Essential Youth Workers During the Pandemic: Student Edition

Are you an essential worker during the COVID-19 Pandemic? Want to know more about how to protect yourself while working?

Student and youth workers fill many of the jobs that have been deemed “essential” during the COVID-19 pandemic. Grocery and convenience store employees, take-out restaurant workers, food couriers and Uber drivers in the gig economy are working on the front-lines, often in low-wage and precarious jobs. Workers in retail establishments have reported that measures by employers to protect employees and customers have been inconsistent. Food couriers, rideshare drivers, and other gig economy workers continue to have limited access to employment protections and benefits. Pandemic pay has been provided to some workers, but is this enough to compensate for the risks of continuing to work?

Join us to hear from legal and labour advocates and learn about the conditions that “essential workers” are facing during the pandemic, and how they can exercise their rights to stay safe while working.

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS:

Genevieve D’Iorio is a licensed paralegal working as a Community Legal Worker for the Workers Health and Safety Legal Clinic. She provides public legal education workshops on Employment Rights and Health and Safety to newcomers, youth and jobseekers across Toronto’s GTA and Ontario.

Angelo DiCaro is the Director of Research with Unifor, Canada’s largest private sector Union, which represents employees in some of Canada’s largest grocery chains and pharmacies. Angelo oversees a variety of research files, including international trade policy as well as sector work in the auto and retail industries. 

Sarom Rho is an organizer at the Migrant Workers Alliance for Change, Canada's largest migrant workers rights coalition fighting for the rights for all non-permanent residents, where she leads the Migrant Students United project. She also organizes with Foodsters United on the Justice for Foodora Couriers campaign, delivery workers in the gig economy seeking to unionize.

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