The Workers’ Rights Division at PCLS strives to work from a broader perspective that views the employer-employee relationship as one of power, where the employer has more power than workers and has interests in common with other employers. We believe that when workers organize collectively they are better able to challenge the power of their employer.
Our broad goal is to work to collectivize workers’s struggles against their employers and improve wages, working conditions, including health and safety and human rights. Legal Casework done at PCLS, is completed not solely to be “representatives” – doing all the work for the worker, instead we work with the worker. We share information and tools to fight back. Ultimately, the decisions lie in the hands of the workers. Our Staff Lawyer, John No and Community Legal Worker, Mary Gellatly along with the support of caseworker law students are working to build a movement of workers!
Issues we work on include but are not limited to:
- Basic rights in the workplace, including unpaid wages, minimum wage, pay for overtime, termination pay and other employment rights
- Human rights in the workplace, including discrimination and harassment
- Employment insurance benefits
- Workplace rights for “independent contractors”, temp workers, live-in and live-out caregivers, and workers without status