Student workers protest loss of vacation and holiday pay at two provincial parks

TORONTO – Student workers of the Ontario government will take their fight for vacation and holiday pay to the public again this weekend at the Killarney Provincial Park, and Fort William Historical Park.

Students at Killarney Provincial Park will leaflet cars going into the park.

DATE:                 Thursday, August 6, 2009
TIME:                  12 noon - 2 p.m.
LOCATION:        Main entrance to the park,
                             George Lake access, off Highway 637

Students at Fort William Historical Park will leaflet cars going into the park.

DATE:                  Friday, August 7, 2009
TIME:                   11:30 a.m. - 1:30 p.m.
LOCATION:        Main entrance to the park,
                             1350 King Road, Thunder Bay

Students at various provincial parks have leafleted cars entering their parks in recent weekends.

Students are upset at the government’s decision to no longer pay its 3,400 student employees vacation and holiday pay. This means that students who work statutory holidays - and they are required to in the provincial parks - will receive no extra pay beyond their hourly wage.

The government’s decision to no longer give students 8.16 per cent pay in lieu will cost each student an average of $450 over the course of the summer.

The government isn’t making the payments because it doesn’t have to follow the same labour standards as all other employers in the province. The government’s own law, the Employment Standards Act, exempts the Crown from a number of minimum labour standards, including compensating workers for vacation and statutory holidays.

More than 3,000 students work for the Ontario government each summer at provincial parks, tourist attractions, travel information centres, on ferries and for many other programs.

Many of the government services that Ontarians enjoy in the summer rely largely on student labour.