The coronavirus has shown us who our "essential workers" are. Robin Sears asks:
What community, with any pretence of fairness or equity, deems it acceptable to pay its essential workers less than two per cent of the compensation of a senior corporate litigator? Lawyers are useful, often important to have access to, but essential? Rarely.
Private nursing home aides and orderlies are the definition of essential. Always. Many make less than $20 an hour. A senior litigator can charge 50 times that. Not to mention the obscene compensation paid to our top 50 CEOs, none of whom receive less than $10 million a year, enough to hire 250 poorly paid health workers. It is this kind of shocking inequity that the pandemic has thrown a powerful searchlight on.
So far, we have clapped for these people. But that isn't enough:
The top ups for essential workers can be made permanent. The politics of austerity in a post pandemic recovery and rebuilding moment will seem simply brain-dead.
No government can order a trucking firm, or a delivery service, let alone a private nursing home to raise salaries. They could require salary level disclosure, however, where any public funds are concerned. Ontario has a naming and shaming “Sunshine List” for the highest paid public employees. Why not a similar published list, by organization, for all employers who receive any form of funding from any level of government for the other end of the salary scale?
There will always remain the determination of some employers to pay as little as possible, to scramble to the bottom in a search for profit and market share. It has proved painfully difficult for private sector unions to organize the smaller groups of their employees.
Perhaps for the large number of poorly paid workers, or the gig economy precariat, we could use the power of social marketing to apply pressure. The “fair trade” movement has slowly raised standards and compensation for commodities from much poorer nations. They encourage their members to display their certification of membership and compliance. Why not a similarly framed “fair pay” project, where trucks, restaurants, and nursing homes could display large signs saying, “We are proud to be part of the Fair Pay family.” Backed by a social marketing campaign encouraging customers to favour those employers might nudge some to pay closer to decent wages.
The pandemic has exposed the weaknesses in the way we have ordered our lives for the last fifty years. If we're wise, we'll start to re-order things.
Image: iHeartRadio
8 comments:
B C has a 'sunshine' list for provincial employees too. An internet search will find it. I am not convinced that the term 'sunshine' is useful. These lists, in BC, are publicized by people and organizations behind the move to privatize profits and socialize costs.
I take your point, Steve. Ontario's Sunshine List is a constant target of the Fraser Institute.
government cannot dictate wages
but they could tax ceos and business and redistribute
sunshine lists try to shame the shameless ...good luck
Shamelessness is worse than the coronavirus, lungta.
Just raise the dam min. wage. The min. wage is usually done across the board, but we could do it by category. Care aides, set standards for qualifications--resturant workers have to have Food safe, why not care aids having to meet standards. Then set a min. salary for these workers. There also needs to be more inspections of these homes, just like hospitals need to be inspected once a year, so should care homes and these care homes need to have provincially regulated patient to worker ratios.
As to cleaners in other places, the same, don't leave it up to an employer who is trying to get by with min. wage, min. supplies, etc.
If this COVID 19 is going to be with us for a few years or decades cleaning is going to have to take on a whole new meaning. sort of like how they used to clean hospitals back in the day, before the bottom line became the most important thing. Its also a way to keep the economy going. People with decent salaries will spend those salaries in their communities, on food, appliances, etc.
Rules around trucking need to change so the drivers stay health. Grocery store employees are front line workers, they too need have an acceptable wage. Once upon a time the acctually did but then it became a race to the bottom. Now its not a great job, little int he way of full time work, few benefits and left out in the open when its flu season. Now some stores have taken a proactive approach, but it needs to be continued because this virus is not going away. wet markets in asia are open again. we have no cure for this disease and you might want to stop belieiving all the hype on the news. We've had the HIVA/AIDS virus for what, 50 years adn there still is no cure, no vaccine, etc. yes, there is pill which keeps it under control, but really, its still out there. now we have another virus. My take on it is, Its not going away. we're stuck with it and we're going to have to re arrange how we do business and all that money billionaires are making, may have to be dealt with . Bezos and his amazon company, really how many buillions does the boy need before he feels adequate? his workers have miserable working conditions and not much in the way of protection. if they want to organize, the get fired. Perhaps it time labour laws were strengthened and some of these billion dollar corpoations are taxes adn no more off shore hiding of profits, etc. You do business in this country, you get taxed in this country.
You can try shaming employers, but have a look at the u.s.a. many employers dont care. As long as some corporations/employers make money they don't care how many wokers die. look no further than the amerian slaughter houses. they're open, 600 in one have COVID. We need laws in this country to ensure workers don't die. We also need to make it easier for workers to unionize and for the WCB to have some real teeth. nOt some fine, send the employers to jail for 6 months. fines are simply the cost of doing business 6 months in jail might change the attitudes of some of those ceos.
We used to have basic employment standards legislation, e.a.f. But the neoliberal juggernaut got rid of those laws.
We have a nurse as a nearby neighbour.
Along with her GB husband they held a birthday party for a total of at least nine persons.
Three stayed overnight!!
Is the message getting out?
NO.
TB
Stupidity has gone viral, TB. It's worse than COVID-19.
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