Perry Work Report, February 6, 2014

February 6, 2014

work&labour  news&research -- follow us on the CIRHR Library Tumblr and on the CIRHR Twitter

Annual Sefton Memorial Lecture 2014

The Centre for Industrial Relations and Human Resources and Woodsworth College are proud to host the annual Sefton Memorial Lecture.  The lecture series is dedicated to the memory of Larry Sefton (1917-1973), whose career in the labour movement began on the picket line in Kirkland Lake in the gold miners' strike during World War II.  He subsequently led the 1946 Stelco strike and later held office in the United Steelworkers of America, eventually becoming the Director of District 6.

Speaker: Jennifer Wells, Feature Writer, The Toronto Star
Lecture title: The Sweated Trades: Why 2014 Looks Like 1914 -- Offshoring, labour standards, and the corporate response to public criticisms of garment factory working conditions

Tuesday, March 18, 2014,  7:00 p.m.
Kruger Hall Commons, Woodsworth College, 119 St. George Street

Register Online

The Sefton Award for Contributions to Labour Relations will be presented to Dr. Linda Briskin.

Morley Gunderson Prize 2014 Recipient

Rajesh Uttamchandani

The Morley Gunderson Prize and Sefton Award for Contributions to Labour Relations are presented at the Sefton Memorial Lecture, normally held in March.

Information about past Sefton lecturers and their presentations is available from the CIRHR Library.

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Reactions to Ontario's New Minimum Wage

"Ontario announced last week that the minimum wage will rise to $11 in June and that it will tie annual increases thereafter to inflation, integrating the key element of predictability that Premier Kathleen Wynne hopes will “depoliticize” the minimum-wage issue.”

"But the issue is unlikely to go away yet, for four reasons:

  • The provincial “solution” locks in the minimum wage’s purchasing power in 2010, the time of the last increase. Inflation adjustment is likely not enough. Future increases of 13 cents an hour or less won’t cover rising housing and transit costs. Cue more agitation.
  • A growing body of evidence shows that raising the minimum wage can be good for employers too (improving productivity + reducing recruitment costs = better bottom line), and has less impact on job loss than we thought.
  • Raising the minimum wage could trigger more business. Improving the purchasing power of those who spend every penny they make could boost the economy, from the bottom up. Remember: Employers don’t create jobs, customers do.
  • 2014 is an election year in Ontario. The Progressive Conservatives’ proposal to make the province Canada’s first to adopt “right-to-work” (-for-less) laws is sure to ignite debate about how to split economic growth between profits and wages.”

The Globe and Mail, February 5, 2014: “Why the minimum wage debate isn’t going to go away,” by Armine Yalnizyan

"With the release of Minimum Wage Advisory Panel’s report, Ontario enters the fray of the minimum wage debate. Where should the rate be set, who should set it and what does the policy aim to accomplish? Experts weigh in on Ontario’s wage floor."

Guests include: Sheila Block, Director of Economic Analysis, The Wellesley Institute, Ted Mallett, Vice-President & Chief Economist, Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB), and Anil Verma, the Director of the Centre for Industrial Relations and Human Resources, University of Toronto, and professor of human resource management at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management.

The Agenda with Steve Paikin, February 4, 2014: “What’s in a Wage?” [video, 30:35 min.]

 

Following the example set by Ontario, “[t]he Quebec government has announced that it will raise the province’s minimum wage by 20 cents -- to $10.35 an hour -- starting May 1 [2014].”

CBC News, February 5, 2014: “Quebec raises minimum wage to $10.35 an hour”

 

"Any increase is welcome... But [Premier Kathleen] Wynne’s decision to boost Ontario’s lowest wage by a modest 75 cents an hour -- and link future increases to the consumer price index (CPI) -- is disappointing."

"Wynne’s [advisory panel] appointments were lobbyists, advocates and academics, not minimum wage workers. They blithely assumed the consumer price index was a ‘transparent, predictable and fair’ escalator for the minimum wage. Had they taken a hard look at the CPI, they would have realized that hundreds of the goods and services in the ‘fixed basket of commodities' Statistics Canada uses to track price movements are irrelevant to people struggling to pay their rent, buy groceries and keep the heat and lights on.”

"As a result of her two decisions -- the initial 75-cent boost and the understated cost of living adjustment -- minimum wage earners will be left 16 per cent below the poverty line, slipping backward every year."

The Toronto Star, February 4, 2014: “Ontario’s minimum wage plan locks many into poverty: Goar,” by Carol Goar

 

"There are legitimate arguments why CPI overstates inflation -- and certainly better measures of inflation should be welcomed. However, there are also many reasons why the CPI understates changes in the cost of living, but these are often ignored by those advocating changes."

The Globe and Mail, September 10, 2012: "Canadians should demand a debate on CPI changes," by Toby Sanger

 

"The importance of keeping inflation high enough is a traditional economic argument at least as old and as strong as that against raising minimum wage. I have explained the argument here and here...”

"[D]isinflation can lead to deflation, which causes economies to seize up and begin to shrink."

"And here is the great opportunity. By gradually raising minimum wage, some small fraction of the six per cent of minimum wage jobs may or may not disappear. But the payoff will be huge, as the whole economy will be saved from disinflation. Poor people spend their money; they don’t use it to bid up assets. But they can bid up prices, starting the slow cycle that leads to increased inflation."

CBC News, January 30, 2014: “Raising minimum wage could rescue the economy: Don Pittis,” by Don Pittis

 

“Ontario’s employers are unhappy with the sharp increase in the province’s minimum wage announced Thursday [January 30, 2014], but some say the idea of indexing future increases to the cost of living will at least help eliminate these kinds of big jumps in the future.”

The Globe and Mail, February 6, 2014: “Ontario employers fret over minimum wage hike,” by Richard Blackwell and Marina Strauss

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How About a Government Paycheque, for Everyone?

"[Last] week, as U.S. President Barack Obama raised the minimum wage for some federal workers and Ontario did the same for everyone, pundits wondered what good the increases would really accomplish -- least of all the working poor. At the same time, debate has been rekindled around another apparent miracle poverty-ending scheme: the guaranteed annual income.”

"Here’s how it works: The government gives people with little or no income a basic living wage, clawing it back as they earn wages on their own. Evidence suggests that this would cut poverty, curb health-care costs and raise high-school graduation rates. Food banks and welfare would become redundant. It has been embraced by proponents on the left and the right, but is mostly shunned by major political parties."

"The concept was famously road-tested in a 1970s experiment in Winnipeg and Dauphin, Man., then mothballed. Why? The Globe and Mail asked University of Manitoba economist Wayne Simpson."

Read the interview here.

The Globe and Mail, February 2, 2014: “How about a government paycheque, for everyone?,” by Barrie McKenna

Canadian Public Policy, January 2011: “The Town with No Poverty: The Health Effects of a Canadian Guaranteed Annual Income Field Experiment,” by Evelyn Forget (24 pages, PDF)

Preventive Medicine, December 2013: “New questions, new data, old interventions: The health effects of a guaranteed annual income,” by Evelyn L. Forget (4 pages, PDF)

 

"The President announced on Tuesday [January 28, 2014] in his State of the Union address, that he will increase the minimum wage for federal contractors to ten dollars and ten cents. He wants, he said, to “give America a raise.” Raising the minimum wage appeals to those who “do not understand economics,” the former Representative Ron Paul argued recently: if you make it costlier for companies to employ each person, you lower the demand for workers and kill jobs."

The New Yorker, January 29, 2014: "Obama, Marx, and the Minimum Wage," by Bernard Avishai

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Tim Hudak's Right-to-Work Plan

"Progressive Conservative leader Tim Hudak’s plan to change Ontario’s labour laws so that union membership and dues are optional is dividing his own party, says McMaster University political science professor Henry Jacek."

"Hudak was recently forced to sack the PC candidate in the Windsor riding of Essex, Dave Brister, after he came out on Twitter against right-to-work."

“Hudak said his plan would make labour laws in the province more flexible and stem the flow of job losses, especially in Ontario’s once robust manufacturing sector.”

"Critics of the plan, however, say that similar changes in the United States have resulted in lower wages for workers."

CBC News, February 6, 2014: “Tim Hudak’s ‘Right To Work’ plan rankles some in PC party: Mac prof”

The Toronto Star, February 6, 2014: “Unease over Tim Hudak’s ‘right-to-work’ policy spreads among Tories,” by Robert Benzie

An Ontario PC Caucus White Paper, June 2012: “Paths to Prosperity: Flexible Labour Markets,” by Tim Hudak

 

"Right-to-work laws, if they were ever enacted in Canada, would operate somewhat differently here. Central to [PC leader Tim] Hudak’s plan is to do away with the Rand Formula, a 1946 ruling by Supreme Court Justice Ivan Rand on a bitter dispute at Ford, which upheld the right of unions to collect dues from non-union members."

"Many labour analysts suggest that as a legal precedent, the Rand Formula has been so widely accepted in Canada it would be a major impediment to adopting American-style right-to-work laws here. But according to David Doorey, a York University professor who specializes in labour and employment law, the Rand Formula is not actually a law. In fact, there are no laws, either federal or provincial, that either authorize or prohibit unions from requiring workers to join a union or pay dues as a condition of employment."

"Instead, most Canadian unions have adopted the Rand Formula through a majority-rule model: If a majority of employees vote in favour of making union dues mandatory in their collective agreement, then it covers everyone. That includes even those who voted against paying dues since, the reasoning goes, they also get the benefits of union protection."

"In Canada, Doorey says legislation that would force unions to provide free services to non-members could possibly violate the right of free association under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. But that would largely depend on how such laws were written. ‘Hudak isn’t telling us what his law will do, so we can only speculate,’ he says. ‘[But] the Charter raises a twist in the debate that does not exist in the U.S.’"

Macleans, January 27, 2014: “Can Tim Hudak sell right-to-work in Ontario?,” by Tamsin McMahon

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Right-To-Work Laws Would Drive Down Ontario Wages: Study

“Right-to-work laws in Ontario would reduce wages and make working life worse for everyone, a new report by North America’s largest construction union says.”

"The group is taking aim at proponents of so-called right-to-work legislation, including Ontario’s Progressive Conservative party and members of the federal Tory caucus who have argued that the laws would create jobs and bolster the economy."

"The union’s report paints another picture. Laws that make union dues optional would reduce wages for unionized and non-unionized workers alike, says the paper released Tuesday by LiUNA Local 183, citing research from U.S. right-to-work states. They would also lead to an increase in workplace injuries and an erosion of pensions and benefits, it adds."

The Huffington Post, January 29, 2014: “Right-To-Work Laws Would Drive Down Ontario Wages: Study,” by Sunny Freeman

Labourers’ International Union of North America Local 183, January 2014: “The Reality of ‘Right to Work’: Putting Middle Class Out of Reach”, by John O’Grady (37 pages, PDF)

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Professional, Scientific Jobs Hit Record High

“Grim news of job losses are overshadowing a bright spot in Canada’s labour market: Employment in professional services has never been higher.”

"The professional, scientific and technical services sector, which tends to pay above-average wages, quietly hit its highest job level on record in December. The sector led the country’s job growth last year, with an increase of 85,500, a notable gain given the economy created the fewest number of monthly jobs since 2009."

"It is now the fourth-largest sector by employment in Canada, with more workers than in construction. This industry includes accountants, engineers, architects, lawyers, research-and-development specialists, surveyors, consultants, graphic designers and marketers."

The Globe and Mail, February 2, 2014: “Professional, scientific jobs hit record high,” by Tavia Grant

C.D. Howe Institute, January 9, 2014: "Tradable Services: Canada’s Overlooked Success Story," by Daniel Schwanen (9 pages, PDF)

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Labour Force Survey Includes Questions on Immigration

“There are other voluntary national surveys that collect data on immigrants, such as the Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS), Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics (SLID) and General Social Survey (GSS). Self-selection bias and small sample size limit their reliability and usefulness. These social surveys make use of the Labour Force Survey’s (LFS) sampling frame, which is updated using the census.”

"This has led to a question some have asked over the years: Why doesn’t the LFS, the country’s flagship survey for labour trends, simply include questions on immigration?"

"Well, it actually does, and has since January, 2006 -- though Statscan’s monthly LFS reports have never mentioned it, limiting the demographic analysis to age and gender. The agency has, however, released occasional immigrant labour force analysis reports, with a view to including immigration in the regular monthly reports “some time this year.”

The Globe and Mail, February 6, 2014: “Statscan takes a (small) step in telling immigrants’ work force story,” by Sam Boshra

Sam Boshra is an independent Montreal-based economist, and editor for EconomicJustice.ca.

Statistics Canada -- The Immigrant Labour Force Analysis Series

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The Globe and Mail's "Your Life at Work Survey"

"Welcome to The Globe and Mail’s Your Work at Life survey, done in conjunction with Howatt HR Consulting.”
"This survey takes a look at four themes that affect your life at work: what causes you stress; what’s the effect of that stress on you and your health; how you cope or don’t cope with that stress; and how does this influence your commitment to your job and your organization."

"The four themes come together in [our] Quality of Work Life (QWL) Risk score. The higher your score on the risk index, the greater your risk for a slew of health-related issues."

Click here to take the Your Life at Work Survey.

Employers can also take the Employer version of the survey to rate their employees’ stress and coping skills, and fill out our Cost of Doing Nothing Calculator to gauge how much it costs them if their employees aren’t working to the best of their abilities.

The Globe and Mail, February 3, 2014: “Survey: How’s your life at work?,” by Gillian Livingston and Bill Howatt

The Globe and Mail, February 3, 2014: “Infographic: See what Your Life at Work score means”

 

But why care about employees’ health? Because it could cost the company, for one thing.

“Most leaders understand that if their staff are not managed effectively it could hurt the company’s bottom line. The issues leaders need to pay attention to can include employee benefits, short- and long-term disability, mental health issues, absenteeism, presenteeism -- where the employee shows up for work but does the job poorly or with no energy or enthusiasm -- conflict, harassment, bullying, and employee retention and engagement.”

The Globe and Mail, February 3, 2014: “Why should a company care about its employees’ health?,” by Gillian Livingston and Bill Howatt

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Do Workplace Wellness Programs Save Employers Money?

"The recently published RAND Wellness Programs Study, which included almost 600,000 employees at seven employers, showed that wellness programs are having little if any immediate effects on the amount employers spend on health care. This has been further confirmed by our new analysis of 10 years of data from a Fortune 100 employer."

"We recommend that employers take three lessons from these findings. First, employers need to be clear about their goals for the wellness program. The RAND Wellness Program Study has shown that lifestyle management can reduce health risks such as smoking, obesity, and lack of physical activity. Our analysis of the Fortune 100 employer’s program also shows that lifestyle management can reduce absenteeism. Thus, if an employer wants to improve employee health or productivity, an evidence-based lifestyle management program can achieve this goal. But employers who are seeking a healthy ROI on their programs should target employees who already have chronic diseases."

Rand Corporation, January 2014: “Do Workplace Wellness Programs Save Employers Money?” (5 pages, PDF)

Rand Corporation, 2013: “Workplace Wellness Programs Study Final Report: Summary,” by Soeren Mattke, Hangsheng Liu, John P. Caloyeras, Christina Y. Huang, Kristin R. Van Busum, Dmitry Khodyakov, and Victoria Shier (20 pages, PDF)

Rand Corporation, 2013: “Workplace Wellness Programs Study Final Report,” by Soeren Mattke, Hangsheng Liu, John P. Caloyeras, Christina Y. Huang, Kristin R. Van Busum, Dmitry Khodyakov, and Victoria Shier (174 pages, PDF)

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College Football Players Seek to Form a Labor Union

“College athletes on Tuesday took a bold step toward gaining more bargaining power in the National Collegiate Athletic Association, by attempting to form a labor union for big-time football and basketball players.”

"Calling the NCAA a ‘dictatorship’ that stamps on athletes’ rights and fails to provide adequate long-term health care or educational assistance, football players at Northwestern University petitioned the Chicago office of the National Labor Relations Board to be recognized as employees."

“The NCAA, whose colleges have recently discussed giving athletes more rights and better health and safety benefits, defended its amateurism principles. In a statement, the association said that athletes are ‘not employees within any definition of the National Labor Relations Act’ and had no right to organize.”

The Chronicle of Higher Education, January 29, 2014: “College Football Players Seek to Form a Labor Union,” by Brad Wolverton

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7 Hand Gestures That Make You Look Like a Real Intellectual

2/7: The Critical Whirl. “I’ve read too much Marx and I can’t get my words out.” - Accelerate and repeat until idea unpacked.

"Alice May Williams and Jasmine Johnson observed “the full complement” of these gestures in the process of earning their MFA at Goldsmiths College in London. In an effort to bring them out of the rarified world of academia and into the lives of ordinary people, the duo created a handy instructional website: The Glossary of Gestures for Critical Discussion.”

"Throughout their courses, Williams and Johnson saw the gestures repeated so frequently that “it became hard not to notice them spreading from academics to students and back again,” they explain -- a sort of vicious cycle of performative thinking. The more they looked, the more they saw. Elaborate, double-handed gestures were typically reserved for the leading academics that visited as part of the program’s lecture series. “The Dialectic” proved to be especially popular with all ranks of thinkers. It’s “an unconscious twitch that says ‘take me seriously,’” say Williams and Johnson."

Wired, January 21, 2014: ”7 Hand Gestures That Make You Look Like a Real Intellectual,” by Kyle Vanhemert

The Glossary of Gestures for Critical Discussion.

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Attitudes about Aging: A Global Perspective

"At a time when the global population of people ages 65 and older is expected to triple to 1.5 billion by mid-century, public opinion on whether the growing number of older people is a problem varies dramatically around the world, according to a Pew Research Center survey."

"Concern peaks in East Asia, where nearly nine-in-ten Japanese, eight-in-ten South Koreans and seven-in-ten Chinese describe aging as a major problem for their country. Europeans also display a relatively high level of concern with aging, with more than half of the public in Germany and Spain saying that it is a major problem. Americans are among the least concerned, with only one-in-four expressing this opinion. These attitudes track the pattern of aging itself around the world.”

Report Materials:

Complete Report (69 pages, PDF)
Topline Questionnaire (3 pages, PDF)
Fact Tank: 10 projections for the global population in 2050
Interactive: Global Population Estimates by Age, 1950-2050

PewResearch, January 30, 2014: “Attitudes about Aging: A Global Perspective”

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Abu Dhabi's High Cost of Culture

"On Saadiyat Island, a few miles from downtown Abu Dhabi’s vertiginous skyline, the workers come from all over the subcontinent and Southeast Asia. Most fly in from Bangladesh, Pakistan, or India; others arrive from Nepal or Sri Lanka -- even as far away as the Philippines. They are mostly young men who have heard stories of high-paying service and construction jobs in the oil-rich United Arab Emirates, where expatriates account for roughly eighty-five per cent of the workforce."

"Jobs in Abu Dhabi are plentiful. But, according to two new reports, they come at a steep price for many foreign workers."

"The percentage of Saadiyat workers who reported paying large illegal fees to job recruiters has risen considerably in the past year, according to a state-funded compliance report made public in December by the consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers.”

"And a three-month-long investigation published jointly, in December, by the Guardian and the Observer, found “evidence of intimidation, strike-breaking, mass riots and an employment system trapping thousands of labourers on poverty pay.”
"Both reports accord with long-running criticism by advocacy groups, like Human Rights Watch and Gulf Labor. The groups claim that recruiters often mislead workers about contractual terms before sending them to Abu Dhabi, where they are put to work on ambitious construction projects for a variety of Western institutions."

“At the very least, though, criticism of those Western organizations that have chosen to expand into the affluent, monarchical Emirates invites a public discussion over the problems of indentured labor and the responsibility of cultural institutions to address them. We are challenged to defend the fantasy we often tell ourselves about such institutions: that their storehouses of human achievement belong to, and represent, all of us. The sentiment is a hard one to shake. It has survived intact from its Enlightenment-era origins all the way to the home page of the Web site for the future Louvre Abu Dhabi, touted as “the first universal museum in the Arab world.”

The New Yorker, January 29, 2014: “Abu Dhabi’s High Cost of Culture,” by Ben Mauk

PricewaterhouseCoopers, December 2013: “Tourism Development &Investment Company (TDIC): Employment Practices Policy (EPP) compliance monitoring report to the Executive Committee” (32 pages, PDF)

 

"Off the coast of Abu Dhabi, a stretch of sand is being turned into a cultural hub of global renown, featuring a new Louvre, Guggenheim and New York University. But the migrant workers creating it are being paid a pittance and living in squalor" -- modern day slavery.

The Guardian/Observer, December 22, 2013: “In Abu Dhabi, they call it Happiness Island. But for the migrant workers, it is a place of misery,” by Glenn Carrick and David Batty

The Guardian: Modern Day Slavery Series

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World Bank Group: New Open Data Tool Helps Countries Compare Progress on Education

"[On January 21, 2014 t]he World Bank Group... launched a new open data tool that provides in-depth, comparative, and easily accessible data on education policies around the world. The Systems Approach for Better Education Results (SABER) web tool helps countries collect and analyze information on their education policies, benchmark themselves against other countries, and prioritize areas for reform, with the goal of ensuring that all children and youth go to school and learn.”

Visit the SABER website for more information and to read the documents and reports.

The World Bank, January 21, 2014: “World Bank Group: New Open Data Tool Helps Countries Compare Progress on Education”

The World Bank, January 21, 2014: “SABER Open Data Tool on Education Policies” [video]

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Book of the Week

The Fissured Workplace: Why Work Became So Bad for So Many and What Can Be Done to Improve It, by David Weil. Cambridge, Massachusetts : Harvard University Press, 2014. 410 p. ISBN 9780674725447.

From the publisher: "For much of the twentieth century, large companies employing many workers formed the bedrock of the U.S. economy. Today, on the list of big business's priorities, sustaining the employer-worker relationship ranks far below building a devoted customer base and delivering value to investors. As David Weil's groundbreaking analysis shows, large corporations have shed their role as direct employers of the people responsible for their products, in favor of outsourcing work to small companies that compete fiercely with one another. The result has been declining wages, eroding benefits, inadequate health and safety conditions, and ever-widening income inequality. From the perspectives of CEOs and investors, fissuring -- splitting off functions that were once managed internally -- has been a phenomenally successful business strategy, allowing companies to become more streamlined and drive down costs. Despite giving up direct control to subcontractors, vendors, and franchises, these large companies have figured out how to maintain quality standards and protect the reputation of the brand. They produce brand-name products and services without the cost of maintaining an expensive workforce. But from the perspective of workers, this lucrative strategy has meant stagnation in wages and benefits and a lower standard of living -- if they are fortunate enough to have a job at all. Weil proposes ways to modernize regulatory policies and laws so that employers can meet their obligations to workers while allowing companies to keep the beneficial aspects of this innovative business strategy."

Click here to view a video of David Well discussing his new book.

Visit the Recent Books at the CIRHR Library blog.

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