The Cost of Contracting Out
Contracting out puts downward pressure on wages and benefits, and affects workers who are already facing structural barriers to good jobs.
Who pays? The cost of contracting out at Canadian post-secondary institutions looks at the data on wages and benefits for food and custodial service workers in the post-secondary sector and finds that contracting out takes more than $1,000 a month out of workers’ pockets, in addition to costing them pensions, sick days, and other benefits.
The report also considers data on unionization which shows that contracting out is frequently used to undermine workers’ rights to representation through a union and take away wages and benefits that they have earned over time. You can read the full report here.
“A majority of these workers are women, Black or racialized, or immigrants – workers who already face a wage gap and other employment disadvantages. Why are post-secondary institutions, who are supposed to be committed to diversity and equity, okay with imposing this massive cost on equity-seeking workers?”
“It’s essential that we ask ourselves what responsibilities post-secondary institutions have to our communities as recipients of public funding. The only winners here are the multi-national corporations. Workers and our communities end up paying the price.”
Contracting Out at the University of Toronto
In the last three years alone, U of T has contracted out cleaning work to for-profit companies in 27 buildings on the St. George campus. This is in addition to several other buildings across U of T with for-profit cleaning.