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Pandemic measures expose work-from-home inequality, says Statistics Canada – CTV News

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Women, along with people with higher earnings and those with more education, are more likely to be able to work from home and therefore less likely to suffer a loss of employment income due to measures to limit the spread of COVID-19, according to a new report.

Canadians who can work from home, much like those in essential services and those whose jobs allow physical distancing, are less likely to have been laid off or have their hours reduced since the pandemic began, Statistics Canada said in a report on employment inequality released Monday.

“The results of this study today suggest that the differential (in) capacity to work from home is likely to reduce work hours more for less educated families and lower income families during the pandemic, which in turn is likely to increase inequality in family earnings and family employment income,” said senior economist Rene Morissette in an interview.

The agency said about 40 per cent of Canadians are in jobs that can be done from home and those jobs will continue to be attractive for their work-life balance options even after the pandemic is over.

The conclusion matches well with labour force survey results from the end of March that showed that the number of people working from home had risen from the typical 12 to 14 per cent in recent years to about 39 per cent, Morissette said.

About 50 per cent of single women have jobs which allow them to work from home, compared with about one third of single men, the report found, while 62 per cent of women in dual-income families hold jobs that can be done from home, compared with 38 per cent for men.

The report finds the feasibility of working from home rises with income. Both partners hold jobs that can be done from home in 54 per cent of the dual-earner families in the top 10 per cent by earnings. The corresponding percentage for dual-earner families who are the bottom 10 per cent is only eight per cent.

Statistics Canada also found that while less than 30 per cent of primary earners with a high school diploma can work from home, roughly two-thirds of their counterparts with at least a bachelor’s degree could do so.

The jobs report from Statistics Canada last week noted that in May, employees who earned less than two-thirds of the median wage of $24 per hour saw a 38.1 per cent drop in employment, disproportionately more than workers who earned more.

Even though there was a rebound in jobs for low-wage workers in May as restrictions eased, they continued as a group to have a higher share of people working less than half their usual hours due to COVID-19. Statistics Canada suggested the result may be because their jobs can’t easily be done from home.

Morissette said his report doesn’t reflect total family income because many people who couldn’t work from home have applied for federal aid.

The most recent federal figures show that the Canada Emergency Response Benefit, which now has a budget of $60 billion, has paid out $43.51 billion in benefits to 8.41 million applicants.

Positive productivity results from people working from home during the pandemic could lead to some businesses permanently shifting to that model for some of their employees, according to a report on Monday from a C.D. Howe Institute working group.

“Employers have generally been reluctant to allow employees to work remotely, and employees may previously have accepted lower pay as part of the negotiation,” it said, noting employers have anticipated lower productivity because of lack of direct supervision and the employee’s attention to caring for others in the home.

“The recent massive shift towards working remotely provides evidence that the productivity concerns of employers, and the organizational challenges, can be overcome.”

The downside of working remotely for employees, however, could include fewer mentoring, training, leadership development and social connection opportunities, the report said.

With a file from Jordan Press in Ottawa.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 8, 2020.

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Port of Montreal employer submits ‘final’ offer to dockworkers, threatens lockout

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MONTREAL – The employers association at the Port of Montreal has issued the dockworkers’ union a “final, comprehensive offer,” threatening to lock out workers at 9 p.m. Sunday if a deal isn’t reached.

The Maritime Employers Association says its new offer includes a three per cent salary increase per year for four years and a 3.5 per cent increase for the two subsequent years. It says the offer would bring the total average compensation package of a longshore worker at the Port of Montreal to more than $200,000 per year at the end of the contract.

“The MEA agrees to this significant compensation increase in view of the availability required from its employees,” it wrote Thursday evening in a news release.

The association added that it is asking longshore workers to provide at least one hour’s notice when they will be absent from a shift — instead of one minute — to help reduce management issues “which have a major effect on daily operations.”

Syndicat des débardeurs du port de Montréal, which represents nearly 1,200 longshore workers, launched a partial unlimited strike on Oct. 31, which has paralyzed two terminals that represent 40 per cent of the port’s total container handling capacity.

A complete strike on overtime, affecting the whole port, began on Oct. 10.

The union has said it will accept the same increases that were granted to its counterparts in Halifax or Vancouver — 20 per cent over four years. It is also concerned with scheduling and work-life balance. Workers have been without a collective agreement since Dec. 31, 2023.

Only essential services and activities unrelated to longshoring will continue at the port after 9 p.m. Sunday in the event of a lockout, the employer said.

The ongoing dispute has had major impacts at Canada’s second-biggest port, which moves some $400 million in goods every day.

On Thursday, Montreal port authority CEO Julie Gascon reiterated her call for federal intervention to end the dispute, which has left all container handling capacity at international terminals at “a standstill.”

“I believe that the best agreements are negotiated at the table,” she said in a news release. “But let’s face it, there are no negotiations, and the government must act by offering both sides a path to true industrial peace.”

Federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon issued a statement Thursday, prior to the lockout notice, in which he criticized the slow pace of talks at the ports in Montreal and British Columbia, where more than 700 unionized port workers have been locked out since Nov. 4.

“Both sets of talks are progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved,” he wrote on the X social media platform.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.

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Sides in B.C. port dispute to meet in bid to end lockout after talk with minister

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VANCOUVER – Employers and the union representing supervisors embroiled in a labour dispute that triggered a lockout at British Columbia‘s ports will attempt to reach a deal when talks restart this weekend.

A spokesman from the office of federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon has confirmed the minister spoke with leaders at both the BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514, but did not invoke any section of the Canadian Labour Code that would force them back to talks.

A statement from the ministry says MacKinnon instead “asked them to return to the negotiation table,” and talks are now scheduled to start on Saturday with the help of federal mediators.

A meeting notice obtained by The Canadian Press shows talks beginning in Vancouver at 5 p.m. and extendable into Sunday and Monday, if necessary.

The lockout at B.C. ports by employers began on Monday after what their association describes as “strike activity” from the union. The result was a paralysis of container cargo traffic at terminals across Canada’s west coast.

In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint against the employers for allegedly bargaining in bad faith, a charge that employers call a “meritless claim.”

The two sides have been without a deal since March 2023, and the employers say its final offer presented last week in the last round of talks remains on the table.

The proposed agreement includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term along with an average lump sum payment of $21,000 per qualified worker.

The union has said one of its key concerns is the advent of port automation in cargo operations, and workers want assurances on staffing levels regardless of what technology is being used at the port.

The disruption is happening while two container terminals are shut down in Montreal in a separate labour dispute.

It leaves container cargo traffic disrupted at Canada’s two biggest ports, Vancouver and Montreal, both operating as major Canadian trade gateways on the Pacific and Atlantic oceans.

This is one of several work disruptions at the Port of Vancouver, where a 13-day strike stopped cargo last year, while labour strife in the rail and grain-handling sectors led to further disruptions earlier this year.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.

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Results expected in B.C. election recounts, confirming if NDP keeps majority

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VANCOUVER – Judicial recounts in British Columbia‘s provincial election should wrap up today, confirming whether Premier David Eby’s New Democrats hang onto their one-seat majority almost three weeks after the vote.

Most attention will be on the closest race of Surrey-Guildford, where the NDP were ahead by a mere 27 votes, a margin narrow enough to trigger a hand recount of more than 19,000 ballots that’s being overseen by a B.C. Supreme Court judge.

Elections BC spokesman Andrew Watson says the recounts are on track to conclude today, but certification won’t happen until next week following an appeal period.

While recounts aren’t uncommon in B.C. elections, result changes because of them are rare, with only one race overturned in the province in at least the past 20 years.

That was when Independent Vicki Huntington went from trailing by two votes in Delta South to winning by 32 in a 2009 judicial recount.

Recounts can be requested after the initial count in an election for a variety of reasons, while judicial recounts are usually triggered after the so-called “final count” when the margin is less than 1/500th of the number of votes cast.

There have already been two full hand recounts this election, in Surrey City Centre and Juan de Fuca-Malahat, and both only resulted in a few votes changing sides.

A partial recount of votes that went through one tabulator in Kelowna Centre saw the margin change by four votes, while a full judicial recount is currently underway in the same riding, narrowly won by the B.C. Conservatives.

The number of votes changing hands in recounts has generally shrunk in B.C. in recent years.

Judicial recounts in West Vancouver-Sea to Sky in 2020 and Coquitlam-Maillardville in 2013 saw margins change by 19 and six votes respectively.

In 2005, there were a record eight recounts after the initial tally, changing margins by an average of 62 votes, while one judicial recount changed the margin in Vancouver-Burrard by seven.

The Election Act says the deadline to appeal results after judicial recounts must be filed with the court within two days after they are declared, but Watson says that due to Remembrance Day on Monday, that period ends at 4 p.m. Tuesday.

When an appeal is filed, it must be heard no later than 10 days after the registrar receives the notice of appeal.

A partial recount is also taking place in Prince George-Mackenzie to tally votes from an uncounted ballot box that contained about 861 votes.

The Prince George recount won’t change the outcome because the B.C. Conservative candidate there won by more than 5,000 votes.

If neither Surrey-Guildford nor Kelowna Centre change hands, the NDP will have 47 seats and the Conservatives 44, while the Greens have two seats in the 93-riding legislature.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.

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