Lisa CAmeron: Workplace infections have been the primary cause of COVID-19 outbreaks in hard-hit areas across Canada, yet 46 percent of Nova Scotian workers lack guaranteed access to paid sick leave; a benefit proven to help prevent the spread of illnesses and keep the public safe.
After management fired long-term care nurse Tevin Crawford in apparent retaliation for raising health and safety issues, workers at Truro’s Wynn Park Villa are getting close to winning major workplace improvements. Lisa Cameron follows up on an earlier story.
After a Licensed Practical Nurse employed by a nursing home in Truro started raising concerns about working conditions and mentioned unionization he was promptly fired. Lisa Cameron takes a closer look.
“I took every shift I could get, up to 70-hours per week, to make ends meet. With wages that low, this is what you have to do.” Lisa Cameron reports on Justin Trudeau’s 2019 promise of a federal minimum wage of at least $15 and hour, starting in 2020, and rising with inflation. We are in the final days of 2020, and yet Trudeau has taken no steps to honour this commitment.
A group of researchers from Acadia University are studying work and health during COVID-19 through the experiences of grocery and retail workers, long-term care workers, and teachers in Nova Scotia. Although the study is ongoing, the preliminary findings offer insight into the daily struggles of Nova Scotia’s retail and grocery workers, teachers, and long term care workers, as well as the pandemic’s impact on their mental health and stress levels.
After reporting his neighbor for domestic abuse journalist and activist Stephen Wentzell became the victim of a brutal hate crime.
Lisa Cameron reports how a server at a popular Halifax restaurant was fired after she went into quarantine, even though earlier she was told her job would be waiting for her. That is against the law and also infringes on the worker’s human rights, she writes.
The Canada Student Service Grant pays students less than minimum wage and strips them of basic employment protections. Doing this may well be illegal, writes Lisa Cameron, and it’most certainly sends the wrong message about student labour.
“We were short-staffed to begin with. Now it is a disaster,” says a Halifax long term care worker employed at three separate group homes, reflecting on the first COVID-19 wave. “Of course, when someone feels sick, it is important that they stay home. But nobody is there to replace them. The care responsibilities are falling on fewer and fewer of us. Everyone calls us heroes, but we don’t have a choice. This is our job.”
Lisa Cameron:”Waiting for the provincial government to take appropriate action, local housing advocacy groups are promoting a city-wide rental strike starting this Wednesday.”