Perry Work Report for the week of March 08, 2010

March 8, 2010

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International Women's Week + International Women's Day, 2010

International Women's Week 2010 begins on Sunday, March 7, and wraps up on Saturday, March 13. The Government of Canada's theme for 2010 is Strong Women. Strong Canada. Strong World. March 8 is International Women's Day (IWD), the highlight of International Women's Week (IWW). Each year at this time, Canadians celebrate progress toward equality for women and their full participation, reflect on current challenges and consider future steps in achieving equality for all women, in all aspects of their lives.

Status of Women Canada: International Women's Day March 8, 2010 -- Strong Women. Strong Canada. Strong World.

The International Women's Day website

United Nations International Women’s Day webpage

 

A Closer Look at the Millennials and Millennial Women

The Pew Research Center has released a report that examines the millennial generation as they have crossed into adulthood. In this report, the values, attitudes and behaviour of millennials are compared with today’s older adults.

Millennials: Portrait of Generation Next Website

Report, February 2010 (149 pages, PDF)

Video coverage of Pew Research Center Millennials Conference

Quiz: How Millenial Are you?

Accenture, a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company, reports that millennial women believe they will be able to find a rewarding career while having a fulfilled personal life, despite the current economic downturn. The full report on this research which surveyed 1,000 women between the ages of 22-35 also notes that more than half of respondents “define success as doing meaningful work, while maintaining balance between their personal and professional lives”.

Report, Millennial Women in the Workplace Success Index: Striving for Balance, January 2010 (38 pages, PDF)

Accenture, January 19, 2010: Optimistic Outlook: Despite Obstacles, Millennial Women Overwhelmingly Positive about Career Prospects, Accenture Research Finds

 

Women’s Ideal Age to Start a Family

ForbesWoman and TheBump.com partnered up to find out what women believe is the ideal age to start a family while still maintaining a successful career. With over 2,210 respondents to the survey, the majority said that 25-29 is the best time to have your first child and still maintain a career, with the second most popular age bracket being 30-34.

Survey Results, by Jenna Gourdreau, March 2, 2010

 

Reports on Women and Inequality

The ILO has released a report that focuses on the relationship of women to labour markets and compares employment outcomes for men and women given the latest available labour market indicator from the ILO Key Indicators of the Labour Market. This report notes that while there has certainly been a rise in the number of women participating in the workforce, it is the circumstances of female employment that bring fewer gains to women than to the typical working male. This includes “the sectors where women work, the types of work they do, the relationship of women to the job, and the wages they receive.”

Report, Women in labour markets: Measuring progress and identifying challenges, March 5, 2010 (102 pages, PDF).

In a similar report released by the Canadian Labour Congress, it was found that there has been a sharp decrease in institutional and political support by the Government of Canada for the promotion and protection of the human rights of women and girls during the years of 2004 - 2009. Both the overall achievements and obstacles are discussed in this report, with a strong focus on the critical areas of concern for women in Canada.

Report: Reality Check: Women in Canada and the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action Fifteen Years on A Canadian Civil Society Response, February 22nd, 2010 (40 pages, PDF)

 

Women’s Representation on Company Boards Increase

Catalyst has released their 2009 census titled Financial Post 500 Women Board Directors. This census examines women’s representation on corporate boards at the most profitable companies in Canada. Findings in this census include a one percentage increase since 2007 in the number of board seats women held, as well as a 4% increase in women’s representation on private company’s boards.

Census, March 2010 (2 Pages, PDF)

 

Childcare and the Workplace

An E-book titled Workplace Solutions for Childcare is now available from the ILO. This book focuses on why workplace partners around the world have become involved in childcare. Ten countries, industrialized and developing, along with their policies and facilities for working parents are examined in this book.

Workplace Solutions for Childcare Homepage

Executive Summary, 2010 (4 pages, PDF)

Full-Text book, 2010 (480 pages, PDF)

 

Stress at Work

The workplace is now recognized as an important influence on mental health. Between 10% and 25% of workplaces are characterized by conditions and environments considered mentally injurious. Occupational health physician specialists report that 50 – 60 % of their caseloads are related directly or indirectly to mental health concerns. While there is considerable uncertainty in terms of mental health protection in Canadian law and inconsistency across the country in the availability of legal remedies for mental injury, an emerging legal climate has signaled a duty for employers to ensure that the workplace leads to no serious and lasting harm to employee mental health. By definition, a psychologically safe workplace is one that permits no harm to mental health through negligence, recklessness or intention.

The Mental Health Commission of Canada, June 30, 2009: Stress at Work, Mental Injury and the Law in Canada: A discussion paper for the Mental Health Commission of Canada, prepared and submitted to the MHCC by Dr. Martin Shain (131 pages, PDF)

 

Commentary on Canada’s 2010 Federal Budget

CBC, March 4, 2010: Federal Budget 2010: Steady budget offer few surprises – this page gives you access to complete coverage of the 2010 Federal Budget by CBC – with links to both highlights of (60 pages, PDF)and the actual budget. (424 pages, PDF)

CBC, March 4, 2010: Budget 2010: The public service: Ottawa moves to rein in payroll and Little change in pensions

CLC, March 4, 2010: The 2010 Federal Budget: Canadian Labour Congress Analysis

CUPE, March 4, 2010: Federal Budget

Conference Board of Canada, March 5, 2010: Budget Report 2010: The Long Road to Fiscal Balance

Benefits Canada, March 4, 2010: Federal Budget 2010: A Summary for Pension, Benefits and Investment Professionals – includes quite a few links to articles of interest

 

Class action against bank for unpaid overtime given green light

On February 19, the Ontario Superior Court certified a class action against the Bank of Nova Scotia on behalf of over 5,000 retail branch employees for $300 million in unpaid overtime. The claim alleges that employees were routinely permitted or required to work overtime to fulfill the demands of their jobs. Launched in the name of a representative plaintiff, Cindy Fulawka, the legal action, which covers personal banking officers, financial advisors, and small business account managers, is based on alleged breach of contract, violation of the Canada Labour Code, and unjust enrichment…[from the Lancaster House website]

Lancaster House, March 4, 2010: read the rest of this report

 

Canadians and Americans and their pensions

The current issue of Policy Options looks at Canadians and their pensions. Articles include: What is a pension, exactly? (and why should you care?)" by Moshe A. Milevsky and Alexandra C. Macqueen; "Pension reform: Living in interesting times" by Ted Menzies; "Pension reform: How Canada can lead the world" by Keith Ambachtsheer; and "The looming crisis of income security" by Robin V. Sears.

The Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) has released its 2010 Retirement Confidence Survey: Confidence Stabilizing, But Preparations Continue to Erode. The survey found that retiree confidence about having a financially secure retirement has stabilized, with 19 percent saying now they are very confident.

Policy Options, March 2010 (scroll down to Canadians and their Pensions and click on article titles.

EBRI, March 9, 2010: 2010 Retirement Confidence Survey: Confidence Stabilizing, But Preparations Continue to Erode(44 pages, PDF)

Facts Sheets (with graphs comparing survey results form 1993-2010) Retirement Confidence ; Changing Expectations About Retirement; Preparing for Retirement in America; Age Comparisons Among Workers; Gender Comparisons Among Workers; and Attitudes About Social Security and Medicare

Keith Ambachtsheer Recognized for Lifetime Contributions to Economic Security

The nonpartisan Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) today announced the selection of Keith Ambachtsheer, director of the Rotman International Centre for Pension Management (ICPM) at the University of Toronto, as recipient of the 2010 EBRI Lillywhite Award. The honor recognizes outstanding lifetime contributions to Americans’ economic security.

The 2010 EBRI Lillywhite Award, March 8, 2010

 

Changing Face of Reward

Hay Group, a global management consulting firm, has released the findings of a study into the changing face of reward. Conducted in the last three months with over 230 companies employing around 4.7 million people, this study identifies the drivers in reward and remuneration that now dominate the thinking of boards in the post-recession world.

Hay Group, February 25, 2010: Changing Face of Reward (38 pages, PDF)

Press release, February 25, 2010

 

Projections of the Diversity of the Canadian Population, 2006-2031

Owing to persistent low fertility and strong immigration, Canada has seen its population rapidly change in recent decades. There has been an increase in the proportion of persons born abroad, persons whose mother tongue is neither English nor French, and persons belonging to visible minority groups as defined by the Employment Equity Act. Change is rapid in the largest metropolitan areas -- Montréal, Toronto and Vancouver, but has remained quite modest elsewhere in Canada.

Statistics Canada, March 9, 2010: Projections of the Diversity of the Canadian Population, 2006 – 2031 (78 pages, PDF) or (html – contents listed on left of page)

Table 1: Proportion of foreign-born and visible minority populations by census metropolitan area, 2006 and 2031 (reference scenario)

The Daily, March 9, 2010, Statistics Canada – summary of current release: Projections of the Diversity of the Canadian Population, 2006 – 2031

 

Favorability Ratings of US Labor Unions Fall Sharply

The latest nationwide telephone survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, which surveyed 1,383 adults, found that favorable opinions of unions have fallen across demographic and partisan groups. Still, far more Democrats have favorable views of unions, 56%, than do independents at 38%, or Republicans at 29%.

PEW Research Centre for the People & the Press, February 23, 2010: Favorability Ratings of Labor Unions Fall Sharply

 

ILO Global Job Crisis Observatory

What began as a crisis in finance markets has rapidly become a global jobs crisis. Unemployment is rising. The number of working poor is increasing. Businesses are going under. The ILOs' Decent Work Agenda provides the policy framework to confront the crisis. This website provides information on the employment and social impact of the crisis and policy responses.

ILO Global Job Crisis Observatory

 

Book of the Week

The Evolution of the Modern Workplace, edited by William Brown ... [et al.]. Cambridge, UK ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2009. 405 p. ISBN 9780521514569 (hardback)

The last twenty-five years have seen the world of work transformed in Britain. Manufacturing and nationalized industries contracted and private services expanded. Employment became more diverse. Trade union membership collapsed. Collective bargaining disappeared from much of the private sector, as did strikes. This was accompanied by the rise of human resource management and new employment practices. The law, once largely absent, increasingly became a dominant influence. The experience of work has become more pressured. The Evolution of the Modern Workplace provides an authoritative account and analysis of these changes and their consequences. Its main source is the five Workplace Employment Relations Surveys that were conducted at roughly five-year intervals between 1980 and 2004. Drawing on this unique source of data, a team of internationally renowned scholars show how the world of the workplace has changed, and why it has changed, for both workers and employers.

Editors: William Brown, Alex Bryson, John Forth, Keith Whitfield

 

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