A former NDP candidate for Bruce Grey Owen Sound says workers need to stand up to ensure workplace reforms pass.
Local resident David McLaren says the equal pay for equal work proposal was severely diluted before Bill 148 passed second reading last week.
The legislation will now permit temp agencies to pay their workers less than what the fulltime workers at a company would make even if they do the same work.
McLaren says Temp agencies have grown by 20% in just the past decade, and have spread all over the province including Owen Sound.
He says unstable employment, low pay, and inadequate health and safety training are some of the dangers of using temp workers instead of hiring full-time employees.
He says that kind of precarious work drives people into debt, poor housing, to food banks, and into hospitals.
He says the business lobby is taking aim now at other aspects of the bill including a higher minimum wage, and emergency time off.
David Mclaren says local workers need the bill to pass.
McLaren says the business Lobby needs to look at the existing research which he says shows a higher minimum wage has no impact on employment or prices.
He adds a $15/hr minimum wage would infuse an extra $40-million into the Grey Bruce area.
