Part Time Work not attributable to failing economy

**My letter, following, appeared as the "lead" letter to the editor in the Star on April 15, 2009. The same letter was submitted to all newspapers across the country



Toronto Star,
Letter To The Editor**


The Headline of Friday, April 10’s Toronto Star blares “Failing economy creates a nation of part-timers.” This headline and feature story is both misleading and ill-informed.

In point of fact, those full time jobs redefined as part-time will never come back even with an economic turnaround without government action.

The nature of work in Canada is changing. The incidence of part-time work has been a growing trend even in boom times and has been adapted by even the largest employers like Microsoft, IBM, and General Motors, not to mention employers like McDonalds, grocery chains, and retailers and is endemic in professions like nursing and university teaching. Recent Stats-Can figures, compiled before the present downslide, identifies 23% of the Nation’s (and Ontario’s) workers as part-time, contract, or casual non-permanent employees.

This short-sighted employer greed to enhance their bottom lines on the backs of workers, and lack of social consciousness, has produced two classes of workers--permanent employees with their benefits packages and those classified as part-time, contract, or casual employees who may be working side by side with their full time peers doing exactly the same work but with different compensation packages. This, in itself, is discriminatory and the different treatments would not at all be allowed if the differences were defined as racial, religious, or gender. In fact, this “classification” discrimination has led to giant compensatory settlements in America.

An equally serious national problem, though, is the heightened insecurity of part time, contract, and casual work which effectively blocks 23% of the workforce from the purchase of "big ticket" items thus reducing this 23% of the workforce from consumption beyond their basic needs, thereby hurting the national economy.

In the past, when governments found serious and unfair inequities in the workplace, they introduced "equal opportunity" and "pay equity" legislation to correct the inequities. It is time for governments to act once again to correct this problem to stem the changing nature of work in Canada before all employment becomes part time, casual, or contract employment with its resulting devastating impact on the Canadian economy.



Bill Longworth,
www.fairjobs.ca

THE PROBLEM...as communicated to Liberal Leadership

PLEASE NOTE THAT SIMILAR EXPLANATORY LETTERS WERE SENT TO ALL PARLIAMENTARY LEADERS, ALL LARGE CANADIAN UNION LEADERSHIP, AND ALL MAJOR NEWSPAPERS/MEDIA BROADCASTERS IN THE COUNTRY...IN THE INTERESTS OF AVOIDING DUPLICATIONS IN INFORMATION FOR READERS OF THIS BLOG, I HAVE NOT INCLUDED SIMILAR LETTERS SENT WITH THIS MAILING



The Right Honorable Stephane Dion,
Leader of the Liberal Party of Canada,
Office of Leader of the Loyal Opposition,
House of Commons,
Ottawa, Ontario

cc: Liberal Leadership Candidates

Dear Sir:

Re: A Suggested Liberal Platform area to address a serious workplace inequity and put a concrete face on your “Liberal Pillar” of Social Justice and Equality

Let me congratulate you on your recent victory as the new leader of the Liberal Party of Canada.

I was the Federal Progressive Conservative Candidate in the Oshawa by-election of 1990 but feel that party has now abandoned me with its move to the extreme right. I believe that your platform on social justice, environmental sustainability, and the economy as well as your views on Canadian Nationalism will resonate with Canadians and thus I believe your party should form the next Government of Canada.

In the interests of “Social Justice”, I want to bring to your attention a serious workplace inequity that has arisen in Canada over the last number of years which is a form of discrimination as defined under the Canadian Human Rights Act and an infringement of worker rights as defined under the Canadian Employment Standards Act, 2000.

In the past, governments have taken measures to eliminate workplace inequities. Witness “Pay Equity” and “Equal Opportunity” Legislation which corrected serious workplace inequities. Now is the time to address the growing workplace inequity of Part Time and Contract Employment (Permatemps).

Employers, including governments, are increasingly hiring workers on a contract or part time basis to save money on benefits packages. The benefits of this practice to industry have undermined the security of the Canadian work force and in the long run will jeopardize the growth of the Canadian Economy. Without permanence in employment, how can Canadians assume long term debt such as mortgage and automobile or appliance payments? This kind of employment also deprives a growing percentage of workers benefits such as health and drug plans, disability plans, sick leave plans, child care benefits and company pension plans. It seems that we have two classes of workers--those lucky enough to be on permanent employment and thus earning benefits, and that increasing class of worker who is on contract or part time work who is devoid of benefits.

I am aware, for example, of Ontario workers who are getting 40 hours of steady and regular weekly employment but who are still classified temporary/part time without benefits after 10 years of employment, and despite the perception of a nursing shortage in Ontario, a minority of Ontario nurses have full time positions, most fitting in a number of part time “non-benefit” positions to provide a full work week.

Under the Canadian Employment Standards Act, workers doing similar work are required to earn equal pay which would include benefits and under The Canadian Human Rights Act, it is illegal to discriminate against any class of employee. Rights guaranteed by both of these pieces of legislation are being eroded by the growing part time/contract hiring practice in the Canadian work environment.

I urge the Liberal Party of Canada to develop a legislative framework for a ”Fairness and Ethics in Employment Practices Commission” which would become a formal part of their program in the next Federal Election.

Such a Commission would have authority to

a) Revert long-term part time workers to full time workers,

b) Insure that an ethical percentage of a company’s work force is indeed classified permanent,

c) Insure that part time workers could not be discharged because they were approaching full time status,

d) Insure that government hiring set a model of permanence for private business to duplicate,

e) insure that contract workers were formally offered positions as permanent employees once they had successfully served a stated tenure and insure that they could not be released because they were reaching that period of permanence,

f) Monitor part time/contract employees for all employers over a stated size (say 200 employees) and insure that the proportion of non-permanent employees continued to shrink.

g) Insure that all part time and contract workers in Canada were provided benefits equivalent to those offered their full time employees.

I believe that the above policy initiative areas would resonate with Canadians both as socially responsible to improve our "Canadian Way of Life" and to make a positive growth impact on the Canadian Economy.

Sincerely,

William Longworth,
Contact details removed


December 6, 2006