Decent Work and Health Network

Join #Justice4Workers at the Organizing for Power Assembly this weekend Sept 26-28 to learn from grassroots organizers & advance health equity policies that improve the individual and collective health of Ontarians! @fairwagesnow.bsky.social

Register: www.justice4workers.org/2025_09_26_o...

Minimum wage to increase in 5 provinces in October | Globalnews.ca Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia will see their minimum wage rates increase as of Oct. 1, 2025.

📣Minimum wage in Ontario adjusts to $17.60/hr on Oct 1!

This crucial cost-of-living adjustment was won by a years of advocacy from low-wage workers fighting for basic employment standards.

Join the movement for decent work w/ @fairwagesnow.bsky.social #Justice4Workers globalnews.ca/news/1144694...

Use of temporary foreign workers soars in Canadian health care The number of temporary foreign workers in Canada’s health-care sector has soared over the past two decades, rising by nearly 1,700 per cent between 2000 and 2022, as the country

Statistics Canada data reveals temp foreign workers in healthcare up 1,700% in 20 yrs. Insecure status = exploitation & worse care. As @danyaalraza.com says: bad conditions for workers = bad for patients. Permanent status for all = health for all. #Justice4Workers www.thestar.com/news/canada/...

💔 5 days before her surgery, Ontario cut healthcare for migrants. This put Maria & her baby's life at risk.

@ontariosdoctors.bsky.social is advocating to cover medically necessary care for uninsured patients like Maria 👏

Sign the petition to expand coverage: healthcare4all.ca

Thanks @toronto.ca for hosting a great Undocumented Residents Day event✨Great convos with @ocasi.bsky.social & Health Network for Uninsured Clients on #Healthcare4All + #StatusForAll. Join us Sept 20 at #DrawTheLine rally to demand healthcare for all 👉 www.decentworkandhealth.org/draw_the_lin...

Doug Ford froze minimum wage for years.
He froze wages for female-dominated professions for years.
He’s failed to boost ODSP for years.
He’s made cuts to education.
He’s grossly underfunded public healthcare.

Today, he gives MPPs a 35% raise & turns his back on the rest of us. #onpoli

Ontario doctors don't get paid when they treat uninsured patients. Here's how that might change | CBC News Several times a week, a man comes to the busy ER in Toronto where Dr. Bernard Ho works — and the doctors treat him, despite the fact that they’re not being paid for it. The Ontario Medical Association...

Doctors shouldn't have to choose who "deserves" care. As emergency physician @bernardho.bsky.social said, "This is a health equity issue for Ontario’s most vulnerable."

We need a permanent program that provides #Healthcare4All regardless of immigration status.

www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

Skipping Time Off? You’re Not Alone | The Tyee Two polls find that many Canadians don’t take all of the vacation days they are owed.

New research shows 22% of workers are hoarding time off for emergencies. Over a third of Canadians don’t have paid sick leave. We need 10 paid sick days in Ontario so people can rest, not ration. #PaidSickDays

Read more at thetyee.ca/News/2025/07...

On Tuesday, we joined CUPE 5525 on the picket line at Villa Colombo Homes for the Aged, where workers are entering their 9th week on strike. We know that paid sick days keep both workers & clients safe by reducing the spread of illnesses. #PaidSickDays are good for public health!

WHSC - Low quality jobs linked with increased ‘deaths of despair’ Canadian research suggests rising incidence of suicide, drug poisoning, and alcohol-attributable mortality (SDAM) is in part to due to increasing insecure, precarious work.

⚠️New research from a Canadian study suggests that low quality jobs are linked with increased (suicide, drug poisoning, alcohol-related) “deaths of despair”.

This is why we're advocating for decent wages and fair hours. #Justice4Workers www.whsc.on.ca/What-s-new/N...

Measles cited as possible factor in Southwestern Ontario infant's death A seven-month outbreak of measles has claimed its first life in the London-area

HEARTBREAKING 💔

Ontario must provide effective tools such as #PaidSickDays for workers to stay home if sick, get immunized, and curb the spread of #measles. #OnPoli #Justice4workers

windsorstar.com/news/local-n...

💸 High fines alone don’t work. We need:
✅ Proactive investigations
✅ Real consequences like business licence bans
✅ A system that puts recovering stolen wages first
It’s time to create a culture of compliance, not a free pass for law breaking bosses.
#Justice4Workers #StopWageTheft #DecentWorkNow

We can't expect parents to vaccinate their kids if they don't have the tools to take time off from work.

Paid sick days are associated with higher vaccination rates. Legislating at least 10 #PaidSickDays would help prevent infectious disease outbreaks 🦠
#Justice4Workers #OnPoli

Over 700,000 Missouri workers start earning paid sick days today!

You did it, Missouri! Thanks to voters overwhelmingly passing Prop A, over 700,000 Missouri workers start earning paid sick days today!
#MOLeg #NOonHB567 #PaidSickDays

With measles outbreaks growing in Canada, this mother pleads with parents to vaccinate | CBC News With measles cases on the rise in Canada at rates unseen in almost three decades — and vaccination coverage for childhood vaccines like the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) shot falling since the pand...

✅We know that parents with #PaidSickDays are 20x more likely to keep their sick kids at home.
✅Paid sick days are also associated with higher immunization rates.

Ontario must take the measles outbreak seriously. NOW is exactly the time to curb the spread. #Justice4Workers
www.cbc.ca/news/health/...

LETTER: 'As a healthcare worker, I support income supports for people navigating the tariff crisis' 'Each of these demands is entirely possible. In fact, they have been done before,' Owner & operator of Guelph Community Acupuncture says of healthcare advocacy

MUST READ 📰Guelph health worker calls for expanded income supports:

"I am disturbed by the sharp increase in stress, anxiety, insomnia and related health issues reported by many of my patients since the beginning of the tariff war." #Justice4Workers
www.guelphtoday.com/letters-to-t...

Canadian study links job quality to 'deaths of despair’ Research looks at the connection between precarious work and premature death

🚨NEW study from @iwhresearch.bsky.social found that workers in jobs that are insecure, unstable, and poorly compensated face significantly elevated risks of early death, including great risk of suicide.

➡️ This is why we need #Justice4Workers
www.thesafetymag.com/ca/topics/ps... #OnPoli #CanLab

Paid sick days should be a basic right, not a privilege – The Independent The Liberals mandated 10 paid sick days for just over four per cent or Canadian workers. We need to do a lot better.

The federal government set the standards by introducing 10 #PaidSickDays for almost 1 million federally regulated workers.

But that only covers 4% of workers in Canada —-- it's time for provinces & territories to catch up and legislate paid sick days!

theindependent.ca/commentary/a...

Happy international workers' day!
The labour protections we have came from solidarity and struggle. Whether it's addressing precarious jobs, wage theft, AI, or climate change, there's much more to do to ensure that work is fair and decent for all.

#MayDay www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

Hey Bluesky! NCCDH is excited to join this platform to share our #publichealth resources and activities and to hear about your work and how we can support you.

Give us a follow and invite your networks to keep up to date with NCCDH activities and news.

What’s missing from the #measles vaccine uptake conversation?

Upstream solutions like #PaidSickDays so low-wage parents can take time to vaccinate their kids and care for them when sick.

10 paid sick days = safer schools and healthier communities. #Justice4Workers #OnPoli

Text reads: "At the next IWH Speaker Series presentation...Good jobs, bad jobs, and 'deaths of despair'. Presenter: Faraz Vahid Shahidi. Tuesday, April 22, 11 a.m. to 12 p.m.

APRIL 22: In the next IWH Speaker Series presentation, Dr. Faraz Vahid Shahidi will discuss a study that examines whether #JobQuality—having a “good” or “bad” job—is linked to what some call “deaths of despair”: deaths caused by suicide, drug poisoning and alcohol. Register here: buff.ly/4bcx569

This is a common sense win.

1. Waiting rooms are busy enough as it is

2. Nobody with a cold or flu wants to see their doctor or NP for a sick note

3. Spreading illness in the workplace isn’t good for business

Well done BC 👏
Hope to see this in other provinces / territories soon #cdnhealth

Opinion: Tariffs are already changing Canada’s job market, and workers are paying the price Canada lost 62,000 full-time jobs in March. Excluding the first year of the pandemic, this is the worst March on record for full-time job losses

Income is the #1 determinant of health‼️

Job losses or having work hours cut = less money for food, medications, & rent = high stress & poorer health outcomes among workers.

We need income supports to protect the health of ALL workers. #justice4workers
www.theglobeandmail.com/business/com...

B.C. moves to scrap mandatory doctor’s notes for minor illnesses | Globalnews.ca Doctors have been pushing the province to stop employers from requiring sick notes, a process they say wastes time they could spend treating patients with more urgent needs.

Sick notes put undue burden on both health providers and sick workers.

This is a positive step from British Columbia that will make their legislated employer-paid sick days more accessible to workers. #Justice4Workers #PaidSickDays #CanLab #Health

globalnews.ca/news/1113303...

Arguments on health care that we're not hearing enough of in the Canadian election:

"If we want to seriously address inefficiencies, we need principles-driven innovation, not private-market solutions. Profitability seldom dovetails with the highest public good ..."

#cdnhealth #pharmacare #cdnpoli

Toronto doctor fears tariffs will increase “toxic stress” among patients who are already feeling financial strain Dr. Vanessa Redditt has been working in Toronto as a family physician for ten years. Through pandemic upheaval and now, a turbulent trade war, she’s seen the impacts economic uproar has on the city’s…

🚨“People are already making day-to-day trade-offs because of such extreme financial strain" - Dr. Vanessa Reddit, family physician & DWHN member, says rising rent, food costs, and limited income supports are putting her patients’ health at risk
www.frequencynews.ca/news/toronto...
#justice4workers

Are wage theft rules too soft? How can employers in Ontario continue not to pay their employees? CTV’s Jeff Pickel looks at the legal complications.

⚠️Income is a key determinant of health. Stolen wages means less money for food & housing, and increased mental distress.

W/o strong enforcement of labour laws, workers continue to be pushed into precarity which lead to poor health #justice4workers www.ctvnews.ca/kitchener/vi...

YouTube video by HealthCoalition Jim Stanford and Angella MacEwen on what Trump's tariffs mean for health care in Canada

ICYMI, @cdnhealthcoalition.bsky.social hosted a great session with @jimbostanford.bsky.social & @angella.bsky.social on the trade war, and what it means for Canadian healthcare.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJop...

Health, wealth and no one left behind - Healthy Debate Like the early days of COVID-19, tariffs have the country rallying together and governments promising decisive action to help us weather the storm.

Drawing from the @decentworkhlth.bsky.social, I offered my perspective as a working clinician for @healthydebate.bsky.social.

You can see that here: healthydebate.ca/2025/04/topi...