TORONTO, Sept. 01, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- How well do you know your rights in the workplace? Take a seven-question quiz from the Ontario Federation of Labour at myrights.ca to find out.

To celebrate Labour Day, the Ontario Federation of Labour is inviting all Ontarians to take an online quiz to find out how much they know about what they are entitled to in the workplace. The quiz outlines a number of the gains made when employment and labour laws in the province were updated last year.

“Most people have a pretty good idea about workplace rights, but the 2017 update to employment and labour law in Ontario included specific and important changes that benefit workers,” said Ontario Federation of Labour President Chris Buckley. “In today’s climate, where the new government has already cut increases to social assistance rates, Ontarians need to know about their new rights so they can be part of our movement to protect them.”

The OFL and community partners the Fight for $15 and Fairness are committed to protecting – and extending – the rights we all won last year. By fighting together, workers have made Ontario the first jurisdiction in Canada to provide paid sick days and job protected emergency leave for all workers. We also won equal pay for full-time, part-time and temporary workers; fairer scheduling rules; and card-based certification that makes it easier for workers in several sectors to join unions.

“Workers across the province won these improvements, but every Ontarian needs to know that big business is pressuring the Conservative government to roll them back,” said Buckley. “Creating this quiz is about making sure all of us know our rights so we can stop Doug Ford and the business lobby from getting their way at Queen’s Park and taking away workers’ rights.”

“We are hearing from workers across Ontario, not only about how the $14 minimum wage has given them some desperately-needed breathing room, but also how they are counting on the $15 minimum wage coming into effect on January 1, 2019,” said Pam Frache, Coordinator of the Fight for $15 and Fairness. “The stories we’re hearing are confirmed by the economic data: workers have more money in their pockets, more choice in the labour market, and more stability in their lives. Whether it’s the equal pay that, where implemented, is closing the equity and gender wage gap, or the paid sick days, millions of workers’ lives are improving. They are counting on the new government to join them in standing up to the big business lobby.”

Myrights.ca  also provides downloadable posters that outline the rights workers have under the Employment Standards Act and the Labour Relations Act, a simple way to email your MPP and ask them to protect workers' rights, and placards that send a message to Doug Ford “Hands off our rights!”

The OFL represents 54 unions and one million workers in Ontario. For information, visit www.OFL.ca and follow @OFLabour on Facebook and Twitter .

For further information contact:

Meagan Perry Director of Communications, Ontario Federation of Labour mperry@ofl.ca l 416-894-3456          

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