Wednesday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- Richard Shearmur discusses the risk that employers will use an increase in remote work to extract even more value from workers. And Tara Deschamps reports that the plan may extend beyond offloading costs to outright cutting pay.

- Meanwhile, Inayat Singh reports on the systemic failure of employers and regulators to recognize COVID-19 as a safety issue meriting protection for workers. And PressProgress exposes Ontario's explicit position that employees need to wait for known cases of the coronavirus in their workplace before being able to refuse work.

- David Macdonald calculates how executive bonuses could fund a fair wage for the front-line grocery workers facing the risks of the coronavirus on a daily basis. And Anita Elash examines some of the lessons we can learn from the (however temporary) economic security provided by the CERB.

- The Guardian notes that even the world's fossil fuel giants recognized that their days are numbered - even as they lobby furiously for handouts and regulatory exemptions to do as much damage as possible while they can. John Quiggin charts a path for Australia to quickly end its reliance on coal power. And Emily Gosden discusses the case for large-scale electrification as part of our plan to recover and rebuild from COVID-19.

- Finally, Angella MacEwen highlights how Canada can readily afford the cost of a well-planned recovery - and indeed can't afford to skimp on the effort. And Greg Rosalsky recognizes that reopening businesses alone won't accomplish anything while a public health menace continues to loom, while Patrick Cain reports on the close link between mandatory mask wearing and control over the spread of COVID-19.