More and more of us don’t have full time work

Precarious work is becoming more common. We need some base rules, such as sick days

Are you part of the precariat? Just over half the workers in Hamilton and the GTA are non-card carrying members of this ever-increasing social class so there’s a good chance it includes you, even if you’ve never heard the term.

Precarious and precarity were two words I’d not often heard nor used until I was asked to lead a case study on the neighbourhood impacts of precarious employment in my role at the local Social Planning and Research Council in 2011.

(In fact, even now as I am trying to type ‘precarity’ into this computer, I am being redirected to try ‘precocity’ instead. Is it calling me precocious or does it really not know precarity is a word?)

Since then not only have those two words become part of my day to day work language, there is rarely a discussion on employment in the media without the use of one or t’other.

I like to think it was Wayne Lewchuk from McMaster’s Labour Studies Department and lead researcher on the Precarious Employment Project of Southern Ontario (PEPSO), along with the United Way Toronto, that gave this term its currency.

Until PEPSO, mostly people thought of low income as the key characteristic associated with precarious employment.

In fact, this research found that while low income employment is more likely to be precarious, not all low income employment is precarious.

Precarity can also impact middle and high income earners who may be engaged in nonstandard work, that is, not full-time, continuous work with one employer.

Contract work, no sick days, lack of advanced scheduling, no benefits or pension, and no union can be other features of precarious employment.

So are you part of, “The Precariat: The New Dangerous Class,” as described by British economist Guy Standing in 2014?

If the work in which you are engaged has any of the characteristics identified above, you likely are. And while you may not be dangerous, you definitely are not alone.

Recognizing this new class of employment as here to stay, the government commissioned a review of Ontario’s labour laws, sorely outdated to deal with this new reality, back in 2015.

The “Changing Workplaces Review” is finally coming out of the closet in just a couple of weeks, after International Workers’ Day on May 1st.

The interim report released last summer received a warm welcome from labour leaders like OFL president, Chris Buckley. He was encouraged by the almost 200 options for reform laid out in the framework aimed at creating decent jobs.

One of the recommendations that could make a substantial difference in the lives of Ontario workers is a requirement for employers to offer a minimum number of paid sick days. Currently, 1.6 million workers have no sick days whatsoever so while public health units advertise against going to work when contagious, most people are showing up anyway.

Giving casual and contract workers advance notice of their shift schedules is another welcome change expected in the report.

While these new regulations could make the lives of workers better, another system change that could help was put forward by Standing in his 2014 book on the precariat. As founder of the Basic Income Earth Network, he sees the introduction of an income security floor on which an individual can build based on one’s situation to work or not, as the answer.

Seems like Premier Kathleen Wynne also sees basic income as a solution. Last week a three-year Basic Income Pilot project was announced for Ontario and was received with both excitement and a healthy dose of skepticism.

Hamilton, mixed in with Brantford and Brant, will be one of the sites of this pilot so we can be sure to keep an eye on the unfolding of this important experiment. However, it is only one leg of the stool. A pharmacare plan, like the one outlined by Andrea Horwath and the NDP last week, along with the anticipated changes to our outdated labour laws, will balance out the equation.

With just over a year until the next provincial election it’s time for robust changes in direction to protect the precariat. That’ll get my vote.

The “Changing Workplaces Review” is finally coming out of the closet in just a couple of weeks …