Perry Work Report: work&labour news&research, March 18, 2016

March 18, 2016

Announcements:

ILR Online Webcast: Arbitration Under Fire

Arbitration Under Fire: Research Evidence on the Pros and Cons of Binding Arbitration -- “Binding arbitration as a dispute resolution mechanism has come under increasing attack, both in the popular media and in policy debates. This webcast will look at these new attacks on binding arbitration, where they are directed, what has inspired them and what the research evidence says about their validity.”

Moderator:  Harry Katz, Jack Sheinkman Professor of Collective Bargaining
Presenters: Alex Colvin, Martin F. Scheinman Professor of Conflict Resolution and David Lipsky, Anne Evans Estabrook Professor of Dispute Resolution and Director, Scheinman Institute on Conflict Resolution

Webcast Time & Date: 12 Noon (EDT), Tuesday, April 5, 2016
Click Here for Free Registration

 

The 35th Annual Sefton-Williams Lecture

The Annual Sefton-Williams Memorial Lecture will be held on Thursday, March 31st, 2016. The Sefton-Williams Award will be presented to Olivia Chow.

Speaker: Dr. David Weil, Administrator, Wage and Hour Division, US Department of Labor

Dr. David Weil from the US Department of Labour will be joining both Woodsworth College and the Centre for Industrial Relations & Human Resources for a lecture on The Fissured Workplace: Is there still a Role for Labour Policy in the new World of Work? 

This event is presented by the Center of Industrial Relations and Human Resources, Woodsworth College, and Closing the Gap. Register here.

Follow us on the CIRHR Library Tumblr and on the CIRHR Library Twitter.

It's Not Easy Being (Generation) Me

“A combination of debt, joblessness, globalisation, demographics and rising house prices is depressing the incomes and prospects of millions of young people across the developed world, resulting in unprecedented inequality between generations.”

“A Guardian investigation into the prospects of millennials -- those born between 1980 and the mid-90s, and often otherwise known as Generation Y -- has found they are increasingly being cut out of the wealth generated in western societies.”

“Using exclusive data from the largest database of international incomes in the world, at LIS (Luxembourg Income Study): Cross-National Data Center, the investigation into the situation in Australia, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the US has also established that:

  • Prosperity has plummeted for young adults in the rich world.
  • In the US, under-30s are now poorer than retired people.
  • In the UK, pensioner disposable income has grown prodigiously -- three times as fast as the income of young people.
  • Millennials have suffered real terms losses in wages in the US, Italy, France, Spain, Germany and Canada and in some countries this was underway even before the 2008 financial crisis.”

“In our series, we will reveal that today’s young people are not delaying adulthood because they are -- as the New Yorker once put it -- 'the most indulged young people in the history of the world'. Instead, it appears they are not hitting the basic stages of adulthood at the same time as previous generations because such milestones are so much more costly and in some cases they are even being paid less than their parents were at the same age.”

The Guardian’s Full “Millennials: The Trials of Generation Y” Series

The Guardian, March 7, 2016: “Revealed: the 30-year economic betrayal dragging down Generation Y’s income,” by Caelainn Barr and Shiv Malik

The Guardian, March 7, 2016: “How we revealed the predicament of Generation Y,” by Caelainn Barr

“LIS acquires datasets with income, wealth, employment, and demographic data from a large number of countries, harmonises them to enable cross-national comparisons, and makes them available for public use by providing registered users with remote access.“

Luxembourg Income Study (LIS) at the Cross-National Data Center: “What is LIS?”

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Perspectives on Canada's Unemployment Numbers

“Canada’s jobless rate unexpectedly rose in February, reaching its highest level in nearly three years as weak oil prices continued to bludgeon resource-rich provinces.”

David Watt, chief economist with HSBC Bank Canada said: “No matter how I slice or dice it, the results seem consistent with an economy that lacks traction.”

“What we need is more of a change in perception of where we want the economy to go and set the stage for not just government, but for the private sector to start creating jobs. The private-sector job creation is just terrible. The private sector doesn’t have confidence to start adding jobs and that’s what we need.”

The Globe and Mail, March 11, 2016: “Rising jobless rate shows economy ‘lacks traction'”

Business News Network, March 11, 2016: “Video: No signs of a recession in Canada: economist”

Statistics Canada’s The Daily: March 11, 2016: “Labour Force Survey, February 2016“

Statistics Canada, March 11, 2016: “Labour Force Information” (62 pages, PDF)

“Over the same period, part-time employment has risen by 100,000. The result has been a net gain of 30,000 jobs over the past six months -- a positive number that looks much less positive when you recognize that the average weekly hours for part-time work are a bit less than half the average weekly full-time hours. The part-time gains don’t, realistically, make up for the full-time losses.”

“What’s more, there are now more than 900,000 so-called ‘involuntary’ part-timers -- people who would prefer full-time work, but have been unable to land a full-time job. That’s up nearly 100,000 since September.”

The Globe and Mail, March 13, 2016: “Part-time employment gains in Canada mask a larger problem”

“[Statistician Doug Elliott] said the combination of population growth and flat job growth [in Saskatchewan] points to the fact that Alberta, which has been battered by low oil prices, is no longer a convenient ‘escape valve’ for Saskatchewan jobseekers. People may begin leaving if the unemployment rate climbs much higher, but that hasn’t happened yet.”

Saskatoon StarPheonix, March 12, 2016: “Sask. unemployment rate hits highest level in five years“

“[Windsor] has long held the top spot on the country’s jobless list, so it’s no surprise city officials celebrated when Windsor recorded a 7.7 per cent unemployment rate. That figure is down from the 9.3 per cent rate reported last month. But there are differing opinions about what the numbers mean.”

“One economist calls the drop a statistical fluke, while another says Windsor is finally reaping the benefits of increased manufacturing exports.”

CBC News, March 12, 2016: “Economists disagree on true meaning of Windsor’s jobless rate”

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What Do Post-Secondary Grads Earn?

“Management sciences and quantitative methods graduates were the top earners among bachelor’s degree holders in 2010. A new study also found that earnings varied considerably across specific fields of study within broader disciplinary categories.”

“Using data from the 2011 National Household Survey, the study examined 25- to 54-year-old men and women whose highest level of postsecondary study was completed in Canada. Only those with a college certificate, bachelor’s degree or master’s degree were examined. Annual wages and salaries among full-year, full-time paid employees who reported no self-employment income in 2010 were compared across detailed fields of study. Wages and salaries were age-adjusted so that all dollar figures represent predicted wages and salaries of graduates who were approximately at or near mid-career. All wages are expressed in 2010 dollars.”

“There was generally more variation in earnings among master’s degree graduates [than among those with bachelor’s degrees]. Among men in this group, age-adjusted earnings ranged from $160,100 (finance and financial management services) to $50,184 (theological and ministerial studies). Female master’s degree graduates from the same two disciplines were also at the top and bottom of the female earnings distribution.”

“Among college graduates, there was less earnings variation across fields of study. For example, the age-adjusted earnings of female college graduates ranged from $63,721 for criminology graduates to $36,158 for cosmetology and related personal grooming services.”

Statistics Canada’s The Daily, March 11, 2016: “Study: Earnings of postsecondary graduates by detailed field of study, 2010"

Statistics Canada. March 11, 2016: “Economic Insights: Earnings of Postsecondary Graduates by Detailed Field of Study” (17 pages, PDF)

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Canada's Seniors in 2066

“The aging of Canada’s population is currently related to the baby-boom cohort reaching their senior years. Subsequent cohorts will continue to sustain high populations of seniors because of declining mortality rates and higher immigration levels."

"According to population projections, future cohorts of older Canadians could also be more ethnoculturally diverse, as a larger portion of them could be born outside of Canada."

"These findings are included in a new article, titled The contribution of immigration to the size and ethnocultural diversity of future cohorts of seniors."

“The study focused on several cohorts of current and future seniors. These included those born between 1937 and 1941,1957 and 1961 (born during the baby-boom period), 1967 and 1971 (born during the baby-bust period), and 1997 and 2001 (people who will be aged 65 between 2062 and 2066)."

"Using population projections and other population data sources, the study compared the projected size and characteristics of each of these cohorts at age 65."

Findings include:

  • The population size of younger cohorts could be less affected by mortality
  • The baby-boom cohort is expected to be less diverse than other cohorts
  • Birthplace of immigrants in senior population also expected to change

Statistics Canada’s The Daily, March 9, 2016: “Study: The contribution of immigration to the size and ethnocultural diversity of future cohorts of seniors”

Statistics Canada, March 9, 2016: “Insights on Canadian Society: The contribution of immigration to the size and ethnocultural diversity of future cohorts of seniors” (12 pages, PDF)

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Companies Finding Strength in Diversity

“Canada’s Best Diversity Employers competition recognizes the leading organizations across the country when it comes to creating inclusive workplaces for employees from five diverse groups: women; visible minorities; persons with disabilities; aboriginal peoples; and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) peoples.”

“To determine the 65 winners for 2016, Mediacorp editors reviewed the submissions of all the employers that applied for Canada’s Top 100 Employers project, shortlisting those with noteworthy and unique diversity initiatives. Those candidates were further reviewed to determine how their programs compared to others in the same field. The finalists chosen represent the diversity leaders in their industry and region of Canada.”

U of T Makes the List

“University of Toronto, Toronto. Universities; 9,167 employees. Helped facilitate a Queer Orientation series in partnership with the Sexual & Gender Diversity Office (SGDO) student committee and more than 25 participating campus groups.”

The Globe and Mail, March 4, 2016: “Canada’s best companies find strength in diversity”

Canada’s Best Diversity Employers [website]

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Women in Criminal Law

“Women are quitting the practice of criminal law at a significantly higher rate than men, according to a new report by the Criminal Lawyers’ Association (CLA).”

“The report, entitled ‘The Retention of Women in the Private Practice of Criminal Law,’ was released this past weekend at a CLA conference in London, Ont. It found low pay, lack of financial support for maternity leave and being treated differently than male peers by judges and court staff as some of the reasons so many women are leaving private practice of criminal law.”

“The study, authored by Natasha Madon, a postdoctoral research fellow from Griffith University in Brisbane, Australia and Anthony Doob, professor emeritus of criminology at the University of Toronto, examined statistics from Legal Aid Ontario and the Law Society of Upper Canada. They also set up five focus groups and surveyed 225 female criminal lawyers in Ontario.”
“The study also found that many women gave up private defence practice to take government jobs or become Crown prosecutors, who have guaranteed regular hours, no overhead and benefits, including maternity leaves.”

“The report makes several recommendations on how to resolve some of the issues women face:

  • Create mentorship programs involving senior female lawyers;
  • Develop education programs and sensitivity training for judges and other court staff;
  • Establish fixed end times for courts and streamline court processes;
  • Provide greater support for maternity leaves;
  • Increase the number of female judges.”

CBC News, March 7, 2016: “Women leaving criminal law practice in alarming numbers,” by Maureen Brossnahan

Criminal Lawyers’ Association, March 2016: “CLA’s Retention of Women in Criminal Defence Practice Study“

Criminal Lawyers’ Association, March 2016: “The Retention of Women in the Private Practice of Criminal Law: Research Report,” by Natasha Madon (49 pages, PDF)

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Employment and Labour Update for 2015

Cases followed include:

“On the constitutional protection of rights of labour in January, 2015, the Supreme Court of Canada issued its decisions in Mounted Police Association of Ontario v Canada (Attorney General), 2015 SCC 1, Meredith v Canada (Attorney General), 2015 SCC 2 and Saskatchewan Federation of Labour v Saskatchewan, 2015 SCC 4. The new decisions, which have been dubbed the court’s new 'labour trilogy', largely abandon principles espoused in its earlier decisions in Reference Re Public Service Employee Relations Act (Alta.), [1987] 1 SCR 313, RWDSU v Saskatchewan, [1987] 1 SCR 460 and PSAC v Canada, [1987] 1 SCR 424. These 1987 decisions denied constitutional protections to collective bargaining and the right to strike.”

Norton Rose Fulbright, March 2016: “Employment and labour update 2015” (36 pages, PDF)         

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Making Law School Work

“The value of a law degree just isn’t what it once was.”

“Law school graduates are facing shrinking job prospects in general, as law firms trim their numbers post-recession and grow more efficient with the aid of technology. Some schools even stand accused of illicitly inflating their post-graduation statistics just to appeal to applicants.”

“All of this is evidence that the legal schooling itself should be revamped, argues a new research paper from the nonprofit Clayton Christensen Institute. Co-authors Michael Horn and Michelle Pistone say America’s law schools remain overly focused on tradition and prestige, which blinds them to the reality: that the practice of law is changing, and institutions aren’t keeping up.”

“They propose three ways for law schools to innovate:

  1. Overhauling the JD. Schools should develop a new educational model for the degree that helps students master ‘the competencies most relevant to the 21st century lawyer’ -- a.k.a. more practice, and less theory.
  2. Offering blended learning. By mixing traditional instruction with online learning, schools can control tuition costs and start stepping away from the hotly debated Socratic method.
  3. Offering a specialized law degree. Rather than having students graduate with a general JD, it may prove beneficial for them to enter the legal market with a focused set of skills that takes less time and money to obtain.”

Quartz, March 14, 2016: “Now that it’s an awful time to be a new lawyer, law schools need to prove their worth”

Clayton Christensen Institute, March 2016: “Disrupting Law School: How disruptive innovation will revolutionize the legal world” (29 pages, PDF)

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Play This Game and Win a Job!

“Stockfuse, developed by SHFuse Inc., a New York-based startup, is just one of a new breed of apps that invite people to play games that also serve as real-world recruiting tools.”

“The idea, says Guy Halfteck, founder and chief executive of Knack Inc., a recruitment-and-evaluation app developer, is to measure a job candidate’s strengths and weaknesses in a way that’s fun for that person.”

“Knack was founded in 2010 and says it now has more than 200 employers that use its three mobile games for recruiting, including Daimler Trucks North America LLC and Royal Bank of Canada.SHFuse landed Barclays as one of its first employer clients after participating in a startup accelerator program that Barclays helped run. Pymetrics Inc. is a more recent addition to the sector and has about a dozen recruiting games.”

“By using mobile games, employers are tapping into a growing trend. People played them on average more than two hours a day in 2014, up 57% from 2012, says research firm NPD Group. Videogames in general are fairly common in workplace break rooms today, and game-like mechanics are baked into many company training programs, a practice known as gamification.”

“’They’ve only just started to gain traction,’ says Karl Kapp, a professor of instructional technology at Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania and author of The Gamification of Learning and Instruction. ‘There is not a huge body of science behind them at all.’”

The Wall Street Journal, March 13, 2016: “Play This Game and Win a Job! Employers use mobile games to recruit potential employees,” by Sarah E. Needleman

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Stanford Closer Look Series on Corporate Governance

“The Stanford Closer Look series is a collection of short studies through which we explore topics, issues, and controversies in corporate governance. In each study, we take a targeted look at a specific issue and explain why it is important.”

Research Focus Areas:

  • Audit & Risk
  • Board of Directors
  • Compensation
  • Leadership & Succession Planning
  • Principles of Corporate Governance
  • Shareholders & Proxy Advisory

Materials Available:

Stanford Graduate School of Business: “Stanford Closer Look Series“

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 Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City

Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond tells "disturbing stories [of poverty and eviction] in spellbinding detail in service of two main points. One is that growing numbers of low-income households pay crushing shares of their incomes for shelter -- 50 percent, 60 percent, 70 percent, and more -- leaving inadequate sums for items as basic as medicine and food. Their numbers were rising for decades but soared to record levels during the Great Recession. The book’s second point is that the evictions aren’t just a consequence of poverty but also a cause. Evictions make kids change schools and cost adults their jobs. They undermine neighborhoods, force desperate families into worse housing, and leave lasting emotional scars. Yet they have been an afterthought, if that, in discussions of poverty.”

“Desmond, a Harvard sociologist, cites plenty of statistics but it’s his ethnographic gift that lends the work such force. He’s one of a rare academic breed: a poverty expert who engages with the poor. His portraits are vivid and unsettling. It’s not easy to show desperate people using drugs or selling sex and still convey their courage and dignity. Evicted pulls it off.”

The New York Review of Books, March 10, 2016: “Kicked Out in America!” by Jason DeParle

The New Yorker, February 8, 2016: “Forced Out: For many poor Americans, eviction never ends,” by Matthew Desmond

The Guardian, March 8, 2016: “One day, nine cruel evictions. How supersized inequality looks in the US,” by Aditya Chakrabortty

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Social Protection for Domestic Workers

“Sixty million of the world’s 67 million domestic workers -- 80 per cent of whom are women -- lack access to any kind of social security coverage, according to a new report prepared by the United Nations International Labour Organization.”

“Domestic work is considered a sector that is difficult to cover, partly because work is performed in private households and frequently for more than one employer. The occupation is also characterized by high job turnover, frequent in-kind payments, irregular wages and a lack of formal work contracts.”

Philippe Marcadent, Chief of the ILO’s Inclusive Labour Markets, Labour Relations and Working Conditions Branc, said:
“Given that it is predominantly a female workforce highly subject to discrimination as well as social and economic vulnerability, policies to extend social protection to domestic workers are key elements in the fight against poverty and the promotion of gender equality.”

“The study also warns that migrant domestic workers -- currently estimated at 11.5 million worldwide -- often face even greater discrimination. Around 14 per cent of countries whose social security systems provide some type of coverage for domestic workers do not extend the same rights to migrant domestic workers.”

“Because of the uniquely vulnerable situation of domestic workers, mandatory coverage will not be effective alone. Strategies should include -- among other measures - fiscal incentives, registration plans, awareness-raising campaigns targeting domestic workers and their employers as well as service voucher mechanisms. Domestic work should also be integrated into broader policies aimed at reducing informal work.”

United Nations News Centre, March 14, 2016: “Some 90 per cent of domestic workers excluded from social protection -- UN”

International Labour Organization, March 10, 2016: “Social protection for domestic workers: Key policy trends and statistics”(79 pages, PDF)

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Forced Domestic Labour in Hong Kong

“One in six migrant domestic workers in Hong Kong is in forced labour, working an average of 71 hours a week, some for more than 15 hours a day, according to research by Justice Centre Hong Kong.”

“The study, which surveyed 1,000 workers from eight countries in a dozen areas of the city, used the International Labour Organisation’s indicators for forced labour adapted to the Hong Kong context. It found that 13% of those surveyed worked 15 or more hours a day and 7.7% were woken up in the night to work. Even on rest days, 35% were made to do some work and 4.5% were not given a rest day. Of those in forced labour, 14% had been trafficked and only 5.4% showed no signs of labour exploitation.”

“Two cases of abuse have turned the international spotlight on Hong Kong.”

“Last year, a Hong Kong woman, Law Wan-tung, who abused Erwiana Sulistyaningsih, then 21, from Indonesia, was sentenced to six years in jail after her conviction for assault, grievous bodily harm, criminal intimidation, and failure to pay wages and give rest days.”

“Another Indonesian woman, Kartika Puspitasari, was assaulted, tortured, starved and imprisoned in her employer’s home over two years from 2010. The 27-year-old escaped and her employers were sentenced to jail terms in 2013.”

“Hong Kong has one of the highest densities of migrant domestic workers in the world -- 336,600, mainly women, make up 4.4% of the city’s population and 10% of the workforce, providing cheap care for children and elderly people.”
“Most of these workers come from the Philippines and Indonesia.”

The Guardian, March 14, 2016: “Forced labour common among Hong Kong’s domestic helpers, study finds”

Justice Centre Hong Kong, March 2016: “Coming Clean: The prevalence of forced labour and human trafficking for the purpose of forced labour amongst migrant domestic workers in Hong Kong” (43 pages, PDF)

U.S. Department of State, July 2015: “Trafficking in Persons Report 2015” (382 pages, PDF)

International Labour Organization, October 1, 2012: “ILO indicators of Forced Labour” (26 pages, PDF)

Justice Centre Hong Kong [website]

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Book of the Week

The Rise and Fall of American Growth: The U.S. Standard of Living Since the Civil War, Robert J. Gordon. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2016. 762 p. ISBN 9780691147727 (hardcover)

From the publisher: "In the century after the Civil War, an economic revolution improved the American standard of living in ways previously unimaginable. Electric lighting, indoor plumbing, home appliances, motor vehicles, air travel, air conditioning, and television transformed households and workplaces. With medical advances, life expectancy between 1870 and 1970 grew from forty-five to seventy-two years. Weaving together a vivid narrative, historical anecdotes, and economic analysis, The Rise and Fall of American Growth provides an in-depth account of this momentous era. But has that era of unprecedented growth come to an end? Gordon challenges the view that economic growth can or will continue unabated, and he demonstrates that the life-altering scale of innovations between 1870 and 1970 can't be repeated. He contends that the nation's productivity growth, which has already slowed to a crawl, will be further held back by the vexing headwinds of rising inequality, stagnating education, an aging population, and the rising debt of college students and the federal government. Gordon warns that the younger generation may be the first in American history that fails to exceed their parents' standard of living, and that rather than depend on the great advances of the past, we must find new solutions to overcome the challenges facing us. A critical voice in the debates over economic stagnation, The Rise and Fall of American Growth is at once a tribute to a century of radical change and a harbinger of tougher times to come."

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