Table of contents:
**This toolkit is meant for people working in the care economy, or for community organizations who provide services to care workers. It is legal information, and is not intended to replace legal advice.**
What does this toolkit cover?
Welcome to LEAF’s new resource on improving working conditions for care work, part of our Valuing the Care Economy project. This toolkit is designed to give people who are employed as care workers a primer on their basic employment rights and to provide a list of resources for more in-depth legal support.
This toolkit will cover:
- Workplace Rights in Ontario: this section looks at the Employment Standards Act in Ontario, who it covers, and how to file a claim.
- Workplace Harassment and Discrimination: this section covers the Ontario Human Rights Code in reference to workplace and sexual harassment and discrimination, the right to refuse work due to workplace violence, and special protections for temporary foreign workers.
- Resources: this section provides direct links to information, organizations, and support for care workers navigating legal issues in their workplaces.
Who is this toolkit for?
This toolkit is designed for paid care workers within the Ontario care economy.
The care economy is made up of sectors of both paid and unpaid care work that have historically been — and continue to be — feminized and racialized, and therefore undervalued in our society.
These sectors include:
If you are a paid care worker in one or more of these sectors, this toolkit is for you. We’ve also included information for temporary foreign workers within the care economy.
How to use this toolkit
You may choose to review the toolkit in its entirety, or go straight to a specific issue that’s relevant to you. We’ve structured each page to make it as easy as possible to find the information you’re looking for:
- Choose a topic above and click to get to the corresponding page.
- Each page will include key takeaways highlighting the main content you will learn, navigation to specific issues covered on that page, and links to external resources where applicable. You can click the arrow on the right at any time to return to the table of contents.
- Each page covers information on the outlined topic including answers to common questions, visual aids, and case studies to illustrate the law in practice.
- At the bottom of each page there will be links to return back to this landing page or explore another topic.
Get started
Choose a topic below:
I want to learn more about my workplace rights.
I want to learn more about workplace harassment and discrimination.