A rally was held outside Bay of Quinte MPP Tyler Allsopp’s office on Friday by members of the OPSEU/SEFPO working in community services, upset with the provincial government’s funding of the work, and calling on the government for a wage increase of 6.5% or more.
It was said that ‘For decades, provincial governments have underfunded community and social services.’
“Workers providing these services have constantly been asked to do more with less. Now, many of our services are at a breaking point, with service cuts and layoffs. We are some of the lowest paid workers in the public service. We provide critical community and social services such as social workers, child therapists, addictions counsellors, shelter workers, legal aid staff, and countless other roles,”
“Our wages were suppressed for years by Ford’s now repeated Bill 124, but we didn’t receive the backpay that our counterparts in other public services got. Since then, inflation has risen and many of us have been forced to turn to foodbanks, moonlight in second or even third jobs, and rack up debt to afford to live,”
“Successive governments have gotten away with underfunding our work because we are smaller locals who bargain with individual employers, instead of with the government directly.”
The group has called on the provincial government for ‘A permanent, funded, retroactive wage increase of 6.5% or more to catch up with counterparts who received backpay for the now-repeated Bill 124; and increased funding to prevent layoffs and cuts to services and to protect our services going forward,’ saying people working in these professions deserve to be paid a liveable wage for the critical services they offer in the community.
It was also said that without immediate funding, community support services face the risk of program closures and reduction in the quality of services that communities heavily rely on.
(HAILEY MACDONALD)
