Toronto immigrant service sector needs healthy workplaces.

"Enthusiasm and commitment will not be sufficient to ensure a strong immigrant- and refugee-serving sector." Despite the enthusiasm, close to half of Toronto's workers in this sector considered leaving the field last year. The report, On the Front Lines: Improving Working Conditions and Ensuring Quality Community Services, is a joint research initiative of the Family Service Association of Toronto and the Community Social Planning Council of Toronto.

Toronto is Canada's major reception and settlement point for newcomers and is expected to continue as such for the next decade.

The report arrives as the federal government, currently led by the Conservatives, considers if it will follow through on the Canada-Ontario Immigration Agreement (negotiated in 2005 with the Liberal led government). The agreement, if implemented, will deliver $920 million in new funding over five years to assist newcomers to Ontario.

The report is focussed on the working conditions, experiences and perspectives in Toronto's immigrant settlement sector. It also looks at organizational practices and social policy responses aimed at improving working conditions and sector capacity. "Agencies must have the resources to provide good working conditions and the commitment to ensure that those resources will be utilized to deliver quality services for newcomer communities and ensure healthy workplaces for sector staff."

Among the findings of the project:

* 65.9% of full-time staff that had worked 52 weeks in the past year;

* full-time staff that had earnings of less than $40,000 (compared to an average employment income of nearly $50,000 in Toronto);

* Of almost 55% of staff reported regularly working overtime, most received time off in lieu of overtime;

* Almost 80% of staff received some form of non-wage benefits (pension, health and dental, et al).

Almost three in five staff agreed that their jobs were "hectic." One in five staff reported being exposed to hostility or conflict with clients. A similar proportion reported being exposed to hostility or conflict with other staff.

Despite a high level of general job satisfaction, almost 44% of participants reported considering leaving their jobs in the past year. Almost three quarters of this group said that they considered leaving to earn a higher salary.

Survey Coordinator and Report Author is Beth Wilson, Community Social Planning Council of Toronto. Survey Outreach and Administrative Support was provided by Community Social Planning Council of Toronto staff and students: Israt Ahmed, Suzanne Appotive, Ermelina Balla, John Campey, Richard DeGaetano, Falguni Desai, Margaret Hau, Mohamed Ismail, Yasmin Khan, Andrea Lyn and Mary Micallef; and Family Service Association of Toronto staff: Rosanne Portelance, Laurel Rothman, United Way of Greater Toronto, Social Research Grants Initiative.

www.socialplanningtoronto.org/