Make It Fair: Retirement Home Workers Deserve Wage Increases

CLAC has launched an awareness campaign and petition to demand that retirement home operators across the province immediately provide their workers with a $3 per hour wage increase.

The state of healthcare in Ontario is at a breaking point. The pandemic has highlighted its weaknesses, but the problems have been long in the making—and show no signs of ceasing.

CLAC members who work in retirement homes across Ontario are at an additional disadvantage. The wage increases that personal support workers have recently received from the provincial government, for example, only apply to those working in long term care. Even worse, many workers in retirement homes aren’t covered by WSIB, leaving them at a further disadvantage if they get sick or injured on the job.

In response, CLAC has launched an awareness campaign and petition to demand that retirement home operators across the province immediately provide their workers with a $3 per hour wage increase.

CLAC is calling on the public to help us highlight the inequalities these workers experience by visiting Make It Fair and signing the petition.

“Our retirement home workers are underpaid, overworked, and tired of hearing ‘no’ from the government and their employers,” says Trish Douma, a CLAC representative and Chatham regional director. “By signing our petition, you will be helping us make meaningful change in the lives of those tireless workers who have put their physical, mental, and emotional health on the line to care for the residents we care about: our mothers, fathers, grandparents, siblings, and friends.”

CLAC will be holding information pickets on behalf of our retirement workers, and we invite the public to come support us. 

Downtown Woodstock (October 6 at 2 p.m.)

Downtown Ingersoll (October 6 at 3:30 p.m.)

Tillsonburg (October 19, time and location TBA)