Workplace
Protection Laws Need Fundamental Reform: Hampton
Queen’s
Park – NDP leader Howard Hampton says Dalton McGuinty
must immediately reform the Province’s employment standards
legislation to ensure that
workers rights are protected as Ontario’s manufacturing recession
deepens.
“Dalton
McGuinty doesn’t understand that we need a major re-write of our plant
closure laws. Over 200,000
manufacturing jobs have been lost in Ontario under Dalton McGuinty’s
watch and all he can do is tinker around the edges," said Hampton.
Hampton
was responding to reports out of a Liberal Caucus meeting in Kitchener
over the weekend suggesting that McGuinty was considering minor changes
related to the loss of earned severance pay in bankruptcy situations.
Hampton
said that he would be re-introducing his own
2006 Private Member’s Bill that
detailed a comprehensive set
of workplace protection measures such as improved severance, increased
advance notice, as well as measures requiring increased consultation
before a plant closure can take place. Hampton also urged McGuinty to
immediately convene the General Government Committee so that NDP MPP Paul
Miller’s Bill 6 - a bill establishing an Employee Wage Security Program
- could be debated and sent on to the full house for final
approval.
“It’s
a basic issue of fairness”, Hampton said. “In the coming legislative
session, the NDP will be doing everything we can to make sure that workers
are protected and that tougher plant closure laws are enacted without
delay.”
Media Inquiries: Marion Nader (416) 325-2601
