GATINEAU, QC, April 28, 2023 /CNW/ - Today, Minister of Labour, Seamus O'Regan Jr., issued the following statement marking the National Day of Mourning:
No one should ever risk their health or their safety for a paycheque. No one should go to work and never come home.
In 2021, over 1,100 Canadians died on the job. 18 of those people were just 24 years old, or even younger. More than 275,000 were injured.
On the National Day of Mourning, we remember the workers who were killed or injured on the job. We keep working to do better – to build better workplace standards, practices, and cultures.
Next month, the federal government is raising the minimum age for hazardous work from 17 to 18 in all federally regulated private sector workplaces. Earlier this year, we introduced 10 days of paid sick leave for nearly 1 million federally regulated workers across Canada. That's a million workers who no longer need to choose between paying the bills and going to work sick.
This past Monday was the 10th Anniversary of the Rana Plaza collapse in Dhaka, Bangladesh. On April 24th, 2013, an eight-story garment factory crumbled to the ground. Over 1,300 people died, the vast majority of whom were workers on the job. Canada's supply chains reach far and wide, and we have a responsibility to all the workers across it.
Last fall, Canada joined with the US to launch M-POWER - a partnership that supports unions and other labour organizations around the world. We will introduce government legislation next year to help eradicate forced labour from Canadian supply chains, and we will strengthen the import ban on goods produced using forced labour.
We've built in labour conditions to all our trade agreements. Our Indo-Pacific strategy committed $25 million to raise labour standards and build partnerships to advance workers rights in the region, including pilot projects on workplace health and safety standards.
The Labour movement in this country has made Canada the standard bearer on workers' rights. We listen to unions and constantly raise the bar for standards at home. We use the credibility and trust that Canada has built to lift up workers around the world.
Today Canadians remember the workers we have failed in the past, and the responsibility we all have - governments, unions, industry – to keep working together until every worker is safe healthy, and respected.
SOURCE Employment and Social Development Canada
For media enquiries, please contact: Hartley Witten, Press Secretary, Office of the Minister of Labour, Seamus O'Regan Jr., 343-575-1065, [email protected]; Media Relations Office, Employment and Social Development Canada, 819-994-5559, [email protected]
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