Escaping the new labour sweatshop

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by MICHAEL NEIL

If you're reading today's Mirror while hiding from an overbearing boss, or contemplating the dismal prospect of another year without a paid vacation, you'll be interested in a new report published by Au bas de l'échelle, a Montreal-based group that defends non-unionized workers' rights. According to the study, 60 per cent of Quebec's workers are non-unionized, part-time or temporary employees. Their sole recourse to stand up to the Man is a well-worn, 21-year-old Labour Code written long before downsizing and temporary contracts became common currency in places of work throughout the province.

The law, according to Au bas de l'échelle, is hopelessly ill-equipped to deal with the reality of working life for most people in the year 2000. The group--founded in 1975 and funded mainly by Centraide--calls for improved benefits, equal pay for part-timers, the right to refuse overtime, two per cent compensation for any employee fired after one year, easier access to unionization, an increase in the minimum wage from $6.90 to $8.70 as well as beefed-up paid vacations and sick-leave allowances.

But Anne Le Bel of the Conseil du patronat points out that the province's unemployment rate is already two per cent above the national average and argues that such changes would harm Quebec's ability to compete. "Government intervention and more regulations aren't the solution," she says. "We have to make sure we [businesses] are not imprisoned by a legal straitjacket."

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