Perry Work Report for the week of February 22, 2010

February 22, 2010

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The Changing Canadian Workplace: Don Drummond, Chief Economist at TD Bank will deliver this year's Sefton Lecture

Woodsworth College and the Centre for Industrial Relations & Human Resources are proud to present the 2010 Sefton Lecturer. Don Drummond, Senior Vice President and Chief Economist TD Bank Financial will be delivering the lecture, The Changing Canadian Workplace, on Thursday, March 25, 2010, at 7:00 p.m. at Kruger Hall, Woodsworth College, 119 St. George St. The Sefton Award for contributions to labour relations will be presented to Mr. Bob Baldwin. The Morley Gunderson prize in Industrial Relations will be presented to David Doorey, Professor of Employment & Labour Law in the new School of Human Resource Management at York University and the Academic Director of Osgoode Hall Law School's PDP Masters of Law in Labour and Employment Law and award winner for his Doorey's Workplace Law Blog: Thoughts on Canadian Labour and Employment Law for Students and Others

All are welcome. Reception follows lecture.

28th Sefton Memorial Lecture Thursday, March 25, 7pm. (PDF flyer)

Woodsworth College: Sefton Lecture 2010

 

Freedom of Association Conference: Papers and backgrounders available online

This conference will review the character, evolution and status of freedom of association at work as a global right, will examine domestic law and practice in light of Canada’s international obligations and, to the extent that they are incompatible, will explore ways that Canadian norms may be harmonized with Canada’s international obligations, on February 25-27, 2010 at the College of Law, University of Saskatchewan.The majority of the speakers’ presentations are now available on the conference agenda website. Included are presentations by Roy Adams, Lee Swepston, Ken Norman, Michel Coutu and Julie Bourgault, Tonia Novitz, Larry and Judy Haiven, Mark Harcourt, Doug Baer, James Clancy, Peter McLellan, and Patricia Hughes as well as backgrounders & papers by many others.

Freedom of Association Conference Agenda with links to presentations

 

Human Rights and Accommodation Conference plus Workshops on Poisoned Work Environment and Workplace Violence and Harassment

Human Rights and Accommodation Conference Tuesday, April 20, and Wednesday, April 21, 2010 in Toronto, presented by Lancaster House and University of Toronto, Centre for Industrial Relations and Human Resources. Westin Harbour Castle Hotel, 1 Harbour Square, Toronto, Ontario. Pre-Conference Workshop, April 19: Investigating Human Rights Violations in the Workplace, Cleansing a Poisoned Work Environment. Post-Conference Workshop, April 22, Workplace Violence and Harassment Workshop: Exercising your rights, meeting your obligations under Ontario's new Bill 168.

Details at: Lancaster House website

 

Supreme Court finds the CAW not liable for union member’s action that killed nine miners

“In a long-awaited 9-0 decision, the Supreme Court of Canada has ruled that the CAW as a national union is not liable for the actions of Roger Warren, a local union member who deliberately set an underground explosion that killed nine gold miners in the midst of a bitter and violent strike at the Giant Mine in the Northwest Territories. The Court held that the national union was a distinct legal entity from the local union and was neither directly nor vicariously responsible for what occurred.” [Lancaster House]

Lancaster House: Labour law online, February 22, 2010: Supreme Court absolves national union of liability for Giant Mine nine-fatality explosion

Court, February 23, 2010: No relief for victims of the giant mine disaster, by Daniel Del Gobbo

Fullowka v. Pinkerton's of Canada Ltd., 2010 SCC 5, February 18, 2010. Docket: 32735 (83 pages, PDF)

Webcast of the hearing on 2009-05-14: Sheila Fullowka, et al. v. Pinkerton's of Canada Limited, et al. (Northwest Territories) (Civil) (By Leave) Docket: 32735

Globe and Mail, February 18, 2010: Supreme Court rejects damage award for Giant Mine widows: Group had sued union, mine owners over fatal 1992 blast, arguing they should have known dangers (links to earlier G&M articles on the case also available on this webpage)

 

Two websites: one for union building and one for union busting

Union Communication Services Inc., UCS has been publishing and distributing education, training and communication materials for unions across North America since 1981. They publish and distribute steward advice, labor news, graphics and books that help progressive union leaders rally their members and build their unions.

Projections: connecting people through employee communication is a firm that specializes in distributing materials to help firm that want to stay union free. Here is an example from the Projections website: “Delivered in a conversational tone, this union avoidance video educates employees, providing them with the basis for an informed decision”. Doorey’s Workplace Law blog did a story on this firm titled: American Union Busting Firm comes to Canada, January 25, 2010

 

Recruiting on Facebook

A new company, Wind Mobile, has entered the competitive wireless market using social networking sites such as Facebook to target the employees they want to hire. If you have ever wondered how Facebook got its start … it was at Harvard as an elite social networking site at an elite university.

Globe and Mail, February 18, 2010: Work 'worth getting out of bed for': As the economic recovery begins to tighten labour markets, telecom startup Wind hires talent away from its rivals, by Virginia Galt

New York Review of Books, Febuary 25, 2010: Founding of Facebook, A Tale of Sex, Money, Genius, and Betrayal

 

Training for Green Careers

The demand for green jobs is rapidly expanding and Canada’s workforce is ill-prepared to meet the need, according to the Canadian Council on Learning (CCL). The need for jobs in the environmental sector will increase by more than eight percent by 2011, yet enrolment in post-secondary environmental programs has dropped nine percent since 1999. This finding is summarized in CCL's Lessons in Learning article “Meeting the Demand for Trained Personnel in Canada’s Environmental Sector,” which identifies the impending shortage—and offers a number of potential solutions.

Canadian Council on Learning, February 11, 2010: “Meeting the Demand for Trained Personnel in Canada’s Environmental Sector”

Press release, February 11, 2010: Growing the green generation: How to meet the need in Canada’s burgeoning environmental sector February 11, 2010

 

Canada’s Top 50 Best Managed Companies

Deloitte recently announced their selection for Canada’s 50 Best Managed Companies for 2009. Companies were selected through an independent process that evaluated each company’s management abilities and practices.

Canada’s 50 Best Official Website

Deloitte Press Release, February 16, 2010: “Canada’s 50 Best Managed Companies announced”

 

Inequalities Remain

The second report in Catalyst’s project The Promise of Future Leadership: A Research Program on Highly Talented Employees in the Pipeline, has been released. Titled Pipeline’s Broken Promise, this report examines how inequalities remain entrenched in career trajectories, despite the idea that both been and men begin on equal footing. Studies of graduates from elite MBA programs revealed that women lagged men in advancement and compensation starting at their first job.

Press Release, February 2010

Report, February 2010 (16 pages, PDF)

Globe and Mail, February 18, 2010: Playing field uneven for female MBA grads

 

Health Care Toolkit

Available from the Britain’s National Business Group on Health, The Communication Toolkit: Using Information to Get High Quality Care can help employers encourage employees to be better informed and more actively involved in their health care. This includes recognizing and insisting upon getting quality, cost effective care and understanding “evidence-based care.” The Toolkit has two parts: materials for employers and unions and customizable materials for the workforce. All materials are free and can be downloaded from the website of the National Business Group on Health.

The Communication Toolkit: Using Information to Get High Quality Care, February 2010 (45 pages, PDF)

The Communication Toolkit: Using Information to Get High Quality Care (html access)

The Communication Toolkit: Using Information to Get High Quality Care website

 

Repeat leaves of absence seven times more likely in cases of mental illness

With mental illness associated with more lost work days than any other chronic condition and costing $17.7 billion annually in lost productivity, understanding its underpinnings is increasingly important to the Canadian economy. Now new research from the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) indicates that the strongest predictor for work disability leaves is a person’s past history of occurrences. “Often the support and services available to employees when they return to work does not address the chronic nature of mental illness,” says Dr. Dewa. “It’s important that employers implement a continuum of care and support – both to help prevent a person from needing to go on leave, as well as to help maintain their mental wellness upon their return to work.”

Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, February 17, 2010: Workers with mental illness: New study indicates the need for increased workplace prevention and support

Factors Associated With Short-Term Disability Episodes Dewa, Carolyn S.; Chau, Nancy; Dermer, Stanley Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine. 51(12):1394-1402, December 2009. ( available online to those with current UTORIDs)

 

Workers’ Compensation Systems Compared

The Institute for Work & Health (IWH) has released an “Issue Briefing” that compares the costs of the workers’ compensation scheme in the state of California with the cost of provincial workers’ compensation schemes in Canada. The key findings of the paper are: that administrative costs are higher when provided mainly through private insurers benefits and that there are benefits to the public administration of this system as opposed to a system operating in a private competitive market.

Issue Briefing, February 2010: Workers’ Compensation in California and Canada (4 pages, PDF)

 

Older Americans Staying Longer in the Work Force

A survey completed by the Employee Benefit Research Institute reveals that the elderly are staying in the work force longer. Since 1993, their participation in the labor-force has increased steadily, reaching 39.4 percent in 2008 – the highest level over the 1975–2008period. This trend is likely to continue because of workers’ need for access to employment-based health insurance and for more earning years to accumulate assets in defined contribution plans—especially after the 2008 economic downturn.

Survey, December 2010 (20 pages, PDF)

 

The Revival of American Labor Law?

National Labor Relations Board Chairman Wilma Liebman reflected on the state of U.S. labor law and of the agency she leads, particularly in light of recent unsuccessful efforts to fill longstanding vacancies on the Board and the ongoing debate over proposed labor law reform. “Sober public dialogue is sorely needed if we are to figure out how to allow, indeed encourage, business to be flexible and competitive, yet also ensure workers the protections and promise of the law. In other words, how are we to achieve the necessary delicate balance between market freedom and democratic values?"

Revival of American Labor Law: Full-text of Speech, February 17, 2010 (37 pages, PDF)

Press release, February 17, 2010

 

Book of the Week

Hired Hands or Human Resources?: Case Studies of HRM Programs and Practices in Early American Industry, by Bruce E. Kaufman. Ithaca, N.Y. : ILR Press, 2010. 254 p. ISBN 978-0-8014-4830-0

Globalization, technological change, and deregulation have made the American marketplace increasingly competitive in recent decades. This "new economy" has resulted in heightened job insecurity, lower wages, and scarcer benefits for many workers. As the job market has grown more volatile, a variety of public and private labor market intermediaries--organizations that help job seekers find employment--have sprung up. The authors investigate what approaches are most effective in helping workers secure jobs with decent wages and benefits, and they provide specific policy recommendations for how job-matching organizations can better serve disadvantaged workers. In a companion volume to Managing the Human Factor, also from Cornell, Bruce E. Kaufman shows how American firms transitioned from the traditional "hired hand" model of human resource management (HRM) to the modern "human resources" version popular today. Kaufman illuminates through fifteen detailed case studies the structure and operation of HRM programs and practices across a diverse range of American business firms spanning the fifty years from 1880 to 1930. Nine of the fifteen case studies in Hired Hands or Human Resources? examine HRM before World War I and document the highly informal, decentralized, externalized, and sometimes harsh nature of the people-management practices of that era. The remaining six span the Welfare Capitalism decade of the 1920s and reveal the marked transformation to a more progressive and professional model of personnel practice at some companies, along with continued reliance on the traditional model at others.

Kaufman gained access to the richly detailed audits of company HRM programs prepared during the 1920s by Industrial Relations Counselors, Inc., and draws upon this trove of information to present the most in-depth, up-close evidence available of how companies of this period managed their employees and how the practice of HRM evolved and developed. Hired Hands or Human Resources? features new insights into key subjects such as the strategic versus tactical nature of early HRM, alternative models of workforce governance used in these years, and the reasons some companies created autonomous HRM departments.

About the Author:

Bruce E. Kaufman is Professor of Economics and Senior Associate of the W.T. Beebe Institute of Personnel and Employment Relations at Georgia State University and Research Fellow at the Center for Work, Organization and Wellbeing at Griffith University.

 

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