Documentary looks at the dangers of Temporary and Precarious Work
OTTAWA, Oct 3, 2016 /CNW/ - A Day's Work, an award-winning documentary focused on a temp agency worker killed 20 minutes into his agency-assigned job, is being screened at the University of Ottawa on Thursday, Oct. 6, at 7 p.m. The film will be followed by a discussion with the executive producer, David Desario, a former temporary worker.
The film looks at the explosion of the temp agency industry, with 50,000 such companies in the U.S., more than 12 times the number of Wal-Mart stores nationwide. No longer a clearing house for clerical work, temp agencies supply more workers to industrial sites than to any other sector.
In Ontario since 2000, temporary and precarious work has grown more than twice as fast as permanent full-time work. In a 2015 Ontario Ministry of Labour proactive inspection blitz, 75 per cent of the inspected temp agencies were found to be in violation of labour laws.
The Ontario government is currently reviewing the province's labour laws, and labour and community advocates are calling for sweeping reforms that will better protect workers in precarious and low-wage work and regulate temp agencies to ensure workers' rights are protected.
Discussion in French and English after the screening will compare the situation in Canada with that in the U.S., in terms of the changing nature of work, as well as the differences in health and safety law and who is responsible for keeping workers safe.
This will include a review of the United Steelworkers' campaign to enforce the 2003 changes to the Criminal Code, which are intended to hold corporations, their directors and executives criminally accountable for workplace death and injury. Across Canada, about 1,000 workers are killed annually at work.
Admission is free at the Alumni Auditorium, University of Ottawa (Jock Turcot University Centre, 85 University Private).
Organized by the United Steelworkers, University of Ottawa Department of Criminology and the campaign Fight for $15 and Fairness. Sponsored by Unifor Local 2025, Public Service Alliance of Canada National Capital Region and Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 4600.
A Day' Work trailer: www.tempfilm.com
SOURCE United Steelworkers (USW)
Pat Van Horne, United Steelworkers, 613-859-1763, [email protected]; Karen Cocq, Fight For $15 and Fairness, 647-970-8464, [email protected]; Steven Bittle, University of Ottawa Criminology Department, 613-562-5800, ext. 1561; [email protected]
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