It’s time to raise retail in Ontario. That’s the message that Local 1000A President Pearl Sawyer took to the Ministry of Labour this fall as part of the Changing Workplaces Review.
Sawyer led the Local 1000A delegation at the consultations, which examine “how the Labour Relations Act and the Employment Standards Act could be amended to best protect workers while supporting businesses in our changing economy.”
The Ministry has stated that an interim report will be released in early 2016.
“Whether we are at the bargaining table, the shop floor or Queen’s Park, your union is leading the fight to raise retail across Ontario,” said Sawyer. “Political advocacy is the first step in changing our outdated labour laws and helping raise the standards for all workers, union and non-union.” Ontario’s current employment standards regime simply does not address the realities faced by retail workers, Sawyer said.
“As a local union comprised in large part of grocery and retail workers, we have a membership that is very familiar with the challenges of working part-time, and attempting to balance multiple part-time jobs and/or part-time jobs with school,” she said. “While a part-time labour force gives employers flexibility, actually working part-time often comes with the stress of not knowing week to week when, or for how long, one will be working. This causes significant difficulties with planning one’s life, balancing work and school, managing family responsibilities, as well as reliably meeting financial obligations.”
During negotiations with Loblaw Supermarkets Ltd, your union achieved significant gains to help more members working at Great Food and Superstore achieve worker friendly scheduling (from increased work notice to guaranteed hours). For more info on the gains achieved, click here.
“While our members have their union in their corner, many other workers in Ontario have to fend for themselves,” she said. In non-unionized workplaces, employers give no guarantees as to how many hours a part-time employee will receive, give insufficient notice of when shift are scheduled, and make last minute changes to schedules, or cancel shifts either right before they begin, or abbreviate them once the employee has arrived. Even so, employees are expected to show up when scheduled, and often to commit to be available for large portions of the week, with no corresponding guarantee of being scheduled for shifts. Given the competitive nature of the retail sector, without any rules limiting these scheduling practices, employers will be discouraged from committing to any improvements.
To address the issues faced by retail workers, Sawyer said it’s imperative to move away from a one-size-fits-all approach, consider diverse solutions for employees in different situations and stages of life, and work with the understanding that flexibility for employers cannot be limitless.
With this approach in mind, the local union made a number of recommendations at the consultation, including:
1) The creation of a taskforce, which will conduct a review of scheduling in the retail sector.
2) Creation of a minimum notice period for posting of schedules.
3) A minimum ratio of hours allocated to full-time employees.
4) Limitations on availability requirements.
