Temp agencies must be investigated
Re Undercover in temp nation, Sept. 9 Reading this story, you’d think it was talking about some sweat shop in a third-world country, not Canada. Where are the health and safety inspectors? Is this what full-time employment looks like in Canada today?
If there isn’t a law against this, there should be. I hope that Mayor John Tory and Premier Kathleen Wynne are reading this story and hanging their heads in shame.
When we read stories like this about foreign countries, we get all upset and urge governments to do something about it. Well, it’s happening right here in our own backyards. What are we going to do about it? Allan Mantel, Victoria Harbour, Ont. Kudos to reporter Sara Mojtehedzadeh for toughing it out for two weeks in the world of the underclass. I find it unimaginable that some workers spend years at it.
This investigative report should be required reading for young people contemplating dropping out of school.
It should also be required reading for all stripes of our political class, to demonstrate what happens when they abdicate their policy and regulatory duties.
It should also be required reading for workers who think trade unions are obsolete and for conscientious union leaders who have given up doing the arduous work of organizing workers.
This temporary work culture is the result of failures by our policy-makers, laziness and abuses by union leaders, and the manu- factured aversion of workers from belonging to a union.
These fly-by-night temporary personnel agencies may reduce the operation costs of unscrupulous employers, but who is to bear the health-care costs from accidents and the societal costs of supporting an underclass of workers? Tony Morra, Mississauga I cannot eat another store-bought pastry, as the very idea makes me wretch in disgust.
Who is going to conduct a proper investigation into the lack of health and safety protections for these poor workers?
Who in government is going to investigate why no taxes have been deducted from employees’ paycheques, legally required by law and remitted to government coffers?
Are we so affluent a society that we don’t need to collect taxes or care that employers follow the law? It’s scandalous! It’s Dickensian! It’s 2017 and we are living in Ontario, Canada! Indera Narain, Toronto