Nationwide, the only thing on anyone’s mind has been the effects of Covid-19 and how the virus will impact their employment status. In less than a month, the Canadian economic structure has been entirely turned upside down and employees are left to think, how will this virus affect the way I work? Though the next few months still seem to be unclear, there is no doubt that Covid-19 will leave many unemployed and have the remaining employees in organizations left with drastically changed employee rights.

A recent New York Times article states that for nearly all employees in large organizations, their access to sick leave pay and other employment rights may face compromises due to the current events (Ramsay, 2020). Especially for those workers who are paid based on hourly work, their access to income has come to an abrupt stop. Federal law requires that hourly workers be paid only for the time they work. Salaried workers, managers and executives will usually, but not always, be paid during a business disruption (Ramsey, 2020). For the service and many other interactive industries (such as sport and entertainment), this could result in more than half of their employee base and work functions to come to a halt with no determined end date. As for the many union workers in Canada, as a global pandemic is often unheard of in a collective agreement, the rights they are entitled to have become severely altered, and for some even frozen for the time being (Murphy, 2020). In the employer’s perspective, a survey conducted in mid-February suggests that over 20% of employers are unsure of how they plan to compensate their employees, and exactly how many people may need to be laid off in the upcoming weeks. With no end in sight of this employment freeze, many organizations do not have the budget to support their entire employee base with no work being conducted and nearly no profits being earned.

A survey in Alberta already predicts that with less than a month of the province in a state of emergency, the province’s economy will shrink by 5.5% this year, and the unemployment rate will rise to 9.5% (Bernard, 2020). These number can only expect to rise across Canada, especially as the nationwide lockdown may last for up to 8-10 weeks. For many small business owners, this means the hasty demise of their lifelong businesses. Many of these small business owners have invested 5, 10, or even over more than 20 years into their businesses, living on a tight personal budget and working for many long hours in an attempt to build their careers. In an attempt to help the businesses affected by this, the government has invested billions of dollars in supporting the continuing struggle (Government of Canada, 2020). Efforts such as temporary income to support workers and parents, bursaries, and frozen tax payments are currently in place. Only time will tell how these measures will impact those affected by Covid-19, but as it stands, it appears that Canada and the rest of the world could be entering a record-breaking recession.

Works Cited:

            Bernard, T. (2020, March 01). Working From Home: How Coronavirus Could Affect the Workplace. Retrieved March 28, 2020, from https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/01/business/coronavirus-working-from-home.html

            Government of Canada. (2020, March). Canada’s COVID-19 Economic Response Plan: Support for … Retrieved March 28, 2020, from https://www.canada.ca/en/department-finance/news/2020/03/canadas-covid-19-economic-response-plan-support-for-canadians-and-businesses.html

            Murphy, R. (2020, March 27). Rex Murphy: The financial impact of COVID-19 is enough to … Retrieved March 28, 2020, from https://nationalpost.com/opinion/rex-murphy-the-financial-impact-of-covid-19-is-enough-to-make-canadians-sick-with-worry

            Ramsay, C. (2020, March 28). Alberta unemployment rate to reach 9.5% amid COVID-19 pandemic: Economic outlook. Retrieved March 28, 2020, from https://globalnews.ca/news/6744099/coronavirus-impact-alberta-economy-unemployment/

Doug Ford’s government has recently made cuts to the Ontario education system resulting in larger class sizes, reduced staff and reformed curriculums. As a result, all four Ontario teachers’ unions are currently engaging in some form of job action in protest. As the Teachers Union collective agreement has reached maturity, and a new contract must be negotiated, many teachers and federations have capitalized on this time to strike on the recent changes. Work-to-rule, rotating strikes, and province-wide walkouts are the responsive actions that have been taken by the unions over the past few months. The Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario (ETFO), the union which represents 83,000 elementary school teachers across Ontario, said it would continue its rotating strikes into the second week of February if a deal with the government were not reached. This would include another one-day province-wide strike on February 11th¹. Though many may argue that the core reason of the strike is teachers wanting “higher pay raises and job security”, the excess amount of salary foregone by the strikes in recent months prove that the teachers are genuinely moving for the rights of the students and their education.

City officials still say the primary reason the strike has dragged on is that a team of 45 rank-and-file teachers are holding up negotiations. They say the union’s top leadership, which is elected, has to take each of the offers back to this team for approval before the offers can be voted on by the entire membership². Consequently, many extracurricular programs and offerings have been put on hold and teachers have been asked to assume a work-to-rule position. As teachers have moved into this “work-to-rule” standpoint, they have now only the responsibility to perform the bare minimum requirements of their jobs and will do no further value-adding actives. In a work-to-rule, teachers typically eliminate after-school activities, shutting down sports teams, field trips, clubs, music programs, student councils, and sometimes cancelling graduation ceremonies. Teachers also have refused to add comments on report cards or conduct the province’s standardized tests. For many of the high school systems currently, students will receive no report card at all and will simply be told their final grade directly by the teacher. For students applying to university and colleges, this has created a tremendous amount of challenges.

Moreover, without the supervision and presence of teachers, 24% of the Canadian population (citizens ageing 3-18) would be left without proper arrangements³. To compensate for the absence of school supervision, the government is spending upwards of $48 million a day to compensate for teacher strikes. Sam Hammond, the President of the ETFO, describes these payments as a ‘bribe’ to affected parents. Sam Hammond spoke further on the current issue between the Ontario Government education cuts and the ETFO. He stated that the teaching positions to support special education students, Indigenous students, at-risk students and English language learners would receive half the funding they currently have⁴. Currently, it looks as though the only way the Ontario Government will increase funding is if Teachers Unions and Federations are willing to make cuts in other areas.

Works Cited:

1. The Council of Ministers of Education, Canada. (2018, September 30). Council of Ministers of Education, Canada. Retrieved September 21, 2019, from https://www.cmec.ca/299/Education-in-Canada-An-Overview/index.html
2. CBC News. (2020, January 15). Ontario public elementary school teachers set to begin rotating strikes on Monday Social Sharing. Retrieved February 7, 2020, from https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/etfo-public-teachers-strike-1.5427368
3. Government of Ontario. (2018, December). Education Facts, 2017-2018 (Preliminary). Retrieved February 15, 2020, from http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/educationFacts.html
4. Alphonso, C. (2020, February 5). Head of Ontario teachers union says Ford government bid to alter supply-teacher hiring rule derailed talks. Retrieved February 15, 2020, from https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-head-of-ontario-teachers-union-says-ford-government-bid-to-alter/