Perry Work Report: work&labour news&research, October 24, 2014

October 24, 2014

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Call for Papers: CIRA 2015 & CRIMT 2015

52nd Annual CIRA Congress -- Re-writing the Rules: Advancing employment relations in a hostile climate, May 25 to May 27, 2015, Montreal

“The Canadian Industrial Relations Association (CIRA) 2015 conference will bring together academics, students, policy-makers and labour relations practitioners from across Canada and the world on issues of work, trade unions, human resources and labour relations. The theme of the 2015 CIRA conference is ‘Re-writing the Rules: Advancing employment relations in a hostile climate.’”

For more information on submissions click here. The deadline for the submission of proposals is January 15, 2015.

CRIMT 2015 International Conference -- Institutional Change and Experimentation: Shaping the Future of Work and Employment, May 21 to May 23, 2015, Montreal

“As part of its Major Collaborative Research Initiatives project, the Interuniversity Research Centre on Globalization and Work (CRIMT) will host an international conference on institutional change and experimentation for shaping the future of work and employment.”

For more information on submissions click here. The deadline for the submission of proposals is December 1, 2014.

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Statistical Black Hole Opens Door to Foreign Workers

"There are more than 30 First Nations reserves in northern Saskatchewan, many of which struggle with exceptionally high levels of unemployment. Yet none of the people living on those reserves are reflected in the regional unemployment rate, a key trigger that determines whether employers can apply to bring in temporary foreign workers for low-skill jobs."

"This statistical oddity -- reserves are not and never have been included in the labour-force survey -- skews Canada’s true picture of unemployment and throws into question one of the government reforms meant to encourage employers to hire aboriginals and other Canadians before looking overseas. Despite a clamp down on the temporary foreign worker (TFW) program, the door to foreign workers remains open on First Nations, as illustrated by a Globe investigation that found a cafeteria owner on an Alberta reserve was granted approval to hire foreign workers even though an estimated 70 per cent of residents don’t have a job.”

"Some aboriginal leaders have expressed frustration with the way employers have turned to the TFW program rather than investing in the local work force. Despite the economic boom in Canada’s western provinces, many aboriginal communities continue to suffer unemployment rates much higher than the general population."

"A little less than half of Canada’s First Nations population live on reserves. Labour force survey statistics have never been collected there due to difficulties gathering data, according to StatsCan."

The Globe and Mail, October 20, 2014: “Statistical black hole opens door to foreign workers,” by Joe Friesen and Renata D’Aliesio

The Globe and Mail, October 20, 2014: “Stacking the odds against First Nations families,” by Cindy Blackstock and Ghislain Picard

The StarPhoenix, October 22, 2014: “Rules don't help First Nations”

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'Victims' & 'Villains'? How Bill C-36 Views Sex Workers (and Violates Their Rights)

"Bill C-36 is based on a belief that sex workers are universally victimized, yet many of its provisions will contribute to sex workers’ rights violations."

"The idea that sex work is inherently exploitative is being used to justify criminal laws that deny or ignore sex workers’ right to security of person."

"The criminalization of clients will push sex work further underground and will make it harder for sex workers to screen clients."

"Criminal Laws, like C-36, fail to address social and economic issues, like inequality and poverty. Instead, Bill C-36 treats anyone involved in sex work as though they are a social problem...."

rabble.ca, October 17, 2014: “Bill C-36: No safety or security for sex workers,” by Cheryl Auger

Government of Canada, October 6, 2014: “Bill C-36: The Protection of Communities and Exploited persons act”

Department of Justice, July 2014: “Technical Paper: Bill C-36, Protection of Communities and Exploited Persons Act July 2014”

Pivot Legal Society & Sex Workers United Against Violence, June 2014: “My Work Should Not Cost Me My Life: The Case Against Criminalizing the Purchase of Sex in Canada” (28 pages, PDF)

"...[All] too often sex work is conflated with trafficking, child sex abuse and rape -- and it is these conflations that drive the scrutiny and negative attention we in the industry so often face. In the year 2014, I believe that morality has no place in any discussion on sex work."

"I don’t ask you to like what I do. If you find the exchange of sex for cash abhorrent, okay then. But what I do ask for is to be allowed to do my job in safety and to be treated with dignity and respect."

"The sex workers I know tell me that their career choice generally boils down to economics. But [whose] career choice doesn’t? Certainly abuses abound, and sex workers will be the first to admit that. But what economic system doesn’t come with its fair share of inequality and exploitation?"

The Huffington Post Blog, October 18, 2014: “Is Sex Work Empowering Or Enslaving? 12 Experts Weigh In”

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Canada's Top Entrepreneurial Cities, 2014

Although Alberta dominates the annual rankings of Canada’s top entrepreneurial cities with eight of the top 10 municipal areas in the overall national rankings, a small Ontario city has instead captured the spotlight: Collingwood, Ontario.

"In its first year to qualify, the revitalized city, in cottage country about an hour north of Toronto, has landed in 7th place in the Top 10 small cities in the annual survey ranking the strongest entrepreneurial activity in Canada conducted by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business for the Financial Post.”

"There are different reasons why cities rank higher than others, said Ted Mallett, vice-president and chief economist for the CFIB. One of the key measures falls under the category of presence: that is, the intensity of small business ownership and growth in the community. ‘If there’s a large number of small firms, there must be reason for them to be there. Something spurred their development and growth.’"

"Although one of the smallest communities on the list, he said Collingwood had some of the best presence scores (i.e. number of businesses per capita) in the country and the highest in Ontario."

"Entrepreneurial activity is also being driven by a strong information sector that is enabling inter-community connectivity, he says."

The Financial Post, October 12, 2014: “Collingwood’s debut in top 10 on ranking of business friendly cities is no accident,” by Denise Deveau

Canadian Federation of Independent Business, October 2014: “Canada’s Top Entrepreneurial Cities, 2014,” by Ted Mallett, Simon Gaudreault, and Andreea Bourgeois [click here to download the PDF, 13 pages]

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No Significant Link between Unemployment and Increasing Minimum Wage (CCPA Report)

"Increasing the minimum wage does not result in higher rates of unemployment, according to a study released Tuesday by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives."

"Instead, the report found, employment levels are largely driven by purchasing power in the economy."

“The report urges Canadian policy makers to boost the minimum wage -- up to what’s known as a living wage level -- in a gradual and ongoing way.”

“‘The wage is relevant, but it’s of a second order of magnitude compared to the crucial question for any business, namely, is there a market for what I want to produce and sell?’ [Jim] Stanford [an economist for Unifor who co-conducted the study] said.”

The Toronto Star, October 20, 2014: “Minimum wage hike does not kill jobs: report,” by Madhavi Acharya-Tom Yew

Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, October 2014: “Dispelling Minimum Wage Mythology: The Minimum Wage and the Impact on Jobs in Canada, 1983-2012,” by Jordan Brennan and Jim Stanford (26 pages, PDF)

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Arresting Domestic Violence at Work

"If the now-infamous video of Ray Rice hitting his then-fiancee in a hotel elevator has renewed attention on domestic violence, public outrage over the National Football League’s poor handling of the situation has put the spotlight on how employers respond to such allegations. Yet many organizations have no formal policies to help employees who are the victims of domestic violence or to deal with those who are accused of it."

According to those who work with victims of domestic violence, it’s vital that employers take steps to protect employees from such abuse and deal quickly with those who are accused of it. The best approach, they say, starts with educating employees about the risk factors and warning signs of domestic abuse, establishing clear policies and procedures to deal with both victims and the accused, and reaching out to community agencies for assistance."

"For workplaces looking to establish ... protocols, [Marylin Kanee, director of human rights and health equity for Mount Sinai hospital in Toronto] advises appointing a co-ordinator, and assessing your organization’s capabilities. ‘You don’t want to be scrambling when a situation arises.’"

"A good starting point is to outline your company’s policies and procedures. Then outline practical steps."

"Warning signs that your co-worker is being abused

  • Change in performance, especially acting distracted
  • Unexplained injuries or bruises
  • Clothing inappropriate for the season or heavy makeup
  • Increased absenteeism or lateness
  • Isolation, emotional distress
  • Dropping hints about trouble at home without being explicit
  • Receives high volume of personal phone calls in workplace (or texts and e-mails)
  • Disruptive personal visits to workplace by present or former partner or spouse.”

Resources for getting help with family violence in Canada:

The Globe and Mail, October 21, 2014: “Arresting domestic violence at work,” by Suzanne Bowness

The Huffington Post, October 20, 2014: “‘Domestic violence is, in fact, a business issue’: a former CEO speaks out,” by Jana Kasperkevic

Statistics Canada, May 22, 2012: “Family violence in Canada: A statistical profile, 2010,” by Maire Sinha (107 pages, PDF)

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DNA of Engagement: How Organizations Create and Sustain Highly Engaging Cultures

“Highly engaged workforces can mean the difference between simply surviving and actually winning in a competitive market. But the question remains, how do organizations achieve and sustain higher levels of engagement? Through The Engagement Institute -- a joint effort between The Conference Board, Deloitte Consulting LLP, and Sirota Consulting LLC -- a research team sought to answer this question. The report is the culmination of that effort and uses interviews and profiles of select organizations, a survey, and an annotated bibliography to define the shared characteristics of highly engaging cultures and determine what their organizations do differently.”

The Conference Board of Canada, October 2014: “DNA of Engagement: How Organizations Create and Sustain Highly Engaging Cultures,” by Rebecca L. Ray, Patrick Hyland, David A. Dye, Joe Kaplan, and Adam Pressman [This text is available to the University of Toronto community by creating a Conference Board of Canada e-Library account.]

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Why You Want More Women in Your Boardroom

"Despite the mountain of evidence from reputable organizations worldwide demonstrating the return on investment of promoting women to leadership positions, many companies remain in a time warp, continuing to pay lip service to equality and gender diversity."

"[A] report, released last month, found that only 2.7 per cent of the 6,517 companies in the United States that received venture capital funding between 2011 and 2013 were headed by a woman."

"As adults, we may inadvertently find ourselves defaulting to the girl/boy conditioned responses in the most sophisticated business settings, without understanding that we are acting out roles learned in childhood."

"The persistence of gender biases, whether structural or attitudinal, needs to be addressed for the following reasons:

  1. New generation of talent demands equity and non-discrimination
  2. The female perspective enhances collective intelligence
  3. Second generation biases hinder career opportunities
  4. More women in leadership boosts your bottom line
  5. Governments are mandating gender equity legislation”

The Globe and Mail, October 19, 2014: “Why you want more women in your boardroom,” by Michelle Ray

The Huffington Post, September 30, 2014: “The Venture Capital System ‘Simply Does Not Work For Women,’ Study Finds,” by Jillian Berman

Babson College, September 30, 2014: “Babson Releases New Study on Venture Capital Funding for Women Entrepreneurs” [click here to download the executive summary, 28 pages, PDF]

Babson College -- The Diana Project [website]

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What Happened to Women in Computer Science?

"Modern computer science is dominated by men. But it hasn’t always been this way."

"A lot of computing pioneers -- the people who programmed the first digital computers -- were women. And for decades, the number of women studying computer science was growing faster than the number of men. But in 1984, something changed. The percentage of women in computer science flattened, and then plunged, even as the share of women in other technical and professional fields kept rising."

"In the 1990s, researcher Jane Margolis interviewed hundreds of computer science students at Carnegie Mellon University, which had one of the top programs in the country. She found that families were much more likely to buy computers for boys than for girls -- even when their girls were really interested in computers."

"This was a big deal when those kids got to college. As personal computers became more common, computer science professors increasingly assumed that their students had grown up playing with computers at home."

NPR, October 21, 2014: “When Women Stopped Coding,” by Steve Henn

NPR, October 17, 2014: “Episode 576: When Women Stopped Coding”

"Recent research from the Center for Talent Innovation shows U.S. women working in science, engineering, and tech fields are 45% more likely than their male peers to leave the industry within the year."

"Of those women surveyed, 80% say they love their work, yet many still report barriers to getting to the top."

“As predominantly male fields, it’s no surprise a lingering old boys’ club attitude in the science, engineering, and tech industries isolates women."

"Women surveyed also felt their performance reviews were biased, with 72% of U.S. women sensing gender bias at work in their evaluations."

Fast Company, October 15, 2014: “Why Are Women Leaving Science, Engineering, And Tech Jobs?” by Jane Porter

Center for Talent Innovation, 2014: “Athena Factor 2.0: Accelerating Female Talent in Science, Engineering & Technology,” by Sylvia Ann Hewlett and Laura Sherbin, with Fabiola Dieudonne, Christina Fargnoli, and Catherine Fredman (4 pages, PDF)

"Women make up nearly 50% of the SET [Science, Engineering & Technology] industry across key geographies. Yet, despite high ambition and a love for their work, women across geographies are languishing in the middle-rungs of SET organizations and planning to leave the industry within a year."

Center for Talent Innovation, 2014: “Athena 2.0” [Infographic] (1 pages, PDF)

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National Science Foundation Report on U.S. Knowledge Intensive and High-Technology Industries

"In 2012, knowledge intensive (KI) services industries -- business, finance and information -- produced $3.4 trillion in value-added output, more than one-fifth of the U.S. gross domestic product (GDP), and employed 18 million workers. Data are from a new report released today by the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics."

"In 2011, the average salaries of KI services industries and HT [high-technology] manufacturing industries were more than $20,000 higher than the private-sector average. However, average salaries vary widely among individual commercial KI services and HT manufacturing industries."

National Science Foundation, October 15, 2014: “18 million workers produced more than one-fifth of U.S. gross domestic product in 2012”

National Science Foundation’s National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics, October 2014: “InfoBrief: U.S. Knowledge-Intensive Services Industries Employ 18 Million and Pay High Wages,” by Derek Hill (10 pages, PDF)

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Made in America, Again

"U.S.-based executives at large companies remain bullish on American manufacturing, and their actions are starting to show it, according to new research by The Boston Consulting Group (BCG)."

"The firm’s third annual survey of senior manufacturing executives at companies with sales of $1 billion or more found that the number of respondents who said that their companies are already bringing production back from China to the United States had risen 20 percent -- from roughly 13 percent to 16 percent -- in the past year. The number who said that they would consider returning production in the near future climbed 24 percent -- from about 17 percent to 20 percent."

”’These findings show that not only does interest in repatriating production to the U.S. and creating American jobs remain strong but also that companies are acting on those intentions,’ said Harold L. Sirkin, a BCG senior partner and coauthor of the firm’s series on the shifting economics of global manufacturing, which was launched in 2011.”

The Boston Consulting Group, October 23, 2014: “U.S. Executives Remain Bullish on American Manufacturing, Study Finds”

The Boston Consulting Group, October 21, 2014: “Made in America, Again: Third Annual Survey of U.S.-Based Manufacturing Executives”

bcg perspectives, August 19, 2014: “The Shifting Economics of Global Manufacturing: How Cost Competitiveness Is Changing Worldwide,” by Harold L. Sirkin, Michael Zinser, and Justin Rose

Made in America, Again [website]

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Another Death Knell for the American Middle Class

"While many American families enjoyed rising prosperity in the decades following World War II, those wealth gains have eroded, leaving the middle-class poorer than anytime since the 1940s, according to new research from economists Emmanuel Saez of University of California, Berkeley and Gabriel Zucman of the London School of Economics."

"At the same time, the richest Americans have become richer, putting their share of wealth at the dizzying heights only seen during the era of ‘The Great Gatsby’ and the Gilded Age of the robber barons, the researchers note."

"While economists have focused on income inequality in the United States, Saez and Zucman sought to explore the issue of wealth."

"Their findings mirror the research into the growing income inequality between the richest Americans and the rest of the country."

CBS News, October 22, 2014: “Another death knell for the middle class,” by Aimee Picchi

Washington Center for Equitable Growth, October 20, 2014: “Exploding wealth inequality in the United States,” by Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman [click here to download the PDF version of this report, 7 pages]

Another report from Center for American Progress agrees that income is only one side of the story.

"The cost of being in the middle class -- and of maintaining a middle-class standard of living -- is rising fast too. For fundamental needs such as child care and health care, costs have risen dramatically over the past few decades, taking up larger shares of family budgets. The reality is that the middle class is being squeezed."

Center for American Progress, September 24, 2014: “The Middle-Class Squeeze”

In fact, things seem so dismal that a “large slice of middle-class Americans have all but given up on the retirement they may once have aspired to, new research shows -- and their despair is both heartbreaking and frustrating.”

"Some 22% of workers say they would rather die early than run out of money, according to the Wells Fargo Middle Class Retirement survey."

Money, October 22, 2014: “22% of Workers Would Rather Die Early Than Run Out of Money,” by Dan Kadlec

Wells Fargo, October 22, 2014: “Wells Fargo Survey Finds Saving for Retirement Not Happening for a Third of Middle Class”

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Has Academic Assessment Gone Mad?

"Some of the metrics set to be analysed by Snowball Metrics participants, including the universities of Cambridge and Oxford, might surprise scholars. For example, information is now being gathered, using Google Analytics, on how many times institutions are mentioned not just in the news but also on Facebook and Twitter. This is taken to be a measure of the social impact of research and other activities. Colledge says she was surprised that ‘such traditional, well-established institutions are so keen to look at alternative metrics’, but views it as understandable that universities ‘want to know how far research is going beyond the academic sphere’.”

"To those who are alarmed to learn that their departments are being judged by a new set of criteria, Snowball benchmarking will apply only at an institutional or departmental level. Yet once researchers cotton on to the fact that performing well on these metrics could help their academic careers, they could seize upon another way ‘to promote their own performance and fight for laboratory space or equipment’, Colledge says."

The Times Higher Education, October 23, 2014: “Big Brother in the Academy,” by Jack Grove

"Much like the objective measures used by the website rateyourlecturer.co.uk, Pablum will contain questions about the quality of the presentation, whether it contained too much mathematics or postmodern jargon and the academic’s likeability, as well as a number of ‘fun ratings’ such as hotness, fashion sense and the whiteness of the lecturer’s smile. In cases where a scholar appears on television, we will also use Barb viewing ratings, number of tweets and retweets, or new friends on Facebook as valid indicators of the quality of his or her performance."

The Times Higher Education, February 6, 2014: “Has Academic Assessment gone mad: Has accountability to stakeholders got out of hand? Steven Ward imagines an Orwellian world of over-assessment"

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Shining Light on an Invisible Pool of Human Labor

“As social media connects more people more intimately than ever before, companies have been confronted with the Grandma Problem: Now that grandparents routinely use services like Facebook to connect with their kids and grandkids, they are potentially exposed to the Internet’s panoply of jerks, racists, creeps, criminals, and bullies.”

"So companies like Facebook and Twitter rely on an army of workers employed to soak up the worst of humanity in order to protect the rest of us. And there are legions of them -- a vast, invisible pool of human labor."

"Given that content moderators might very well comprise as much as half the total workforce for social media sites, it’s worth pondering just what the long-term psychological toll of this work can be."

"In Manila, I meet Denise (not her real name), a psychologist who consults for two content-moderation firms in the Philippines. ‘It’s like PTSD,’ she tells me as we sit in her office above one of the city’s perpetually snarled freeways. ‘There is a memory trace in their mind.’... But even with the best counseling, staring into the heart of human darkness exacts a toll.”

“Every day [these workers] see proof of the infinite variety of human depravity. They begin to suspect the worst of people they meet in real life, wondering what secrets their hard drives might hold. ... [Some] become so suspicious that they no longer leave their children with babysitters. They sometimes miss work because they can’t find someone they trust to take care of their kids.”

WIRED, October 23, 2014: “The Laborers Who Keep D*ck Pics and Beheadings Out of Your Facebook Feed,” by Adrian Chen

Western News, March 19, 2014: “Professor uncovers the Internet’s hidden labour force,” by Adela Talbot

The Illusion of Volition [Sarah T. Robert’s blog]

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Book of the Week

Employment Equity in Canada: the Legacy of the Abella Report, edited by Carol Agocs. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2014. 335 p. ISBN 9781442615625 (pbk.)

From the publisher: "In the mid-1980s, the Abella Commission on Equality in Employment and the federal Employment Equity Act made Canada a policy leader in addressing systemic discrimination in the workplace. More than twenty-five years later, Employment Equity in Canada assembles a distinguished group of experts to examine the state of employment equity in Canada today. Examining the evidence of nearly thirty years, the contributors -- both scholars and practitioners of employment policy -- evaluate the history and influence of the Abella Report, the impact of Canada's employment equity legislation on equality in the workplace, and the future of substantive equality in an environment where the Canadian government is increasingly hostile to intervention in the workplace. They compare Canada's legal and policy choices to those of the United States and to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, and examine ways in which the concept of employment equity might be expanded to embrace other vulnerable communities. Their observations will be essential reading for those seeking to understand the past, present, and future of Canadian employment and equity policy."

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