneven: the wealthiest regions contribute disproportionately to the destruction of the planet while the poorest regions suffer the heaviest consequences. In this context, migrant farmworkers find themselves doubly displaced, facing droughts and inundations in their home countries, then heatwaves, fires and floods where they come… View Article

Here’s how BC should protect app-based workers

Sep 6, 2023

By Iglika Ivanova

The rise of the “gig economy” and on-demand work through digital platforms like Uber and Skip the Dishes has ignited the public debate about precarious work. Despite their high-tech image, digital platform firms employ practices that are familiar from centuries of insecure work, including compensating workers on a per-task basis, offering no guarantee of continuing… View Article

Open letter on regulating platform work from BC experts in labour law, policy and economics

Jun 20, 2023

By CCPA and Centre for Future Work

The following is an open letter released today led by the CCPA–BC and the Centre for Future Work. It is signed by 61 leading experts in labour law, policy and economics (signatories listed below). The letter urges the BC government to implement strong measures to ensure that ride-share and food delivery platforms fulfill the same… View Article

Two workers painting an exterior wall of a building, hanging with harnesses.

New survey data shines light on the extent and impacts of precarious employment in BC

Apr 13, 2023

By Iglika Ivanova and Kendra Strauss

The rise of the “gig economy” and on-demand work through online platforms like Uber and Skip the Dishes has ignited public debate about precarious work and what makes a “good job.” We all know that precarious work existed long before Uber and is not limited to the gig economy. But government efforts to develop an… View Article

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