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It appeared to me that I was moving far from primarily writing about politics to now concentrating on labour news. As an outcome, I rebranded again in the spring of 2022 to emphasize this emerging focus. Which's how The Alberta Employee was born. That summer season, I also introduced the, where I speak with members of the working class about their life stories and their individual labour journeys.
Evaluating Proven Education Options in the CityNow, let's get to the reason I am here today: labour rights, employee advocacy, and the current landscape for Alberta's post-secondary workers. I finished from what is now Lethbridge Polytechnic in 2001. I finished their multimedia production programme, and my practicum ended up becoming a full-time job, where I worked for 9 years before being laid off throughout budget plan cuts thanks to frozen operating grants from the provincial federal government at the time.
Evaluating Proven Education Options in the CityAlso, my very first paid speaking gig was at Olds College. After my partner got her master's degree, among the top places to employ her to teach was what was then Red Deer College. Needless to say, I have an unique place in my heart for the colleges and institutes in Alberta.
Since the UCP took power in 2019 under Jason Kenney, they have actually introduced a number of pieces of legislation that have made things more tough for workers. The first change was really presented in their second expense, the so-called Open For Organization Act, which worked in the summer season of 2019. This bill decreased the minimum wage for trainee employees under 18 from $15 an hour to $13 an hour.
They have not changed the adult minimum wage the entire time they have actually been in office, and now it's the lowest minimum wage in the country, for the very first time in over a decade. This is the second longest period given that 1965 that Alberta base pay workers have not seen a wage increase.
Prior to this expense ending up being law, workers might bank their overtime hours at 1.5 times their worked hours. So, if somebody worked 3 hours, they might bank those 3 hours, and then when they wanted to take it as time off, they could take 4.5 hours off instead of 3 hours.
After Bill 2 was passed, employers could offer the banked time as straight time, which motivated them to pay overtime, instead of enable employees to take the extra time off. Costs 2 reduced statutory holiday pay, particularly for part-time and casual employees. Prior to the expense, employees received vacation pay no matter whether they worked the holiday and no matter whether the stat holiday fell on a scheduled workday.
The following year, the UCP government introduced Costs 32, otherwise understood as the Restoring Balance in Alberta's Workplaces Act. This new legislation required unions to now get explicit approval from their members before they could use profits collected from dues for social or political causes. This increased the administrative problems on unions, which meant extra expenses, and it restricted their capability to utilize funds for advocacy for the broader working people.
They more than doubled the accreditation process timeline. Before, workers could hold a certification vote just 10 calendar days after they applied to the Alberta Labour Relations Board for accreditation. Now, they have to wait 20 organization days, generally an entire month. This offers employers more time to unionbust.
Now, they can challenge procedural or technical problems on the certification process itself, such as minor errors in the application, supporting files that were filed improperly, timing of the application, scope of which job titles are consisted of in the proposed bargaining system, and whether the union used so-called browbeating to get support amongst the employees.
Bear in mind that bureaucracy is simply a business-friendly euphemism for deregulation, which is nothing more than the elimination of guidelines. The majority of policies fall into 3 camps: secure employees, secure the general public, and secure the environment. Removing these policies implies increasing risk for workers, increasing danger for the general public, and increasing risk for the environment.
Particular to workers, it weakened workplace safety. Prior to the expense, joint health and wellness committees were compulsory in offices with 20 or more employees and worksite health and wellness agents were needed at worksites with between 5 and 19 workers. Under the new expense, the requirements shifted to being risk-based, being obligatory just in workplaces with higher risk of mishap, injuries, or direct exposure to harmful conditions.
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