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Precarious Work, Vulnerable Workers and COVID-19
Precarious work is a term used to describe certain types of employment, usually, but not always, non-standard or temporary. It is precarious precisely because it is insecure and unprotected, it pays poorly and unreliably, and provides very limited or no social benefits and statutory entitlements.
People who are dependent on precarious work employment for their income find it extremely challenging to support a household and often need to take two or even three such jobs in their efforts to make ends meet. Such people are justifiably termed, "vulnerable workers".
When laid off, vulnerable workers have no claim to EI benefits.
Many vulnerable workers who were laid off because of the COVID-19 lockdown have not been able to claim the CERB benefit because they are unable to prove how much income they were receiving before the lockdown. Others, who were not laid off, being at the mercy of their employers, are afraid to make health and safety demands such as for personal protective equipment (PPE) and safe, physical distancing conditions in the workplace. If even many regular workers have these fears, how much more so vulnerable workers?
For instance, according to the Toronto Star (16 August 2020), nearly 200 workers employed by FGF Brands, many of them temporary staff earning low wages, contracted COVID-19 at a number of plants in northwest Toronto. One of them died. The public, however, was never notified because Toronto Public Health is not obligated to do that, claiming so-called privacy concerns.
The public needs to know if the virus is quietly spreading in workplaces, so that attention can be focused on assuring that workers are protected with proper PPEs, hygiene, distancing and isolating until they are no longer contagious.
A lack of transparency is bad public policy that is bad for everyone in society, but especially for vulnerable workers and all the vulnerable people with whom they come in contact.
“The working man (and woman), is by nature entitled at a minimum to a wage sufficient to produce the necessities of life, the education of children, and the support of old age.”
- Blessed Frederic Ozanam
References:
THE CHANGING WORKPLACES REVIEW - AN AGENDA FOR WORKPLACE RIGHTS - Final Report, (Chapter 4), Published May 2017 by Ontario Ministry of Labour
https://files.ontario.ca/books/mol_changing_workplace_report_eng_2_0.pdf
Sunday Star Editorial - End the Secrecy on Outbreaks, Toronto Star, 16 August 2020
Minimum Wage Paper-16 fair wage - National Council of the United States Society of St Vincent de Paul
https://www.svdpusa.org/