Perry Work Report: work&labour news&research, November 6, 2015

November 6, 2015

Announcements:

Mandatory Long-Form Census Restored by New Liberal Government

New UOIT Position Posted

Position opening: The University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT) Faculty of Business and IT - Sessional Lecturer - BUSI 3312U - Industrial & Labour Relations - Winter

After Paris: Politics, Climate Change and Labour

Organised by Adapting Canadian Work and Workplaces to Respond to Climate Change, and Work in a Warming World research programmes, York University.
When: Friday, November 13, 2015, 4:30-8 PM
Where: University of Toronto's Kruger Hall at Woodsworth College, 119 St. George Street (south of Bloor, east side), Toronto, ON, M5S1A9
Register Here

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What's in a Name? Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Labour

“Mihychuk said her first priority as minister of employment, workforce development and labour is to mend relations with the federal public service, which had an acrimonious relationship with Stephen Harper’s Conservative government.”

“She said she will 'start to rebuild relationships with labour, with the unions, with the public service that felt ignored or misused and threatened.'"

CBC News, November 4, 2015: “Winnipeg MPs Mihychuk and Carr named to Justin Trudeau’s cabinet”

CBC News, November 4, 2015: “Meet Justin Trudeau’s new Liberal cabinet: 31-member cabinet includes 15 women and attempts to reflect regional balance”

And New York Magazine introduces Trudeau to the world with 11 reasons why our new Prime Minister is more than just a great head of hair and a cheeky dress-up game.

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The USW and Ontario's Changing Workplaces Review

“The Changing Workplaces Review is considering the causes and effects of precarious work, and will offer options to the provincial government to respond to the problem. In September, the USW delivered a wide-ranging submission to the Review.”

USW submission:

“We focus on the vital responsibilities of freely chosen unions, independent of employer control and with the resources necessary to engage in effective bargaining. They are the key lever for working people to advance their interests. We propose positive, practical reforms to provide for Ontarians:

  • a truly fair method for people to form unions;
  • a better balance of power when employers try to slash employees’ incomes and working conditions
  • an end to the ‘race to the bottom’ in the contract services sector
  • expanding the right of employees to engage in coordinated activity directed toward mutual aid, protection or collective bargaining”

“The USW will continue our engagement with the Review in the coming months. And importantly, our members will communicate with their MPPs to ensure that they are ready to move Ontario’s employment laws in a progressive direction.”

United Steelworkers, November 4, 2015: “Building a better working future: The USW and Ontario’s Changing Workplaces Review”

Submission by the United Steelworkers Ontario’s Changing Workplaces Review Consultation Process, September 18, 2015 (50 pages, PDF)

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Submission by Unifor to the Ontario Changing Workplaces Consultation

“Unifor, in its submission to the Ontario Changing Workplace Consultation, proposed several changes to the Employment Standards Act to better reflect the nature of work today and to better enable workers to complain about violations of the law. Proposed changes to the Labour Relations Act would make forming a union more fair, and negotiating a first contract less adversarial. A proposal to establish sector-wide labour standards would help stop the race to the bottom on wages and benefits.”

“Some of the key features of Unifor’s brief include:

  • An overview of precarious work and its effects.
  • 43 different recommendations covering reforms to both employment standards and labour relations rules.
  • A far-reaching proposal to establish sector-based benchmarks and bargaining structures for industries which face particularly precarious or unstable employment relationships.
  • An innovative proposal to enshrine rights to collective action on the part of non-unionized workers.
  • Another proposal to strengthen successor rights in contract work situations (forestalling the ‘contract flipping’ that has had such damaging effects on organizing efforts).
  • A chapter marshalling Canadian and international evidence to show that strengthening employment standards is not associated with investment flight, job loss, and poor economic performance.”

Unifor, September 2015: “Building Balance, Fairness, and Opportunity in Ontario’s Labour Market: Submission by Unifor to the Ontario Changing Workplaces Consultation" (157 pages, PDF)

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Equality, Fairness and Transparency in Ontario Workplaces

"The mandate of the Changing Workplace Review ('The Review') is to gather the experience of employees and employers about workplace changes and to provide advice on changes to employment and labour legislation. The Review is the first opportunity in over twenty years to conduct a detailed analysis of both the Employment Standards Act, a regime of statutory minimums, and the Labour Relations Act, 1995, a regime of procedures to secure union representation and collective bargaining."

"For the Review to be successful, the Equal Pay Coalition submits that you need to bring a gender lens to your analysis. Both statutes, the Employment Standards Act ('ESA') and the Labour Relations Act, 1995, ('LRA') are, even in their current form, critical to providing the statutory employment minimums and access to collective bargaining for women. The ESA and the LRA are critical legislative tools in the labour market which can be invoked to start closing the gender way gap."

Equal Pay Coalition, September 18, 2015: “Equality, Fairness and Transparency in Ontario: Workplaces Submissions to the Changing Workplace Review,” prepared by Mary Cornish  and Janet Borowy with the assistance of Jennifer Quito and Caitlin Miller (31 pages, PDF)

Cavalluzzo, October 15, 2015: “Pay Equity News this Fall”

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Temporary or Transitional? Migrant Workers' Experiences with Permanent Residence in Canada

“Authors Delphine Nakache and Leanne Dixon-Perera rely on interviews and focus group discussions with 99 participants to address the following research questions: What factors lead migrant workers to seek permanent residence? What challenges do they face in their transition to permanent residence, and how do they overcome them? What are the implications of two-step migration for settlement?”

“A considerable number of the migrant workers interviewed indicated that their decision to seek permanent residence was not made before they arrived in Canada. Their decisions were influenced by recruiters abroad, friends, family, settlement agencies and employers. Federal and provincial governments’ policies have especially important implications for those decisions. For example, the federal policy that allows migrant workers to stay in Canada for no more than four years at a time (the ‘four-in, four-out’ rule) has encouraged workers to pursue permanent residence but has created risks -- including seeking work underground -- that may outweigh the potential benefits.”

“During their transition to permanent residence, migrant workers encounter several types of obstacles. Especially difficult are language proficiency requirements and the often-stringent rules of employer-driven streams that are an important part of most Provincial Nominee Programs. In addition, prolonged family separation during the transition to permanent residence has negative impacts, especially for workers in low-skilled occupations who had to leave their families at home to come to Canada.”

“To facilitate linkages between temporary labour migrants’ experience and pathways to permanent residence, the authors recommend removing the ‘four-in, four-out’ rule, extending the right to family accompaniment to migrant workers in low-skilled positions, reassessing language requirements for migrant workers who transition to permanent residence, and providing language training for migrant workers upon arrival. They also put forward two policy ideas for further study and discussion: reconsidering the reliance on employer sponsorship and introducing a federal pathway to permanent residence for workers in low-skilled occupations.”

Institute for Research on Public Policy, October 27th, 2015: “Temporary or Transitional? Migrant Workers’ Experiences with Permanent Residence in Canada,” by Delphine Nakache and Leanne Dixon-Perera

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Youth Labour Force Participation, 2008 to 2014

“The youth labour force participation rate declined from 2008 to 2014, the first prolonged decrease since the early 1990s. The labour force participation rate during school months declined 6.1 percentage points to 46.4% for youth aged 15 to 19, while it fell 2.2 percentage points to 73.7% for youth aged 20 to 24.”

“Most (70%) of the decline among 15- to 19-year-olds was attributable to lower labour force participation among students. Increased school enrolment accounted for 16% of the decline, while lower labour force participation among non-students was responsible for 14%.”

“For the 20-to-24 year-old age group, increased enrolments explained 57% of the decline in the participation rate. The remainder was the result of lower labour force participation among non-students.”

“These findings come from a new study that breaks down, in an accounting framework, changes in the youth participation rate into components attributable to changes in school enrolment and in students’ and non-students’ labour force participation.”

Statistics Canada’s The Daily, October 30 2015: “Study: Youth labour force participation, 2008 to 2014“

Statistics Canada, October 30, 2015: “Youth Labour Force Participation: 2008 to 2014,” by Andre Bernard (2 pages, PDF) or (html)

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High Youth Unemployment Crisis in Canada Challenged

“Youth unemployment isn’t getting worse. We’re just measuring it wrong. That’s the conclusion economist Philip Cross reaches in a new paper for the Macdonald-Laurier Institute. Cross delves into the numbers to show that chatter about a ‘crisis’ in youth unemployment fails to stand up to scrutiny. The reason? The numbers on which this overheated rhetoric relies treat teenagers and those in their early 20s as equal. They’re not.”

“'Those who decry poor labour market conditions for young people are implying these trends disadvantage all the 2.9 million youth in the labour force, when it mostly affects the one million teenagers between 15 and 19 years,' writes Cross.”

“This distinction is an important one. The challenges facing teenagers (those aged 15 to 19) and young adults (those aged 20 to 24) are different. While a high percentage of teenagers are unemployed, they increasingly continue to live at home, attend school, and receive support from their parents.”

“‘If (high unemployment among teenagers) is a problem, it is certainly a different one from the problems facing those young adults who are entering the workforce in earnest and preparing for careers, homes families, and the other challenges of adulthood,’ writes Cross.”

Macdonald-Laurier Institute, October 2015: “MLI paper: Philip Cross serves up a reality check on the youth unemployment ‘crisis’”

Macdonald-Laurier Institute, October 2015: “Serving Up the Reality on Youth Unemployment,” by Philip Cross (20 pages, PDF)

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Canadian University Report

“Every year high-school students are faced with a big decision: What next? The Globe and Mail’s Canadian University Report magazine aims to help those who are considering university as their next step, with our unique profiles of more than 60 schools across the country, feature articles looking at the latest trends in education, and advice pieces about how to thrive, and survive, once students get there.”

The Globe and Mail, October 2015: “Canadian University Report”

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Free to Speak ... At What Cost?

“[Ricardo Duchesne] is a social sciences professor at the University of New Brunswick in Saint John. When he is in the classroom, he says, he offers his students a variety of texts and perspectives on the issues he teaches. But when he is typing away at his computer, he takes a different tone. In conservative-leaning journals, a 'Eurocentric' blog, and his own book, he advances perspectives he has developed over his 20 years as a professor: that Western civilization is responsible for most of what is great in the world, and that multiculturalism can “dilute” that greatness.”

“Academic freedom has earned plenty of headlines in Canada this year. Dr. Duchesne’s case made waves in January. In May, when campus security seized an 'unflattering' sculpture of Capilano University’s president made by an instructor, the Canadian Association of University Teachers called it a violation of his academic freedom. And in August, the chair of the University of British Columbia’s board of governors came under scrutiny after complaining about a professor’s controversial blog post.”

“Each of these cases underscore the necessity of academics’ freedom of speech, both on campus and beyond. Rarely included in such discussions, though, are students. When do they have a stake? Nearly 20 per cent of students at UNB Saint John are from abroad, a third of whom come from China. When Dr. Duchesne questions multiculturalism, or writes that a growing Chinese population has weakened the 'character' of historically “European” Canadian cities, his words and publications are inseparable from the learning environment he shares with students, including those of Chinese descent.”

“Canadian academic groups and free-speech advocates largely suggest that’s okay -- that barring sloppy research or a breach of the law, all academic speech should be protected in the name of spirited intellectual debate. It is a powerful reminder of freedom of speech in Canada: When academics like Dr. Duchesne make controversial statements, their right to say so should be defended at all costs, even if those words have the potential to affect the students they teach.”

The Globe and Mail, October 22, 2015: “Free to speak ... at what cost?” by Josh O'Kane

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Compensation Planning Outlook 2016

“Organizations are planning moderate base salary increases for 2016. The expected increase for the private sector is 2.5 per cent; for the public sector, it is 2.6 per cent.”

“Based on responses from the 370 organizations who participated in this year’s Compensation Planning Outlook survey, the average pay increase for non-unionized employees is projected to be 2.6 per cent for 2016: 2.5 per cent for the private sector and 2.6 per cent for the public sector. Projected increases are highest in government, at 3.0 per cent, followed by the chemical, pharmaceutical, and allied products industry at 2.9 per cent. The lowest average increases are expected in the health sector, with an average increase of 1.5 per cent. Regionally, Saskatchewan has the highest average projected increase at 3.2 per cent. The lowest average base pay increases are expected in British Columbia at 2.3 per cent and in Alberta at 2.4 per cent. Anticipated wage increases for unionized employees are projected to be 1.9 per cent in 2016 -- 1.4 per cent in the public sector and 2.1 per cent in the private sector.”

The Conference Board of Canada, October 29, 2015: “Compensation Planning Outlook 2016,” by Nicole Stewart, Allison Cowan, Heather McAteer

The University of Toronto community can access the Compensation Planning Outlook 2016 report via the Conference Board of Canada e-library.

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Your Job Title is ... What?

“I have had meetings with brand ambassadors (a bit like celebrity endorsers, but with more tattoos). I have coffee with thought leaders (those with ‘authority’ in a given field) and customer happiness managers. (Your guess is as good as mine, but I assume that it used to be called ‘customer service.’)”

“A few months ago, I walked into a company where the sign on the receptionist’s desk identified her as the ‘head of office experience.’ A friend worked in a company whose human resources manager was called, simply, ‘VP, people.’”

“And don’t get me started on how many ‘influencers’ and ‘trend strategists’ I have met, few of whom can describe with any degree of coherence what it is they do each day. I bet their moms don’t know either.”

“But mystifying job titles have spread far beyond the start-up universe.”

“A search on LinkedIn reveals that over 55,000 people have the word ‘influencer’ in their titles; there are more than 74,000 brand architects and 35,156 professional evangelists. (LinkedIn doesn’t break down how many of those evangelists are associated with an actual religious congregation, but I suspect it is relatively few.)”

“I think the vice president of the content is like something from ‘The Phantom Tollbooth’ ”she told me a few weeks ago. ‘Like the guy that runs the alphabet and is in charge of the letters that make the words. You’re like the head of the alphabet.’”

“She paused.”

“‘Well, I guess the vice president of the alphabet.’”

The New York Times, October 23, 2015: “Your Job Title Is ... What?” by Sam Slaughter

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Peeking Under Uber's Hood

“Uber hypes its algorithm-based surge pricing as a core strength of its ride service, one that balances supply and demand. Both drivers and Uber make more when surge pricing kicks in. Critics call it high-tech gouging.”

“Now researchers who have studied the controversial practice in San Francisco and New York have delivered a sobering critique. Surge is only modestly effective at luring drivers, and actually impels many drivers to go to other areas, the researchers said -- although Uber disputed that finding. The researchers found that the main effect of surge pricing is to deter passengers from requesting rides.”

SFGate, October 29, 2015: “Report says Uber surge pricing has a twist: some drivers flee,” by Carolyn Said

“In order to understand the impact of surge pricing on passengers and drivers, we present the first in-depth investigation of Uber. We gather four weeks of data from Uber by emulating 43 copies of the Uber smartphone app and distributing them in a grid throughout downtown San Francisco (SF) and midtown Manhattan. By carefully calibrating the GPS coordinates reported by each emulated app, we are able to collect high-fidelity data about surge multipliers, estimated wait times (EWTs), car supply, and passenger demand for all types of Ubers (e.g., UberX, UberBLACK, etc.). We validate our methodology using ground-truth data on New York City (NYC) taxicabs.”

AMC Digital Library, October 2015: “Peeking Beneath the Hood of Uber,” by Le Chen, Alan Mislove and Christo Wilson (14 pages, PDF)

Uber in Ontario

“Hudak, who says he uses Uber and AirBnb regularly, says the services give consumers more choice and empower Ontarians to make some extra money.”

“Uber in particular has prompted some fierce debates in municipalities and New Democrat Cheri DiNovo says this bill cuts communities out of the debate.”

“Some Liberals voted against Hudak’s bill, but enough supported it to pass. Environment Minister Glen Murray says he wants the bill to be studied at committee because the issue is complex and needs a thorough hearing.”

The Globe and Mail, October 29, 2015: “Bill to legalize Uber, AirBnb in Ontario passes second reading”

Legislative Assembly of Ontario, October 29, 2015: “Bill 131, Opportunity in the Sharing Economy Act, 2015" Private Members Bil: Tim Hudak

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The Disability Employment Puzzle

”Employers appear to discriminate against well-qualified job candidates who have a disability, researchers at Rutgers and Syracuse universities have concluded.”

“The researchers, who sent resumes and cover letters on behalf of fictitious candidates for thousands of accounting jobs, found that employers expressed interest in candidates who disclosed a disability about 26 percent less frequently than in candidates who did not.”

“The researchers constructed two separate resumes: one for a highly qualified candidate with six years of experience, and one for a novice candidate about one year out of college. For each resume, they created three different cover letters: one for a candidate with no disability, one for a candidate who disclosed a spinal cord injury and one for a candidate who disclosed having Asperger’s syndrome, a disorder that can make social interaction difficult.”

“Employers were about 34 percent less likely to show interest in an experienced disabled candidate, but only about 15 percent less likely to express interest in a disabled candidate just starting out his or her career. (The latter result was not statistically significant.)”

The New York Times, November 2, 2015: “Fake Cover Letters Expose Discrimination Against Disabled,“ by Noam Scheiber

National Bureau of Economic Research, September 2015: “The Disability Employment Puzzle: A Field Experiment on Employer Hiring Behavior,” by Mason Ameri, Lisa Schur, Meera Adya, Scott Bentley, Patrick McKay, and Douglas L. Kruse

Institutional subscribers to the NBER working paper series, including the University of Toronto community, may download this paper without additional charge.

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Empowering Women, Tackling Income Inequality

“Growth in major economies could be boosted significantly by increasing the number of women in the work force and closing gender gaps in health and education, the International Monetary Fund said in a paper released on [October 22nd].”

“IMF economists found that improving one rung on the United Nations’ index of gender inequality -- which takes into account factors ranging from maternal mortality to education and work force participation -- could boost growth by nearly 1 percentage point.”

“Income inequality and gender-related inequality can interact through a number of channels. First, gender wage gaps directly contribute to income inequality. Furthermore, higher gaps in labor force participation rates between men and women are likely to result in inequality of earnings between sexes, thus creating and exacerbating income inequality. Differences in economic outcomes may be a consequence of unequal opportunities and enabling conditions for men and women, and boys and girls.”

“Despite progress, wide gaps between women and men’s economic empowerment and opportunity remain, which policymakers need to tackle urgently. In most countries, more men than women work, and they get paid more for similar work. Also, there are considerable gender gaps in access to education, health and finance in a number of countries. There is mounting evidence that the lack of gender equity imposes large economic costs as it hampers productivity and weighs on growth.”

The Globe and Mail, October 22, 2015: “IMF study finds hiring more women can boost growth"

International Monetary Fund, October 22, 2015: “Catalyst for Change: Empowering Women and Tackling Income Inequality“ (42 pages, PDF)

International Monetary Fund, October 22, 2015: “Infographic: Gender and Income Inequality” (1 page, PDF)

iMFdirect, October 22, 2015: “Empowering Women, Tackling Income Inequality,” by Sonali Jain-Chandra, Kalpana Kochhar, and Monique Newiak

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Collective Bargaining Under Pressure

“Figures from a new ILO database on industrial relations show that collective bargaining has come under pressure in many countries since the start of the global financial crisis in 2008.”

“The decline, which follows a longer-term slide in union membership rates in many countries, reflects a variety of factors. Legislation allowed some financially troubled companies to opt out of their bargaining agreements. The recession also made it more difficult to renew existing pacts. Meanwhile, some governments made it harder to negotiate national and sector-wide agreements reached by union federations and employer groups, favoring company-level pacts instead.”

“The study makes the case that wage inequality is rising, so public policies are needed to shore up collective bargaining and make it more inclusive. It says that bargaining coverage varies widely across a broader group of 75 countries, ranging from one or two percent of employees in Malaysia and Ethiopia to nearly 100% in Belgium and France.”

The Wall Street Journal, October 23, 2015: “How the Global Financial Crisis Drove Down Collective Bargaining,” by Melanie Trottman

International Labour Organization, October 19, 2015: “Collective bargaining coverage down as a result of the global financial crisis”

International Labour Organization, October 23, 2015: “Issue Brief no. 1 -- Labour Relations and Collective Bargaining: Trends in collective bargaining coverage: stability, erosion or decline?” by Jelle Visser, Susan Hayter, and Rosina Gammarano (12 pages, PDF)

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Book of the Week

Raw Deal: How the Sharing Economy and Naked Capitalism are Screwing American Workers, by Steven Hill. New York, NY : St. Martin's Press, 2015. 326 p. ISBN 9781250071583 (hardcover)

From the publisher: “Every day, innovative entrepreneurs pioneer bold economic ideas that change the way we live and work. Companies like Google, Apple, Oracle, Facebook and Twitter aren't the only ones shaping our economic future--there's another trend emerging that will change the ways we work and live. The ‘sharing economy,’ or the ‘collaborative consumption economy,’ includes companies like TaskRabbit, Airbnb, Uber, Lyft, Zaarly, and DocVacay who are purveyors of an economic system that revolves around sharing human and physical resources. This new aspect to the economy, Steven Hill argues, is a dead end for U.S. workers, as well as for the national economy. In Raw Deal, Hill shows the 'sharing economy' is a new and troubling component to what is an overall bad economy that undermines workers. Vulnerable freelancers and day laborers hire themselves out for ever smaller jobs and amounts of money, and it is only the companies who hire them who reap the big benefits. Hill argues that we must shift the support for American workers to one that is individual-based rather than workplace-based. Countering the onset of the freelance society and the new economy is the new civil rights and labor struggles of our time. This important book answers these questions and provides pragmatic solutions to adapt our economic system to its new realities, launching a new civil rights struggle capable of transforming the freelance society into a stakeholder society."

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