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June 7, 2012
- The Bora Laskin Award 2012 Recipients
- Wisconsin Rejects Recall of Governor
- Discussion of Workers’ Rights Violations Blocked at ILO Conference
- Security Guards Beat the Odds and Form First Union In Las Vegas Sands' Empire
- Changes to Employment Insurance – Too Much, or Too Little?
- Gay Staff Need Not Apply to Canadian University
- Does Gender Matter At Work?
- Who Are Canada’s 1%?
- OECD Skills Strategy
- Report Accuses Wal-Mart Of Driving Down Wages and Benefits
- No ‘Pride, Pomp, and Circumstance’ for Some Unemployed at the Diamond Jubilee
- Double Double Trouble at Hospital Tim Hortons
- Book of the Week
The Bora Laskin Award 2012 Recipients
"Vince Ready and Martin Teplitsky, both highly respected mediators/arbitrators, have been chosen by the Selection Committee as the 2012 recipients of the Bora Laskin Award. This award, named in honour of the late Chief Justice Bora Laskin, has been established by the University of Toronto to honour those who have made outstanding contributions to Canadian labour law.
Vince Ready will be presented with his award at a special dinner event at the Hyatt Regency in Vancouver on December 4, 2012. This event will be held in conjunction with Lancaster's Bargaining in the Broader Public Sector/Labour Arbitration Conferences in Vancouver. Visit the conferenceregistration page online.
Martin Teplitsky will be presented with his award at a special dinner event at the Park Hyatt in Toronto on October 16, 2012. This event will be held in conjunction with Lancaster's conference on Canadian Labour Board Law, co-hosted by the University of Toronto, Centre for Industrial Relations and Human Resources and Lancaster House. Visit the conference registration page online."
Wisconsin Rejects Recall of Governor
“Governor Scott Walker survived an attempt to oust him from office. Wisconsin voters also gave him a place in history: It was the first time a U.S. governor has won a recall election. The recall campaign came about after the Republican governor stripped away collective bargaining rights for public workers. Walker's win was a blow for Democrats and unions. Republicans say their victory shows voters want leaders who will make tough fiscal decisions. Whether the Wisconsin results are a bellwether for the 2012 presidential race remains to be seen.”
NPR, The Diane Rehm Show, June 6, 2012: Wisconsin Recall Results. Panel discussion.
Guests: Chris Cillizza author of The Fix, a Washington Post politics blog, and managing editor of PostPolitics.com.; Molly Ball national reporter, Atlantic magazine; Craig Gilbert Washington bureau chief, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel; Douglas Belkin reporter, The Wall Street Journal. (Podcast, 51:40 minutes).
NPR, June 6, 2012: “Seven Ways Wisconsin's Recall Vote May Matter To You”
CNN Politics, June 6, 2012: “Walker's Wisconsin win big blow to unions, smaller one to Obama”, by John Helton and Tom Cohen
The New York Times, June 5, 2012: “Walker Survives Wisconsin Recall Vote”, By Monica Davey and Jeff Zeleny
The Globe and Mail, June 5 2012: "Wisconsin vote illustrates divided electorate” by Konrad Yakabuski
The Financial Post, June 5, 2012: “Terence Corcoran: Saskawisconsin”
The Toronto Star, June 4, 2012: “Wisconsin’s high-stakes recall election has national implications”, by Robert Benzie
Discussion of Workers’ Rights Violations Blocked at ILO Conference
“For the first time in the history of the International Labour Organization, the employers' group blocked discussion on June 4 on some of the worst cases of workers' rights violations at the annual ILO conference in Geneva. Since 1926, the International Labour Conference (ILC) has discussed the most serious cases included in the annual report of the ILO's Committee of Experts, a 17-member committee of eminent and independent international jurists. This, year the International Organisation of Employers (IOE) has refused to discuss any cases.[...] Sharan Burrow, ITUC General Secretary, said "Employers at the ILO are trying to keep the worst abuses under wraps and avoid the international scrutiny which could help save lives and tackle some of the most appalling attacks on the rights of working people.”
International Metalworkers’ Federation - IMF, June 5, 2012: “Unprecedented attack on workers' rights at ILO”, by Anita Gardner
International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), June 6, 2012: “Annual Survey of Violations of Trade Union Rights”.
Full Survey
Statistics Per Region, 2012 (Statistics can also be downloaded from this page in .xls format)
Security Guards Beat the Odds and Form First Union In Las Vegas Sands' Empire
“Over the last 23 years Sheldon Adelson has built Las Vegas Sands Corp. into the world's largest casino company — bigger than the next 10 competitors combined. He's done it without having a single one of his 40,000 workers in Las Vegas, Asia and Bethlehem, Pa., join a labor union. Now a band of security guards making $13 an hour may be on the verge of ending the world's 14th-richest person's winning streak.”
Los Angeles Times, June 2, 2012: “The National Labor Relations Board has ordered Sands Casino Resort in Bethlehem, Pa., to begin bargaining with its 130 security guards as a labor union”, by Matt Assad
FastCompany, May 31, 2012: “Can Casinos Help Save America's Shrinking Cities?”, by Alissa Walker
Changes to Employment Insurance – Too Much, or Too Little?
The biggest change to employment insurance in over a decade will create three categories of unemployed workers who will need to widen their job search to retain their EI benefits. “The Conservative government is overhauling how Canadians collect employment insurance: pressuring frequent users to stop depending on the program as a yearly source of income and requiring those who rarely use it to look more broadly for jobs when they do collect EI. Government officials are also making it clear that whether they be fishermen or farmhands, being a seasonal worker is not an acceptable reason for turning town available jobs.”
The Globe and Mail, June 6, 2012: “Atlantic premiers band together against Ottawa’s EI ‘void’”, by Bill Curry
The Globe and Mail, June 4, 2012: “Changes to EI leave the job unfinished”, by Matthew Mendelsohn
The Toronto Star, May 30 2012: “Canada’s winter EI blues: Ottawa’s proposal strikes a chord but misses the beat”, by Colin Busby
The Toronto Star, Mary 28, 2012: “EI proposals initiate a race to the bottom for workers”, by Harald Bauder
The National Post, May 28, 2012: “Andrew Coyne: If the Tory EI reform plan is too radical, why did the Liberals go so much further?”
CBC News, May 25, 2012: “EI rules will hurt primary trades, says P.E.I. premier”
The Toronto Star, May 25 2012: “Walkom: EI changes driven by contempt and ideology”, by Thomas Walkom
The Globe and Mail, May 24, 2012: “Sweeping EI changes usher in three new tiers of jobless workers”, by Bill Curry
Gay Staff Need Not Apply to Canadian University
“A Christian university in New Brunswick is under fire for a policy that prevents it from hiring homosexuals. Crandall University, a small liberal arts school in Moncton, was thrust into the spotlight earlier this week when 22-year-old Jillian Duplessie revoked her acceptance after she learned about the anti-gay rule. Since then the aspiring teacher has joined forces with a Moncton-based homosexual advocacy group called River of Pride, which is now calling on the government to stop funding the university, which is both publicly and privately subsidized.”
Doorey's Workplace Law Blog, June 2, 2012: Can New Brunswick University Refuse to Employ Gay Teachers?
Toronto Star, June 1, 2012: “New Brunswick University Under Fire For Anti-Gay Hiring Policy”
CBC News, June 1, 2012: “Some Crandall students against anti-gay hiring policy: Student President says he's been swamped with calls since rule made headlines”
CBC News, May 31, 2012: “Crandall University defends anti-gay hiring policy: One student revoking her acceptance to school after learning about the rule”
Global News (Maritimes), May 28, 2012: “Calls to cut funding for Moncton university that prohibits hiring of gays”
Does Gender Matter At Work?
Based on a survey of 5,250 full-time professionals, The Report on Workplace Culture: Does Gender Matter? “found that women work longer hours than men, with the number who work six to seven days a week at 11 per cent, compared with 7 per cent for men. More than half of the women reported working nine or more hours a day, compared with 41 per cent of men. In addition, 68 per cent of women said they work on vacation, including checking e-mail and taking calls, compared with 62 per cent of men. Women also came across as more honest: While one in five men lie when they call in “sick,” only one in seven women said they did the same.”
theFIT, 2012: Report on Workplace Culture: Does Gender Matter? (PDF, 11 pages)
The Globe and Mail, June 4, 2012: “Do women make better employees? Survey says yes”, by Gail Johnson
The Fiscal Times, May 25, 2012: “How Men and Women Differ in the Workplace”, by Drew Gannon
Who Are Canada’s 1%?
“While inequality in Canada has increased over the course of the last three decades, the tax and transfer system can significantly reduce disparities in market incomes. But the political will to use the tax system may be limited, and public policy needs to address underlying labour market developments if it is to pursue an agenda of greater equality. This is one of the major themes arising from a recently released discussion paper by a group of labour economists from the University of British Columbia: Nicole Fortin, David Green, Thomas Lemieux, Kevin Milligan, and Craig Riddell.”
The study also reports that 1% club members “are overwhelmingly men, older men in particular. They tend to have university degrees, and half of them work more than 50 hours a week. They’re not, by any stretch, all bankers: they are also doctors, dentists, managers and veterinarians, who earn at least $230,000 a year to qualify.”
Canadian Labour Market and Skills Researcher Network, Working Paper No. 100, May 2012: “Canadian Inequality: Recent Development and Policy Options”, by Nicole M. Fortin, David A. Green, Thomas Lemieux, Kevin Milligan, W. Craig Riddell (PDF, 44 pages)
Economics for public policy: Miles Corak writes on economics that matter, May 30, 2012: “Canadian Inequality: Recent Development and Policy Options”
Calgary Herald, June 6, 2012: “Oilpatch workers five times more likely to be a one percenter, survey reveals”, by Meghan Potkins
The Globe and Mail, June 5, 2012: “Who are the richest 1 per cent in Canada? They’re not just CEOs”, by Tavia Grant
The Toronto Star, June 5, 2012: “Canada’s 1 per cent: How to know if you’re one of them”, by Dana Flavelle
OECD Skills Strategy
“The OECD Skills Strategy provides an integrated, cross-government strategic framework to help countries understand more about how to invest in skills in a way that will transform lives and drive economies. It will help countries to identify the strengths and weaknesses of their existing national skills pool and skills systems, benchmark them internationally, and develop policies for improvement. In particular, the strategy provides the foundations upon which governments can work effectively with all interested parties – national, local and regional government, employers, employees, and learners – and across all relevant policy areas.”
OECD, May 21, 2012: OECD Skills Strategy: Better Skills, Better Jobs, Better Lives: A Strategic Approach to Skills Policies.
(Full document, PDF, 114 pages).
Country Snapshot, Canada.
OECD, Education Today Blog, June 4, 2012: “Erasing the “bright red dividing line” between education and work”, by Marilyn Achiron
Report Accuses Wal-Mart Of Driving Down Wages and Benefits
“Wal-MartStores Inc.has applied its aggressive cost cutting to logistics, helping to drive down wages and benefits for U.S. warehouse workers, according to a new study conducted by a labor-backed group. The world's largest retailer has significantly outsourced its supply chain, hiring third-party companies to operate its warehouses and transport its good to stores. Those firms in turn often rely on poorly paid temporary workers, said a report released Wednesday by the National Employment Law Project, which advocates for low-wage workers.”
National Employment Law Project, June 6, 2012: "Chain of Greed: How Walmart’s Domestic Outsourcing Produces Everyday Low Wages and Poor Working Conditions for Warehouse Workers”, by Eunice Hyunhye Cho, Anastasia Christman, Maurice Emsellem, Catherine K. Ruckelshaus, Rebecca Smith
(PDF, 30 pages)
Los Angeles Times, June 6, 2012: “Wal-Mart is driving down wages for warehouse workers, report says. The National Employment Law Project says Wal-Mart has applied its aggressive cost cutting to logistics.”, by Marc Lifsher
No ‘Pride, Pomp, and Circumstance’ for Some Unemployed at the Diamond Jubilee
“Former deputy prime minister Lord Prescott has written to the home secretary to complain about a security firm that used unpaid jobseekers to steward the Queen's diamond jubilee celebrations in London. He said he was "deeply concerned" by the revelations, published in the Guardian on Tuesday, that up to 30 unpaid jobseekers on the government's work programme were asked to sleep under London Bridge before the river pageant on Sunday. He is calling for Theresa May to investigate whether the company has broken the security industry's own employment standards and is urging the government to review the company's contract for the Olympics.”
The Guardian, June 6, 2012: “Unpaid jubilee jobseekers: Downing Street dismisses criticisms: Prime minister's spokeswoman says treatment of unemployed people who worked as stewards was a 'one-off'” by Nicholas Watt, Hélène Mulholland and Shiv Malik
London Evening Standard, June 6, 2012: “Fury as unpaid Jubilee stewards are left to sleep under London Bridge”
The Guardian, June 6, 2012: “Unpaid jubilee stewards: Prescott accuses government of exploitation: Former deputy PM says incident in which unemployed people had to sleep under bridge raises questions about Olympics”, by Hélène Mulholland and Shiv Malik
The Guardian, June 5, 2012: “Call for inquiry into use of unpaid jobseekers as jubilee stewards: Security firm issues 'sincere apologies' for treatment of stewards but insists it did not exploit workers”, by Shiv Malik
The Guardian, June 4, 2012: “Unemployed bussed in to steward river pageant: Coachloads of jobless people brought in to work unpaid on river pageant as part of Work Programme”, by Shiv Malik
Double Double Trouble at Hospital Tim Hortons
“Tim Hortons doughnuts are putting Windsor Regional Hospital in the hole. The $265,000 annual coffee-shop drain on hospital resources is so severe, that president David Musyj said the hospital is considering cutting cafeteria hours by as much as 50%. Taxpayers are subsidizing the shortfall at the hospital’s three kiosks featuring Tim Hortons — one of the most successful restaurant chains in Canada — largely because the coffee-pourers are well-paid CAW workers....The news of the loss in Windsor comes on the heels of media reports showing the Tim Hortons outlet at the St. John’s Health Sciences Centre in Newfoundland lost about $260,000 last year.”
Postmedia News, May 31, 2012: “Tim Hortons with $26/hour servers putting Windsor hospital $265k in the hole”, by Craig Pearson
The Toronto Star, May 30, 2012: “Tim Hortons coffee shop in St. John’s Health Sciences Centre loses money”, by Anita Li and Richard J. Brennan
Book of the Week
HR Manager's Guide to Background Checks and Pre-employment Testing, by Adrian Miedema and Christina Hall. 2nd ed. Toronto : Carswell, 2012. 218 p. ISBN 9780779849284
In recent years, employers have begun to check references with greater frequency and thoroughness. This book has been designed to help employers understand what types of checks are legally permissible, and how to conduct these checks in a way that minimizes risk to employers. The authors advise that interviews and reference checks be conducted before the employer extends a conditional offer of employment to the job applicant, but all other background checks and tests discussed in this book should be performed afterwards. The following types of background checks are reviewed in this book: personal interviews, reference checks ,education and professional certification checks, credit checks, psychometric tests, medical and fitness tests, police records checks, drug and alcohol tests, and immigration, terrorism and industry-specific security checks.
About the Authors
Adrian Miedema, LL.B., is a partner in the Employment and Labour Group of the national law firm, Fraser Milner Casgrain LLP in Toronto. He represents employers in employment, health and safety and human rights matters. Adrian is recognized by The Best Lawyers in Canada 2012 as a leading lawyer in Labour and Employment Law. He is also co-editor of Occupationalhealthandsafetylaw.com and Employmentandlabour.com. He is the coauthor of a dictionary of labour and employment law terms, as well as the HR Manager's Guide to Non-Competition and Non-Solicitation Agreements (Carswell, 2005).
Christina Hall, B.A.(Hons), LL.B., is a partner in the Employment and Labour Group of the national law firm, Fraser Milner Casgrain LLP in Toronto. She writes frequently on employment law topics and has contributed articles to Lexpert, Workplace News, Legal Alert and other publications. Christina is also an adjunct professor of Employment Law at the Faculty of Law, University of Western Ontario.
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