Section 4 - Protecting Worker's Rights

Lesson 14 - Why Protect Worker's Rights

It is difficult to live in Canada these days without being aware that laws exist to protect workers' rights. We are constantly hearing about employees going on strike, about unions, about injured workers' efforts to receive financial compensation, and about minimum-wage laws. All this begs the question, why do we need laws to govern the workplace at all?

Not too long ago, at least in historical terms, many people did not think we needed laws to govern employment. When the early factories were established during England's Industrial Revolution, no such laws existed except those governing contract law. A worker simply contracted to work for an employer for so much money, and that was it. If the work site proved to be highly dangerous and a worker was killed, the employer simply pointed out that the person had contracted to work under those conditions. If workers were paid wages no one could be expected to live on, employers again simply said they had agreed to work for those wages.

The reality was that usually the workers had no choice. They had to work or starve, and if they did not accept the unsafe conditions or the low pay, somebody else would. There was no employment insurance then for unemployed workers and no social-safety net to catch those who could not get jobs.