The outsourcing of domestic work contributes to the race, class and gender stereotypes of domestic work. It has neither elevated the status nor improved the working conditions of domestic workers.
Statistics Canada reports that more than one million Canadians lost their job in the first month of the coronavirus pandemic, but the official figures don’t reflect the true impact on workers.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang
The difficulty governments have had in meeting the needs of Canadian workers impacted by the coronavirus crisis has exposed holes in our social safety net and the inadequacy of existing labour laws.
Most workers are still employees, not casuals or gig workers. So what has changed to increase the insecurity of workers?
A mother in a low-income family can lose 85-95% of her earnings from working more days to income tax, loss of benefits and childcare costs.
riopatuca/Shutterstock
Miranda Stewart, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University
An 85-95% effective marginal tax rate means the second earner in a low-income family can increase from two days’ work a week to three, four or five days and be better off by only about $4,000 a year.
Flexible working for family reasons should be celebrated.
via shutterstock.com
Removing the stigma around flexible working can also remove some of the unconscious biases that work against mothers.
Governments face disruption by the private sector and social unrest unless they embrace new technology. Here, Prime Minster Justin Trudeau meets a robot in Edmonton last May as others look on.
( THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jason Franson)
Businesses are not considering that roles need to be redesigned to be part-time and this causes problems in managing employees’ workloads and interacting with other employees.
Since 2001, the proportion of full-time workers who believe they will not be with their current employer has been stable at about 7.5%; and the rate for part-time workers has decreased from 15.5 to 12.6%.
Dave Hunt/AAP
By abolishing the 457 visa program the government has targeted a fraction of the problem, leaving the bulk of the temporary migrant labour force unchanged.
Hospitality workers, along with fast food and retail workers, will have Sunday and public holiday rates cut under the decision.
Lukas Coch/AAP