Ontario Federation of Labour
As a Donner fellow this summer, I am working on a policy paper for the Ontario Federation of Labour (OFL). The OFL is the primary voice for Ontario's unionized workers. Through its many affiliated unions, it speaks for more than 700,000 employees. It also provides crucial training and educational services to employees and union representatives, on topics ranging from workers' compensation to political action. Importantly, the OFL's advocacy and service work addresses far more than the concerns of unionized workers: the OFL is also committed to improving the occupational well-being of Ontario's expanding non-unionized workforce. This says nothing of its leadership role in numerous other social justice initiatives.
My project this summer deals with occupational health and safety-based reprisals. Section 50 of Ontario's Occupational Health and Safety Act prohibits employers from taking disciplinary action when workers have sought the enforcement of the Act. Section 50 also sets out a remedial procedure for workers who have experienced a reprisal at the hands of their employer. At the heart of my project is an analysis of how section 50 works differently for various sectors of Ontario's workforce. Generally speaking, non-unionized workers are more vulnerable to reprisal action from their employers than unionized workers. Moreover, non-unionized workers have much more difficulty than non-unionized workers in securing a just remedy following a reprisal.
Almost nothing has been written on this topic. As such, my research has put me on many different paths, some of which I have had to create myself. I have read many Ontario Labour Relations Board decisions on section 50 cases. I have reviewed the scholarly literature - both legal and social science-based - on occupational health and safety, with an eye particularly to enforcement policies and to understandings of the "internal responsibility system" that lies at the heart of Ontario's occupational health and safety legislation. I have consulted old newsletters and submissions from the Toronto Workers' Health and Safety Legal Clinic, and have pored over Ministry of Labour policy and statistics.
Most of all, I have conducted formal interviews. I have met with a lawyer at the Ontario Labour Relations Board, the supervising lawyer at the Toronto Workers' Health and Safety Legal Clinic, and numerous union health and safety directors. Just recently, I have begun interviewing workers who have experienced reprisals. These experiences have been immensely rewarding: not only have I been able to gather novel information, but I have been able to meet many fascinating people, whose commitment to improving the lot of Ontario's workers has been inspiring. Thank you to the Donner Foundation for providing me with this opportunity.
