Perry Work Report: work&labour news&research, January 9, 2015

January 9, 2015

Announcements:

Stephen Jarislowsky Chair in Economic and Cultural Transformation at Memorial University

Congratulations to Tony Fang (PhD CIRHR) on his new position as the Stephen Jarislowsky Chair in Economic and Cultural Transformation at Memorial University, January 1, 2015. The Chair, supported by the Stephen Jarislowsky Foundation, focuses on research in the areas of global and local cultures, immigration, diasporas, demographic change, cultural change and strategies for immigrant retention and integration Tony will be hiring postdoctoral fellows, organizing conferences and workshops, and establishing a Global Migration Research Institute at Memorial University.

Nominations for the Employee Participation and Ownership Award

The Foundation for Enterprise Development and collaborators are pleased to announce the annual award program for promising research by emerging scholars in the domain of broad-based employee participation and ownership. The purpose of the award program is to identify innovative research in management or management-related disciplines that considers high-impact ideas in the context of business and society’s needs for employee empowerment, participative workforces, and wealth creation through broad-based equity and profit-sharing mechanisms. Research that has broad implications for practice and/or policy, and that addresses pressing economic and/or social problems are especially appropriate for this award. Nominations must be received by February 1, 2015. Look for the ‘Nominate’ button on this page.

Five Reasons to Hire an MIRHR Student This Summer

  1. Gain access to the top talent in Industrial Relations and Human Resources -- MIRHR students are carefully selected, highly motivated, and will bring a positive attitude towards working and learning into your organization.
  2. Get help with your special projects or other short-term requirements.
  3. Evaluate potential new employees - our graduates are highly sought after and many employers return annually to recruit new graduates. Gain a competitive advantage: recruit once, hire twice.
  4. Energize your human resources or labour relations teams by hiring a student who will bring energy, enthusiasm, and a fresh perspective.
  5. Promote your organization as one that is committed to developing Industrial Relations and Human Resources professionals.

We invite you to contact Carol Canzano-Hamala at the Centre for Industrial Relations and Human Resources.  She will be able to assist you with the entire recruiting process and can answer any questions you may have about the 2015 summer work term or its participants.  Carol can be reached by telephone at (416) 978-0551 or via email at c.canzano@utoronto.ca

 

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Year in Canadian Labour: Ten Important Stories in 2014

“‘Tis the season for year-end countdowns, and rabble.ca’s Labour Beat Reporter is not immune to roundup frenzy!”

So, in no particular order, here is the Year in Canadian labour:”

  • At the federal level, the zombie-like Bill C-377, rose from the grave.
  • This past week, Bill C-525 was rammed through the Senate, despite errors in wording that some members of the upper house worry could lead to legal issues.
  • In Nova Scotia, health-care workers went head to head with the provincial Liberals on three separate occasions.
  • Quebec erupted with anti-austerity protests.
  • In B.C., teachers went on strike.
  • Let’s call it ‘The Year of the Long Strike’
  • After 17 months, 350 locked-out workers at the IKEA store in Richmond B.C. finally returned to work.
  • Pensions plans were hit across the country.
  • Anti-sex work legislation increased risk in the world’s oldest profession.
  • Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker Program mired in scandal with some troubling consequences for workers.
  • Changing of the Guard at the Canadian Labour Congress.

rabble.ca, December 24, 2014: “Year in Canadian labour: Ten important stories in 2014,” by Ella Bedard

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CEO Pay in Canada Has Returned to Its Glory Days

"Canada’s top-paid CEOs saw their compensation climb at double the rate of the average Canadian between the depths of the recession and 2013, a new study has found."

"The country’s 100 highest remunerated chief executive officers pulled down an average of $9.2 million in 2013, about 25 per cent more than the $7.35 million they amassed in 2008, said an analysis released Thursday by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives."

"By comparison, the average Canadian income in 2013 was $47,358, about 12 per cent more than the 2008 level."

‘“It’s a sort of a highly visible manifestation of growing income inequality in Canada,’ said the study’s author, Hugh Mackenzie, who crunched the numbers on the CEOs of 240 publicly listed Canadian corporations on the Toronto Stock Exchange.”

"’I just don’t think it’s sustainable. I think that sooner or later public concern about income inequality is going to start to matter politically and something will have to happen.’”

"The report found the compensation divide even wider for women: the average CEO in the Top 100 made 237 times the income of the average woman in 2013."

CBC News, January 1, 2015: “CEO pay increased at twice the rate of average Canadian since 2008”

Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, January 2015: “Glory Days: CEO Pay in Canada Soaring to Pre-Recession Highs,” by Hugh Mackenzie (20 pages, PDF)

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Conference Board of Canada Industrial Relations Outlook 2015

"The latest edition of the Conference Board’s Industrial Relations Outlook expects that the climate of moderate economic growth will likely temper expectations at collective bargaining tables across the country in 2015. In most provinces, public sector workers continue to be constrained by government deficits and debt, which will almost certainly 'trump' demands for improved wages and benefits. In general, private sector workers will continue to be subject to marketplace variability."

"Human resources leaders across all industries are being tasked with increasing workplace productivity to ensure investments training, leadership development and compensation are maximized, and to drive long-term competitive advantages -- a goal that makes sense in any operating environment, but all the more crucial in an uncertain global economy."

The Conference Board of Canada, December 24, 2014: “Industrial Relations IR Outlook 2015”

The University of Toronto community can access this 2015 IR Outlook report via the Conference Board of Canada e-library.

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2014 Clawbies: Canadian Law Blog Awards

"We launched the Clawbies back in 2005 as a fun and engaging way to encourage the growth of the Canadian legal blogosphere. Fast forward to 2014, and our evergreen list at lawblogs.ca is closing in on 500 Canadian law blogs.”

"So if you’ve been named a Clawbie winner or runner-up in the past, and you’re not on this year’s list, please don’t be concerned! One of our goals here at the Clawbies is to constantly recognize new or previously unrecognized blogs that deserve people’s attention."

Practitioner -- Best Employment Law Blog:

Labour Pains, by Sean Bawden of Kelly Santini in Ottawa, is the best employment law blog in Canada, which is a high compliment. Engaging and timely, with a special focus this year on the law of independent contractors.”

Best Legal Culture Blogs:

“Pantyhose and the Penal Code is a group blog by a coalition of female students at the University of Windsor Law School who write candidly on gender politics, rape culture on campus, and sexual harassment/assault within the legal profession.”

"The Institute of Feminist Legal Studies at Osgoode Hall Law School blog gave critical analysis of newsmaking stories such as those involving Manitoba Justice Lori Douglas and Jian Ghomeshi, and highlighted Canadian and international publications on reproductive rights, sexual violence, and racial and gender politics through the lens of feminist legal theory.”

Best Non-Lawyer Audience Blog:

CanLII Connects (blog) "The thousands of lawyers across Canada who use CanLII for their legal research every day would doubtless object to the classification of this blog as having a ‘non-lawyer’ audience. But CanLII Connects, the new centralized collection of Canadian case commentary, is proving to be just as useful, if not more so, to the growing ranks of legal consumers who are navigating part or all of the journey through the legal system by themselves. This ‘self-navigation’ promises to be one of the most significant trends in the legal market over the coming decade, and CanLII Connects is poised to be an invaluable resource in that process."

2014 Clawbies: Canadian Law Blog Awards [website]

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One Million Jobs Forecast For B.C. By 2022

"British Columbians can expect to see almost one million job openings in the next seven years as baby boomers retire, according to a provincial government report."

"Two-thirds of the projected 985,100 job openings created between now and 2022 will be due to retirement and one-third to economic growth - especially in skilled trades, according to the B.C. 2022 Labour Market Outlook, a forecast of labour demand and supply trends carried out by KPMG."

"About four out of five of those job openings will require some form of post-secondary education, the report said, while 44 per cent of job openings will be in the skilled trades and technical occupations."

“‘Overall, labour demand is expected to grow faster than labour supply in B.C.,’ the report said. ‘As a result, tight labour market conditions, where the demand for workers surpasses the supply of workers, are expected in the later part of the outlook periods, starting in 2019.’”

"In other words, perfect timing for someone entering university or a technical institute come the fall."

"The five occupations forecast to expand the fastest for workers in Metro Vancouver and the province’s southwest, with a caveat, are: mine- service workers and operators in oil and gas drilling; underground miners; contractors and supervisors in mining, oil and gas; managers in natural resources and fishing; optometrists, chiropractors and other health diagnosing and treating professionals."

The Times Colonist, January 2, 2015: “Million jobs forecast for B.C. as boomers retire over next 7 years,” by Gordon McIntyre

British Columbia 2022 Labour Market Outlook (34 pages, PDF)

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International Experience Canada Program a Risk to Canadian Youth Employment?

"Working holiday programs for thousands of foreign youth ... risk boosting youth unemployment at home, internal Citizenship and Immigration documents say."

"The International Experience Canada initiative allows tens of thousands of young people to work in Canada each year without requiring employers to pay prevailing wages or prove Canadians could not be found for the jobs."

The program is extolled by the Conservative Government as a positive element of the controversial temporary foreign worker program; however, “labour groups paint the program in a more negative light, saying employers use it to staff construction sites with low-paid workers who lack proven qualifications.”

The Globe and Mail, January 7, 2015: “Foreign youth TFW program a risk to youth employment, documents say,” by Bill Curry

But foreign labour doesn’t always deserve its bad reputation.

"For more than a decade, migrant workers have kept Alberta communities such as Fort McMurray humming. Because the municipality’s unemployment rate has long been below 4 per cent, the city’s businesses have paid premiums for low-skilled labour as city residents headed out to high-paying jobs in the oil sands."

"According to new rules announced by Employment Minister Jason Kenney in June, businesses have to get down to a maximum work force of 20 per cent TFWs by summer, and 10 per cent by 2016. This could reduce the low-wage TFW work force ‘by 50 per cent in the next three years,’ according to a government statement."

"In Fort McMurray, that policy carries a high cost -- for businesses, workers, and consumers."

The Globe and Mail, December 28, 2014: “Success eludes recent migrants as Fort McMurray braces for TFW fallout,” by Colin Freeze

"In a recent essay in The Atlantic, David Frum argues that while economists generally feel that immigration helps the United States, an analysis of government figures shows that the growth in jobs since the recession has benefited only lower-paid immigrants.”

"Do immigrants take jobs away from working-class citizens or has that threat to American economic stability been exaggerated?"

Click here to read the discussion.

The New York Times, January 6, 2015: “Do Immigrants Take Jobs From American-Born Workers?”

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Immigration, Low Income, and Income Inequality in Canada: What's New in the 2000s?

From the abstract: “This paper documents changes in low-income and high-income rates and in family-income inequality among immigrants and Canadian-born persons over the 1995-to-2010 period. In addition, it estimates the extent to which declining low-income rates among immigrants were attributable to changing compositional characteristics over this period, and the direct role that immigration played in low-income and income-inequality trends in Canada. Both national and regional results are presented. There are four major findings:

  1. First, in contrast to the 1980s and 1990s, immigrant low-income rates declined in the 2000s.
  2. Second, changes in immigrant characteristics and selection programs accounted for about one-third of the decline in low-income rates among recent immigrants.
  3. Third, while rising immigrant low-income rates accounted for virtually all of the increase in the national low-income rate over the 1980s and 1990s, immigrants accounted for little of the decline in the national low-income rate during the 2000s
  4. Fourth, immigration contributed very little to national trends in either family-income inequality or family-earnings inequality since the mid-1990s.”

Statistics Canada’s Social Analysis and Modelling Division, December 2014: “Immigration, Low Income and Income Inequality in Canada: What’s New in the 2000s?,” by Garnett Picot and Feng Hou

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Fast-Tracking Economic Immigrants to Canada

"The Conservative government’s overhaul of Canada’s immigration system hits a milestone Jan. 1 with the launch of a new system for selecting economic immigrants."

The Express Entry program is a mostly-computerized process which uses a set of criteria to assign a ranking to those interested in immigrating to Canada under the skilled worker program, skilled trades program and Canadian Experience Class program."

"Here are five things to know about Express Entry:"

  1. Why the change?: “Employers have complained it takes far too long to bring in people to fill vacant jobs, while those seeking to start a new life in Canada have also complained their files languished, sometimes for years.”
  2. How will it work now?: “Under the new system, the government will decide who can submit a formal application to immigrate.” Interested parties must create an online profile.
  3. How to get an invitation: “Upon completing a profile, every applicant will be assigned a score via a computer program.” The highest ranking candidates are placed in a pool.
  4. The draws: Using the established pool, “somewhere between 15 and 25 times a year, the government will hold draws to select candidates for permanent residency.”
  5. What happens next?: “Those who receive an invitation will have 60 days to file a formal immigration application. Until this point, all of the selection process will have been done by computer but now a real person takes over in order to review the documentation and screen the applicant.”

The Globe and Mail, December 30, 2014: “Five points on Canada’s new system for fast-tracking economic immigrants,” by Stephanie Levitz

Learn more about the program by visiting the Government of Canada’s Express Entry website.

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Technology's Impact on Workers

"The use of online and digital tools, such as smartphones, e-mail and Internet access in general, increases the flexibility and productivity of workers in the office, a Pew Research Center report shows. However, the trade off is the need for employees to work longer hours."

"In the report, almost half of the employees surveyed (46 percent) that use online and digital tools say that they feel that they are more productive, and almost four out of every 10 employees (39 percent) say that smartphones, e-mail and Internet access provide them with additional flexibility in their job."

"However, 35 percent of the respondents said that due to the presence of digital tools, they are at work for more hours."
“‘The once rigid boundary between ‘work’ and ‘home’ has changed to something that is highly permeable,’ said Lee Rainie, Pew Research Center’s director of Internet, science and technology research.”

Tech Times, December 31, 2014: “Online, Digital Tools Use at Workplace Increases Productivity (But at a Cost),” by Aaron Mamiit

PewResearch, December 30, 2014: “Technology’s Impact on Workers,” by Kristen Purcell and Lee Rainie
Click here for the PDF version (18 pages)

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Rising Pressures for Faculties in Academia

"One in four workers in Canada report high levels of stress, according to Statistics Canada, with professionals likelier to say that their work is directly to blame for the pressure. Academics ... have often spent more than a decade in postsecondary education before starting their careers and say their self-worth is particularly tied to their professional success. It’s a perception backed up by an annual survey of faculty in U.S. postsecondary institutions, which has consistently found that high personal expectations are the top source of academics’ stress."

"Changes to postsecondary education over the last few years, particularly larger class sizes, have increased demands, professors say. In a controversial report on faculty workloads issued last spring by the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario, the group suggested that universities hire more faculty who would be primarily devoted to teaching, possibly leading to smaller classes. Such positions are increasingly common across Canada."

The Globe and Mail, December 16, 2014: “Increased pressures, class sizes taking their toll on faculties in academia,” by Simona Chiose

Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario, March 11, 2014: “Teaching Loads and Research Outputs of Ontario University Faculty  Members: Implications for Productivity and Differentiation,” by Linda Jonker and Martin Hicks (51 pages, PDF)

Non-tenure-track faculty seems to always get hit even harder.

"... [H]ow many sections are too many for one instructor to teach? Full-time, non-tenure-track faculty members at Arizona State University say five per semester, and they’re protesting their department’s plan to increase their teaching load to that number (up from four) each term, starting next fall. They say they’re worried the service work they’ll give up in exchange for the extra course won’t be taken up by tenure-line faculty, and that they won’t be able to give needy students the same level of attention."

"In effect, the university has just increased instructors’ teaching workload by 25 percent, without offering an extra dollar for the effort."

"Faculty advocates agree that the planned course load is too much, and that it’s another example of an institution asking some of its most vulnerable faculty members to do more with less."

Inside Higher Ed, December 16, 2014: “One Course Without Pay,” by Colleen Flaherty

Inside Higher Ed, December 16, 2014: “ASU and the Non-Tenured Human Shields,” by John Warner

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Parental Leave: The Current State of Affairs

"In light of the recent developments regarding the issue of maternity leave, [European Parliamentary Research Service] has published an infographic which aims to present the current state of affairs of maternity and paternity leave in all EU Member States."

European Parliamentary Research Service, December 19, 2014: “Maternity and paternity leave in the EU,” by Ulla Jurviste, Martina Prpic and Giulio Sabbati

For more comprehensive information, see the International Labour Organization’s report “Maternity and paternity at work: Law and practice across the world" and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s "Key characteristics of parental leave systems" (17 pages, PDF) document.

The data doesn’t always speak for itself though.

"No matter how much women lean in to their careers, women everywhere continue to be placed on the mommy track. After Peggy Young took her former employer to court for placing her on unpaid leave for getting pregnant, we asked our readers for their employers’ reactions to news of their pregnancies.” Spoiler alert: they didn’t throw them baby showers.

The Guardian, January 6, 2014: “In their own words: women who faced demotions after maternity leave,” by Siri Srinivas

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Declining Cities, Declining Unions

Cities and labor unions are important both to each other and to the goal of shared prosperity.

"Cities offer the natural solidarities of work and neighborhood that make sustained organizing possible. Union density (built on residential density) discourages competition on wages and encourages competition on efficiency and quality. This benefits both workers and their employers, for whom the benefits of a well-trained workforce, easy access to suppliers and consumers, and decent public goods far outweigh the costs. Cities drive the economy: the top 100 U.S. metropolitan areas, on merely 12 percent our land area, account for at least three-quarters of GDP. They are home to the best jobs and opportunities. They claim virtually all of population growth. They house our best schools and our leading cultural institutions. And they are, by any measure, greener than sparser forms of economic or residential development."

"In turn, cities -- by virtue of their density and diversity -- sustain progressive politics. ... [P]eople who live close to one another are more tolerant and empathetic; they are more likely to know someone of a different color, a different income group, or a different sexual orientation. They rely on and appreciate the provision of public goods and public services ... [and ]they have a deeper appreciation of the regulatory standards (guns, labor conditions, food, public health) that promise us a modicum of safety and security."

"In an urban (and still urbanizing) nation, all of this would seem to be good news. So why, when it comes to the hard work of building a just and sustainable future, does it feel like we still live in [isolated, material, social, and democratic poverty]?"

"The answer lies in the parallel decline of American cities and the American labor movement in the second half of the twentieth century."

Dissent, December 10, 2014: “Declining Cities, Declining Unions: Urban Sprawl and U.S. Inequality,” by Colin Gordon

Dissent, December 26, 2014: “Belabored Bonus Edition: Han Dongfang on Shop-Floor Democracy in China,” by Michelle Chen

Dissent’s Winter 2015 issue focuses on progressive cities. Click here to read the introduction and here to see all of the articles, many of which are available without a subscription.

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The Rime of Rampant Consumerism: Factories, Factories, Everywhere

The Bangladesh Garment Industry

After the Rana Plaza factory collapse disaster in April 2013 that killed more than 1,100 people, the Bangladesh garment industry went through a costly safety overhaul at plants large and small. As always, there are two sides to every coin.
Whether factory owners can afford those improvements “will be critical for the future of a sector that accounts for over 80 percent of [Bangladesh’s] export earnings, industry leaders say.”

"Since Rana Plaza, nearly two-thirds of the country’s exporting garment factories have been inspected. Many have been handed lists of structural, electrical and fire safety fixes and upgrades that could cost hundreds of millions of dollars. Larger factories can generally pay for those changes independently, or have access to a growing number of affordable financing arrangements backed by wealthy customers."

"Hundreds of smaller factories do not, leaving them exposed at a time when owners say they are grappling with a slide in orders and an increase in minimum wages for the industry’s workforce of more than 4 million."

Reuters, January 5, 2015: “Safety overhaul puts strain on Bangladesh garment industry,” by Krista Mahr and Serajul Quadir

RAND, December 2014: “Human Resource Practices for Labor Inspectorates in Developing Countries,” by John Mendeloff, Michael Dworsky, Carlos Gutierrez, Maria C. Lytell, and Michael Connors

BBC Expose of Apple Factories in China

Apple is in the spotlight again over working conditions for the people who make its products... Undercover filming by the BBC investigative program Panorama showed exhausted employees who said they had worked 12 to 16 hours a day with no days off for long stretches.”

BBC One’s Panorama, December 18, 2014: “Apple’s Broken Promises” [video, 60min.] NOTE: A simple browser add-on, such as Hola, will enable you to watch this video. It’s free, requires a single click, and downloads in seconds.

This episode of Panorama will also be airing on CBC News Network Sunday, January 18, 2015 at 10pm and again on Sunday, January 25, 2015 at 8pm.

A Human Factory

It’s exactly fifteen minutes before noon. “[L]unchtime at one of China’s most secretive ‘cram schools’ -- a memorization factory where 20,000 students, or four times the town’s official population, train round the clock for China’s national college-entrance examination, known as the gaokao. The grueling test, which is administered every June over two or three days (depending on the province), is the lone criterion for admission to Chinese universities. For the students at Maotanchang, most of whom come from rural areas, it offers the promise of a life beyond the fields and the factories, of families’ fortunes transformed by hard work and high scores.”

However, even in China the gaokao is coming under fire “as an anachronism that stifles innovative thought and puts excessive pressure on students. Teenage suicide rates tend to rise as the gaokao nears. Two years ago, a student posted a shocking photograph online: a public high-school classroom full of students hunched over books, all hooked up to intravenous drips to give them the strength to keep studying.”

"Even as cram schools have proliferated across urban areas, Maotanchang is a world apart, a remote one-industry town that produces test-taking machines with the same single-minded commitment that other Chinese towns devote to making socks or Christmas ornaments."

The New York Times, December 31, 2014: “Inside a Chinese Test-Prep Factory,” by Brook Larmer

Fireworks in Bogota

We’ve saved the best for last. Watch a firework factory explode in Bogota, Colombia. Don’t worry, only one person sustained minor injurers.

Global News, January 4, 2015: “Fireworks factory explodes”

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Book of the Week

Bridging the Gender Gap: Seven Principles for Achieving Gender Balance, by Lynn Roseberry and Johan Roos. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014. 263 p. ISBN 9780198717119

From the publisher: "Despite decades of efforts to promote gender equality, most leadership positions in business, politics, education, and even NGOs are occupied by men, and most people still work in occupations dominated by one sex. This book argues that gender imbalances in leadership and occupations are not simply a moral issue or an economic issue, but a governance issue. Gender imbalances persist in large part because the very people with the authority and influence to do something about them know very little about gender and how it works in their organizations and in society at large. Gender imbalanced governance is an expression of entrenched ideas about masculinity and femininity that lead to poor decision making. Improving the quality of governance requires action to counteract the main justifications for the status quo. Based on interviews and conversations with leaders and managers in Europe and the United States, the book presents seven of the most common explanations for persistent gender imbalances and shows how they are based on common stereotypes and myths about men's and women's abilities and preferences. This book provides a guided tour of current research about gender from a multi-disciplinary perspective. It challenges commonly held assumptions and offers alternative explanations and corresponding principles to guide individual decisions, action, and behaviour toward achieving gender balance."

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