For International Workers' Day, Pillar Asks, "Is Work Decent Yet?"

LONDON, Ont, May 1 -- On the occasion of International Workers' Day, Pillar distributed through its Policy Alert newsletter a roundup of recent developments in the campaigns for Decent Work issues and the need for a nonprofit labour force development strategy. 

Pillar maintains its own commitment to decent work practices and our call on the network to embrace the principles of decent work by continuing to make improvements to our recruiting and hiring practices, now furnishing shortlisted candidates an interview preparation package and compensating them for time spent in interviews. But Decent Work is more than just isolated improvements to make a workplace more enjoyable. Drawn from the international labour movement, it's a framework that “sums up the aspirations of people in their working lives,” involving opportunities for work that is productive and delivers:

• A fair income, security in the workplace and social protection for all;
• Better prospects for personal development and social integration;
• Freedom for people to express their concerns, organize and participate in the decisions that affect their lives; and
• Equality of opportunity and treatment for all women and men. 

Pillar's Pursuit of Decent Work in the Sector: Advocacy wins, present and future

Despite our disappointment that Pillar's core work for the sector was not funded in the City's Multi-Year Budget, we are celebrating a promise by Mayor Josh Morgan, since repeated at our AGM, that the nonprofit sector will have a critical role in the development of the City's new, over-arching economic development plan. This is a momentous win in Pillar's founding project to grow the sector's capacity to participate meaningfully in cross-sectoral solution-making.

We look forward to bringing forward our understanding of the nonprofit labour ecosystem, including our ongoing work with the Elgin Middlesex Oxford Workforce Planning and Development Board to daylight data from the regional EmployerOne Survey, using trends in nonprofit employment to shine a light on Decent Work issues. This year, we plan to furnish a longitudinal study, building on data from 2022 and 2023 showing that nonprofits are still struggling with attracting, hiring, and retaining workers.

And Pillar continues to advocate for funders and every level of government for improvements to the regulatory and funding environments that support decent work. At the national level, we participate in the Federal Funding Reform Working Group and the Federal Nonprofit Data Coalition, seeking to encourage core funding that supports decent work and data collection that helps establish benchmarks and measure progress.

This year, we are continuing our work toward the refunding and reforming of the Canada Summer Jobs program, virtually the only federal nonprofit workforce development initiative outside of regulated industries. In 2023 we wrote to local MPs and made a submission to HUMA, the Standing Committee on Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities, calling on government to refund and reform the program. Tomorrow, we meet with Marcie Ien, Canada's Minister for Women and Gender Equality and Youth of Canada, to discuss lessons learned from our advocacy and explore what is still possible for this valuable program if it were to support living wage and other Decent Work measures.

Through our budget submissions, we also advocate to both the federal government and provincial government for investment in a nonprofit workforce development strategy that prioritizes Decent Work. 

Provincially we continue to work with staff at the Ministry of Red Tape Reduction to reduce barriers to nonprofit funding that impede Decent Work practices and support the advocacy of the Ontario Nonprofit Network and other regional partners on this file. Of late, we are working with organizations pursuing Community Benefit Agreements as a way to build a more inclusive economy and we are participating in the resurgence of Inclusive Economy London and Region.

We also continue to serve on the Workforce Development Table of the Health and Homelessness Whole of Community System Response, seeking to establish conditions for Decent Work in the hubs implementation plan. We continue to promote this unique and transformational initiative that puts frontline workers and their clients at the centre of program design, building up a system that will support that gives voice to and supports that critical relationship. Relatedly, we recently partnered with the London Middlesex Mental Health and Addiction Strategic Direction Office to launch the most recent report from their Frontline and Leadership Legacy Project.

Thought leadership in 2023 and 2024

"This work is traditionally referred to as “human resources,” but we also seek to de-centre historical notions of people as resources to be capitalized on or extracted from."     ～ Evenings and Weekends Job Posting

We are grateful for an increasing number of voices in the sector providing leadership in Decent Work.

When he was Executive Director of Food Share Network Toronto, Paul Taylor established employment policies that inspired and guided much of Pillar's work in this area, and he continues to be a critical voice for Decent Work across sectors. Now co-founder of Evenings and Weekends Consulting, he continues to centre human aspiration. In a recent job posting, Evenings and Weekends seeks a specialist in 'people practices' and he addresses this and more in his recent appearance on the Imagine Canada podcast, "Why equity, diversity, and inclusion in board governance & decent work practices are non-negotiables with Paul Taylor."

Impact Organizations of Nova Scotia has also emerged as a thought leader, with writing on 'total compensation' in the nonprofit sector that recognizes monetary compensation is only one element in boosting human aspiration and wellness through work. 

See Beyond Decent Work, especially their work on rest and restoration:

• We’ll Get Back to you Monday: Reclaim Friday, Rest, and Repeat,
• Off the Clock? Exploring Our Relationship With Time and Work.
• Resisting a Rest: How Urgency Culture Polices our Work; and, just this past week, they made available a template for
• Creating Space Through Seasonal Work Cycles.

After the Ontario Nonprofit Network identified Decent Work as a policy priority and produced resources like the fillable Decent Work Checklist in 2022 and Eight Pathways to Decent Work in 2023, they have now launched a Labour Force Strategy Project, utilizing a systemic and sector-driven approach to build on ONN's existing work on labour force strategy and decent work to strengthen the ability of Ontario’s nonprofit sector to recruit and retain workers.

United Way Centraide Canada has also joined the work, launching Supporting a Thriving Community Services Sector, encouraging government "to work with the community and social services sector to implement funding practices that respond to rising costs and invest in building the capacity of community service organizations. Investment in the sector should include a recognition of its skilled and dedicated labour force, including through codeveloping a community services labour force strategy." The organization and partners are embarking on work to create a sector labour force strategy and say they "welcome the federal government at the table as we seek to recruit, retain, and expand our pool of skilled labour."

So, is work decent yet, and for whom?

All that data and thought leadership only makes it clearer that the greatest deficits in Decent Work are happening at the margins -- by sector, by sub-sector, and by communities, particularly around intersectional identities under multiple oppressive systems.  Looking both outward and inward, nonprofits need to answer the question, "Decent Work for whom."

Here's a non-exhaustive list of resources to help us shape our advocacy for Decent Work such that inclusion is built right in. If you of other recent resources the network should be considering, reach out through policy@pillarnonprofit.ca.

• Visible minorities have difficulty accessing the labour market. Access to the labour market is essential to visible minorities’ integration. Yet they are disadvantaged in both rates of employment and salary according to a study by CIRANO using publicly available data from StatsCan’s Labour Force Survey and the 2021 census.
• Microaggressions, racism, and workplace conflict: An Interview with Paula Allen from TELUS Health. In its March 2024 podcast episode, CharityVillage Connects explored a Telus Health report that indicated Canadian workers are losing up to 55 working days per year due to workplace conflict, including parts of an interview with Paula Allen, Global Leader, Research and Client Insights at TELUS Health. Read more about how declining mental health scores are contributing to workplace conflict, as well as how racism and microaggressions add to the issue for staff from marginalized communities.
• Over a Third Say Canadian Workplaces Are Only Paying 'Lip Service' to Diversity and Inclusion. ComIT.org commissioned a new survey as part of an ongoing series of research to delve into the state of current workplace biases, challenges, and issues faced by visible minorities. The study found that over half (51.4%) of recent and employed immigrants report to a manager who is less qualified and Caucasian. Moreover, 60.8% of immigrants indicated that they have experienced workplace microaggressions.
• Creating a more inclusive + equitable hiring process. By first recognizing that barriers to equity exist for candidates, and by committing to removing and mitigating these barriers, organizations can take important steps towards being more inclusive. A guide from KCI Search + Talent. See also How Equitable Hiring Practices Can Help Nonprofits Attract Talent in a Challenging Labour Market. Having a social mission doesn’t mean an organization is intentionally and meaningfully incorporating equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) principles into its work. Writing for Imagine Canada, guest bloggers from KCI Search + Talent on equitable hiring practices. 
• Decoding Job Postings: Improving Accessibility for Neurodivergent Job Seekers Report. Neurodivergent adults have lower employment rates than the Canadian average, and neurodivergent adults are more likely to be underemployed. Based on these findings, the Labour Market Information Council, in collaboration with Auticon Canada, developed four recommendations for employers to improve job postings and make them more inclusive of neurodivergent job seekers.
• Championing Neurodiversity in the Nonprofit Workplace. A 2021 post from TechSoup suggesting a few best practices to incorporate into your day-to-day operations at your nonprofit in order to promote belonging.
• Welcome Aboard: How Organizations Create Belonging for New Hires. What's the difference between onboarding and orientation? This and more from the IONS Ideas blog.
• Disability rate rising in Canada, StatsCan. New findings from the 2022 Canadian Survey on Disability (CSD) showed that 27% of Canadians aged 15 years and older, or 8.0 million people, had one or more disabilities that limited them in their daily activities. By comparison, 22% of Canadians, or 6.2 million people, had one or more disabilities in 2017.
• Not done yet: Why so many Londoners keep working past age 65. Buried in the data that go into the monthly snapshot of London's labour force, which tracks its jobless rate, is a notable twist: A record number of Forest City residents are working after 65.
• Secret to remote worker wellbeing is trust, say experts. Employee wellbeing in remote workplaces requires checks and balances along with a culture of trust and support, say non-profit leaders.
• TELUS Mental Health Index: Employees under 40 in Canada the most isolated and lonely. Nearly half of young workers report not having trustworthy relationships at work, leading to poor mental and physical health.
• The Burden of Care: Addressing Challenges in Employment in the Nonprofit Sector. With data from the Survey on Employment and Skills, conducted by the Environics Institute for Survey Research, in partnership with the Future Skills Centre and the Diversity Institute at Toronto Metropolitan University, a unique opportunity to explore the employment situation of nonprofit sector workers, with a random, representative sample of 639 nonprofit workers.
• Battling burnout: CanadaHelps CEO sounds alarm on non-profit ‘wildfires’ Social purpose organizations are starting to offer in-house solutions to combat mental and physical fatigue among their staff. However, they say without government and community support, those solutions won’t go far enough to keep staff ready to help others.
• Are Workplaces Inherently Toxic? Bullying. Harassment. Horrible bosses. How dream jobs turn into nightmares, from The Walrus.
• The new ideal workplace: How flexibility benefits caregivers – and everyone else. Did you know that one in four Canadians, excluding parents, identifies as a caregiver – a figure that is projected to rise to 50% of Canadians in the future? For parents and caregivers to be gainfully employed – and for employers to tap into this underutilized talent pool – a shift is needed to create “ideal workplaces” that normalize caregiver identities and prioritize flexibility. 
• Transgender-inclusive practices need to be implemented in the workplaces. More employers are making basic accommodations for trans people, yet more effort needs to be done to truly create trans-inclusive workplaces.
• The 2024 state of workplace health and wellness in Canada. This year’s edition of the annual report from Dialogue reveals how Canadians really feel about their workplaces and how HR leaders are responding. Spoiler: There's still a critical gap between what employees expect, and the support organizations are providing.

Further Reading and Resources:

• Pillar marks World Day for Decent Work by signing charter and renewing call to the network (October 6, 2023)
• World Day of Decent Work: Pillar Updates (October 7, 2022)
• Pillar Aligns with Decent Work Principles and Calls Our Network to Action (May 10, 2022)

Happy International Workers' Day.

In Solidarity.