Thousands of Ontarians to Rally for Decent Work October 1 at Queen's Park

TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - Sept. 28, 2016) - The labour movement, alongside community partners, will be mobilizing thousands of Ontarians for the Rally for Decent Work at Queen's Park at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday, October 1.

The Rally for Decent Work coincides with the government's Changing Workplaces Review, which offers options for updating Ontario's long-outdated employment laws. The Rally for Decent Work will call on the government to use its Changing Workplaces Review to address the steep rise in precarious work across Ontario, and adapt our laws to protect workers who are trapped in jobs that are low-wage, part-time, contract, or temporary.

"Right now, the Ontario government has an opportunity to make laws that ensure workplace regulations and protections are available to all Ontario workers. Right now as a province, we are letting far too many people fall through the giant cracks in our employment laws," said OFL President Chris Buckley.

"The government must make changes to the Employment Standards Act and the Labour Standards Act that create fair minimum standards for all workers including raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour", said Buckley.

The laws should leave no worker or workplace exempt from the law, whether unionized or not.

Rally speakers will be workers who are living with precarious employment. They will take on issues that matter to working Ontarians from fair wages to the right to unionize and advocating for a $15 minimum wage.

The Ontario Federation of Labour (OFL) and its partner campaign "The Fight for $15 and Fairness" is inviting Ontarians to bring their friends, family, and communities to participate in The Rally for Decent Work. The Rally for Decent Work will bring together thousands of workers, their families and communities from across Ontario to carry the message that fair employment laws are needed in Ontario.

The OFL's www.MakeItFair.ca campaign takes on issues of inequality in the workforce, and coincides with the province's "Changing Workplaces Review." The campaign gives voice to unions' demands for across-the-board changes to the Employment Standards Act and the Labour Relations Act that would improve standards for every worker and make it easier for them to join a union.

The OFL represents 54 unions and one million workers in Ontario. For information, visit www.OFL.ca and follow @OFLabour on Facebook and Twitter.

Background:

The OFL's submissions to The Changing Workplaces Review identified a number of areas in which changes to government regulations could be changed to raise employment standards for all Ontarians, whether or not they are in a union.

The OFL has identified the steep rise in precarious work (contract, temporary, part-time and low-waged jobs) as a growing problem for Ontarians, many of whom need to cobble together multiple jobs or multiple contracts in order to meet their basic needs.

The OFL submission to the Changing Workplaces Review "Labour. Law. Reform." can be found here.

A full list of speakers will follow on Friday.

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