Perry Work Report for the week of January 17, 2013

Perry Work Report, January 17, 2013

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Six 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.

6. By hiring one of our students, your organization may be eligible to receive a maximum refundable tax credit of $3,000. Please visit the Co-operative Education Tax Credit information website http://www.fin.gov.on.ca/en/credit/cetc/ for further information.

We invite you to contact Zania Mauricette in the Management Co-op office. She will be able to assist you with the entire recruiting process and can answer any questions you may have about the 2013 summer work term or its participants. Zania can be reached by telephone at (416) 287–7361 or via email at zmauricette@utsc.utoronto.ca.

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Remembering Open Access Activist Aaron Schwartz

Internet innovator and open access activist Aaron Schwartz committed suicide the week before he was to go to trial, facing 35 years and $1 million dollars in fines for a “crime” in which the victim [JSTOR] did not wish criminal charges to be laid.

“Swartz’s family has stated, “Aaron’s death is not simply a personal tragedy. It is the product of a criminal justice system rife with intimidation and prosecutorial overreach. Decisions made by officials in the Massachusetts U.S. Attorney’s office and at MIT contributed to his death. The US Attorney’s office pursued an exceptionally harsh array of charges, carrying potentially over 30 years in prison, to punish an alleged crime that had no victims.”

The family is reasonable in laying blame on the criminal justice system. “By and large, American prosecutors no longer fight their cases at trial. The new dispensation is justice by plea bargain. The more savage the penalties prosecutors can threaten, the more likely the defendant (guilty or innocent) is to speed things along by pleading guilty and accepting a light penalty. According to the Wall Street Journal, Swartz was offered the choice of pleading guilty and going to jail for six to eight months, or else going to trial and taking his chances. The multiple counts and their absurdly savage sentences are best seen, just as the family said, as instruments of intimidation.” [The Atlantic]

In a tribute to his memory, researchers have been posting links to PDFs of their work to Twitter with the hashtag #pdftribute.

The Atlantic, January 15, 2013: The Death of Aaron Swartz by Clive Crook

The Economist, January 13, 2013: Remembering Aaron Swartz: Commons man by

The Globe and Mail, January 14, 2012: Activist Swartz’s suicide raises questions about prosecuting computer crimes by Daniel Wagner and Verena Dobnik

CNET, January 13, 2013: Researchers honor Swartz's memory with PDF protest by Steven Musil

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Yet Nortel Executives Found Not Guilty (the good die too young and the entrenched are ever with us …)

“Three former top executives of Nortel Networks Corp. were found not guilty of fraud, closing a key chapter in a financial scandal that helped bring down the once-mighty telecommunications giant. In a ruling Monday, Mr. Justice Frank Marrocco of the Ontario Superior Court found that the accounting manipulations that caused the company to restate its earnings for 2002 and 2003 did not cross the line into criminal behaviour.” [The Globe and Mail]

“Jacob Frenkel, a former SEC lawyer and partner with Shulman Rogers in Maryland, allowed that a loss in such a high-profile case could cause prosecutors to be more picky in pursuing future cases. For (a prosecutor) to lose a case in which it is so invested, for so many years, the outcome is devastating,” he said. “If (they) decide to bring fewer cases or become more reluctant to bring certain cases, because of this verdict, that would only become an invitation to fraudulent activity.” [Financial Post]

The Globe and Mail, January 14, 2013: Three former Nortel executives found not guilty of fraud by Janet MacFarland and Richard Blackwell

The Financial Post, January 15, 2013: Nortel acquittals could have chilling effect on Canadian prosecutions by Cameron French

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Employee Rights in the Gaming Industry

“It is cool to work in the video game industry. You get paid work on games, right? This image of the video game industry as a cool, hip, fun place where you get to make cutting edge titles has some truth, but it also hides a dark side.” [Marie-Josée Legault and Johanna Weststar]

“The dark side also emerges when you talk to individual game developers about their working conditions and the risks that they face. Developers say that they face challenges with sustained long working hours ("crunch"), unlimited and unpaid overtime, poor work-life balance, high incidence of musculoskeletal disorders and burnout, unacknowledged intellectual property rights, limited crediting standards, non-compete and non-disclosure agreements, and limited or unsupported training opportunities.” [Marie-Josée Legault and Johanna Weststar]

Gamasutra, January 9, 2013: Are Game Developers Standing Up for Their Rights? by Marie-Josée Legault and Johanna Weststar

“A team of academics studying the working conditions of the videogame industry have released a report on the IGDA 2009 Quality of Life Survey. They focus on work/life balance, equity, compensation & representation have gathering conversations and data to track these issues over time.

Quality of Life in the Videogame Industry, October 2012: “More than the Numbers: Independent Analysis of the IGDA 2009 Quality of Life Survey” by Marie-Josée Legault and Johanna Weststar (website)

More than the Numbers: Independent Analysis of the IGDA 2009 Quality of Life Survey Analyzed and Written October, 2012 by: Marie-Josée Legault, Téluq, Université du Québec Johanna Weststar, University of Western Ontario (109 pages, PDF)

This work by Marie-Josée Legault and Johanna Weststar is provided under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 2.5 Canada licence creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.5/ca“

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Ontario Teachers Planned Walkout Ruled Illegal

Ontario Labour Relations Board Chair Bernard Fishbein issued a ruling declaring that the province-wide day of protest planned by the Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario ("ETFO") for January 11, 2013, would constitute an unlawful strike contrary to section 79 of the Ontario Labour Relations Act. [Lancaster House]

“Following the 4 a.m. decision, Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario President Sam Hammond grudgingly said teachers should show up for work, but said he wasn’t happy with the decision.” [CTV News]

Lancaster House, January 15, 2013: OLRB declares Ontario teachers' 'day of protest' an "unlawful strike," ending planned one-day walkout
 CanLII, January 11, 2013: Ontario (Education) v. Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario, 2013 CanLII 481 (ON LRB)

CTV News, January 11, 2013: Ontario parents upset after about-face in teachers' walkout by Andy Johnson

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National Standard for Psychological Health & Safety in the Workplace

"The Mental Health Commission of Canada (MHCC), the Bureau de normalisation du Québec (BNQ), and CSA Group have officially released Canada's first national standard designed to help organizations and their employees improve workplace psychological health and safety.

The National Standard of Canada titled Psychological Health and Safety in the Workplace - Prevention, promotion and guidance to staged implementation is a voluntary standard focused on promoting employees' psychological health and preventing psychological harm due to workplace factors.
The Standard provides a systematic approach to develop and sustain a psychologically healthy and safe workplace, including:

  • The identification of psychological hazards in the workplace;
  • The assessment and control of the risks in the workplace associated with hazards that cannot be eliminated (e.g. stressors due to organizational change or reasonable job demands);
  • The implementation of practices that support and promote psychological health and safety in the workplace;
  • The growth of a culture that promotes psychological health and safety in the workplace;
  • The implementation of measurement and review systems to ensure sustainability.' [from the CSA website]

The National Standard of Canada for Psychological Health and Safety in the Workplace is available for a free download from the CSA website

CBC News, January 16, 2013: Workplace mental health guide sets national standard

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ADHD Impacts Future Employment, Earnings

Jason Fletcher, a professor Yale's School of Public Health, has found that overall, “young people diagnosed with ADHD are about 10 to 14 percentage points less likely to be employed. If they do have a job, they earn about 33 percent less income. Only a small part of those differences can attributed to factors such as how far young people with the syndrome make it through school. [The Atlantic]

“One key thing to note: The study uses data on students who were somewhere in seventh through twelfth grade in the 1994-95 school year. That means most would have been young children in the 1980s, when ADHD diagnoses were less prevalent [than] today and access to drugs like Ritalin would have been a bit more restricted.” [The Atlantic]

The Atlantic, January 15, 2013: Study: Children With ADHD Earn Less, Work Less Later In Life by Jordan Weissmann

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“Do Economists Lie More?”

A pair of researchers from universities in Montreal and Madrid conducted a study examining “whether the study of economics made students more apt to lie for financial gain. The answer: a resounding yes.” [The Atlantic]

“Given a harmless chance to make a quick euro by telling a white lie, budding economists and corporate executives were much more likely to do it than their peers. Classics and biology lovers, on the other hand, seemed more likely to tell the truth for its own sake. It also doesn’t really seem to imply that those people are less likely to bother with the complicated moral calculus required to balance truthfulness and self-interest in real life — only that they seem to place less inherent weight on the value of honesty.” [The Atlantic]

“Still, next time a company whips out a too-good-to-be-true economic forecast from a paid consultant, remember, you’ve been warned.” [The Atlantic]

Universidad Autonoma de Madrid, April 2012: “Do Economists Lie More?” by Raúl López-Pérez and Eli Spiegelman (19 pages, PDF)

The Atlantic, December 18, 2012: Research Says: Studying Economics Turns You Into a Liar by Jordan Weissmann

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Online Learning and Post-Secondary Education in the US

“The tenth annual survey by the Babson Survey Research Group and the College Board provides a leading barometer of online learning in the United States. It is based on responses from over 2,800 academic leaders. The 2012 Survey of Online Learning reveals the number of students taking at least one online course has now surpassed 6.7 million.  Higher education adoption of Massive Open Online Courses remains low, with most institutions still on the sidelines.”

"Institutional opinions on MOOCs are mixed,” added co-author I. Elaine Allen.  “Some praise them for their ability to learn about online pedagogy and attract new students, but concerns remain about whether they are a sustainable method for offering courses.”

Babson Research Group and the College Board, January 8, 2013: “Changing Course: Ten Years of Tracking Online Education in the United States” (link to download page)

Press release: Babson Study:  Over 6.7 Million Students Learning Online

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How Much Protection Does a College Degree Afford?

“Pew’s Economic Mobility Project explores whether recent college graduates weathered the recession more successfully than less-educated groups. Using data from the 2003–2011 Current Population Survey for 21- through 24-year-olds, it reveals that a four-year college degree helped shield recent graduates from a range of poor outcomes during the Great Recession, including unemployment, low-skill jobs, and lesser wages. The findings show a real deterioration over the course of the recession in the market position of recent college graduates.  However, these effects were quite small when compared with those experienced by high school and associate degree-holders.” [Pew Economic Mobility Project]

Pew Economic Mobility Project, January 10, 2013: “How Much Protection Does a College Degree Afford?” (32 pages, PDF)

Quick Summary: “This report examines the impact of the Great Recession on the early labor market outcomes of recent college graduates compared to less-educated groups.”

Press Release, January 9, 2013: “Pew Report Finds Recent College Graduates Well-Protected Against Worst Effects of Recession.”

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Forced Labour at Canadian Mine in Eritrea

“International mining firms rushing to invest in Eritrea’s burgeoning minerals sector risk involvement in serious abuses unless they take strong preventive measures. The failure of the Vancouver-based company Nevsun Resources to ensure that forced labor would not be used during construction of its Eritrea mine, and its limited ability to deal with forced labor allegations when they arose, highlight the risk.” [Human Rights Watch]

““There are always tradeoffs in where you’re working,” Nevsun president Cliff Davis told The Globe and Mail in 2011 when he was asked about Eritrea’s human-rights abuses. “As a mining company, we shouldn’t be imposing some form of political environment that we’re familiar with,” Mr. Davis said.” [The Globe and Mail]

“It is negligent for mining companies to ignore the risks of forced labor that clearly exist in Eritrea,” Albin-Lackey said. “It is also long past time for these companies’ home governments to make their overseas human rights records an issue of domestic concern.” [Human Rights Watch]

Human Rights Watch, January 15, 2013: “Hear No Evil: Forced Labor and Corporate Responsibility in Eritrea’s Mining Sector” (10 pages, HTML)

Human Rights Watch Press release, January 15, 2013: “Eritrea: Mining Investors Risk Use of Forced Labor”

The Globe and Mail, January 15, 2013: “Nevsun accused of turning a blind eye to forced labour,” by Geoffrey York

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ILO’s Newest Report on Domestic Workers

The International Labour Organization (ILO) has published a report shedding light on the magnitude of domestic work, a sector often “invisible” behind the doors of private households and unprotected by national legislation.

“This volume presents national statistics and new global and regional estimates on the number of domestic workers. It shows that domestic workers represent a significant share of the labour force worldwide. It also examines the extent of inclusion or exclusion of domestic workers from key working conditions laws. In particular, it analyses how many domestic workers are covered by working time provisions, minimum wage legislation and maternity protection. The results demonstrate that under current national laws, substantial gaps in protection still remain. The volume concludes with a summary of the main findings and a reflection on the relevance of the newly adopted international standards to extend legal protection to domestic workers.” [ILO]

International Labour Organization, January 9, 2013: Domestic Workers Across the World: Global and regional statistics and the extent of legal protection (146 pages, PDF)

Summary of Report (4 pages, PDF)

International Labour Organization, January 9, 2013: Domestic workers still experience poor legal protection, the ILO warns (3:43, YouTube Video)

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International Panel at the University of Toronto: Green Work, Brown World: Labour and the Dilemma of Climate Change

When: Friday, January 25, 2013, 5:30-7:30pm 
Where: Victoria College at University of Toronto, Alumni Hall. 
91 Charles St. West. Toronto, On, M5S 1K7

An initiative of the Work in a Warming World Research Programme.

Join us for an early evening Panel of leading labour environmentalists and activist intellectuals to discuss the hard challenges and creative strategies for labour leadership on global warming.

Speakers

Karen Hawley, Environmental researcher and educator (Ottawa) 
Donald Lafleur, 4th Vice-President, Canadian Union of Postalworkers (Ottawa)
Isabelle Ménard, conseillère syndicale--environnement Confédération des syndicats nationaux (Montréal)
Andrea Peart, National Representative, Health, Safety and Environment, Canadian Labour Congress (Ottawa) 
Joe Uehlein, Director, Labor Network for Sustainability (Washington, D.C.) 

Across the planet, the world is browning, not greening. Greenhouse gas emissions continue to grow and grow, and strategies for slowing global warming remain ineffective. 

The world of work is a major producer of GHGs.  But can work also be a leading site for reducing greenhouse gasses? Can workers and their unions lead the struggle to slow global warming? The question is central to decent work in the 21st century. 

Work in a Warming World (W3) is a community-university research initiative of the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada. W3’s Public Panels have been held in Fredericton, Vancouver, and Toronto, in 2010, 2011 and 2012.

This year, W3’s International Panel brings together labour environmentalists and academics from Canada and the US to discuss the hard issues that unions face, and to share the strategies that work. The hard issues have, to date, kept unions from playing the major role they can and must play in the struggle to slow global warming. Labour’s strategic creativity, however, is less well-known.

The Panel is free, but registration is essential.  Seating is limited.

Please click here to register:  http://events.constantcontact.com/register/event?llr=5pp9bseab&oeidk=a07e6t61jat5b856336

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Book of the Week

Indigenous Women and Work: From Labor to Activism, edited by Carol Williams. Urbana : University of Illinois Press, 2012. 299 p. ISBN 9780252078682 (pbk.)

UTLibraries link to catalogue record: http://go.utlib.ca/cat/8600875

The essays in Indigenous Women and Work create a transnational and comparative dialogue on the history of the productive and reproductive lives and circumstances of Indigenous women from the late nineteenth century to the present in the United States, Australia, New Zealand/Aotearoa, and Canada. Surveying the spectrum of Indigenous women's lives and circumstances as workers, both waged and unwaged, the contributors offer varied perspectives on the ways women's work has contributed to the survival of communities in the face of ongoing tensions between assimilation and colonization. They also interpret how individual nations have conceived of Indigenous women as workers and, in turn, convert these assumptions and definitions into policy and practice. The essays address the intersection of Indigenous, women's, and labor history, but will also be useful to contemporary policy makers, tribal activists, and Native American women's advocacy associations.

About the Authors:

Contributors are Tracey Banivanua Mar, Marlene Brant Castellano, Cathleen D. Cahill, Brenda J. Child, Sherry Farrell Racette, Chris Friday, Aroha Harris, Faye HeavyShield, Heather A. Howard, Margaret D. Jacobs, Alice Littlefield, Cybèle Locke, Mary Jane Logan McCallum, Kathy M'Closkey, Colleen O'Neill, Beth H. Piatote, Susan Roy, Lynette Russell, Joan Sangster, Ruth Taylor, and Carol Williams

Visit the Recent Books at the CIRHR Library blog.

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This publication is protected by Canadian copyright laws and may not be copied, posted or forwarded electronically without permission.

Questions or comments: cirhr.library@utoronto.ca

Editor: Vicki Skelton and Melody Tacit
Designer: Nick Strupat

Copyright © 2010 Centre for Industrial Relations and Human Resources, University of Toronto. All rights reserved.

Date posted