November 29, 2012
- work&labour news&research
- New Statistics Canada Online Publication -- Insights on Canadian Society
- New Collective Agreement for Ontario Public Service
- Kevin Page: Canada's Very Necessary Budget Watchdog
- Federal Austerity Disproportionately Affecting Atlantic Provinces
- Federal, Provincial Bills Propose Greater Transgender Protection
- Gender Imbalance in Academia
- Corporate Knights Releases Diversity Issue
- Divvying Up the Family Chores
- Reporting the Conditions of U.S. Domestic Workers
- The Relevancy of Labor Relations Issues to U.S. Legislators and their Constituents
- Sounds from the Past
- Book of the Week
work&labour news&research
This is the last 2012 issue of the Perry Work Report. Students, reference service, conferences and the holiday season are requiring attention.
To keep up to date over the holiday season visit our new tumblr account athttp://worklabournewsresearch.tumblr.com where you will get the stories that the PWR usually covers but on a daily basis. Click on older posts at the bottom of the page for more stories and links.
You can click on Follow at the work&labour news&research page if you have a tumblr account, or want to create one, and follow us OR click on the gear on the left of the screen and get an RSS feed for the site.
Please feel free to contact me with any thoughts on this new interface: victoria.skelton@utoronto.ca
New Statistics Canada Online Publication -- Insights on Canadian Society
Statistics Canada will launch a new online publication entitled Insights on Canadian Society on December 4, 2012. This new publication will present short articles for policy makers, analysts, and the general public in order to provide a better understanding of issues faced by Canadians. The first feature article will be on the changing age of retirement.
This digital publication will showcase new information, methods and techniques to explore various social issues as well questions pertaining to employment, economic security, education, demography, health and justice.
For further information on Insights on Canadian Society, you can write to this address:ics@statscan.gc.ca or contact Sébastien LaRochelle-Côté, Editor-in-Chief, at 613.951.0803.
New Collective Agreement for Ontario Public Service
AMAPCEO has negotiated a collective agreement on behalf of the Ontario Public Service that will extend from April 1, 2012 to March 31, 2014. The Association of Management, Administrative and Professional Crown Employees of Ontario (AMAPCEO) is a bargaining agent representing 12,000 professional and supervisory public servants, most of whom work in the Ontario Public Service (OPS), i.e., directly for the Government of Ontario, in every ministry and in a number of agencies, boards and commissions; in over 130 communities across the province and in ten cities outside Canada.
AMAPCEO, 2012: Collective Agreement April 1, 2012 to March 31, 2014 (237 pages, PDF)
Kevin Page: Canada's Very Necessary Budget Watchdog
“Parliamentary Budget Officer Kevin Page says fall economic update underestimated revenues… The report does not say the government is purposely cooking the books to make itself look good when it beats expectations. The report leaves the issue unanswered, aside from asking Finance officials for more information on how they arrived at their bottom line numbers.” [CBC News]]
CBC, The Canadian Press, Nov. 29, 2012: Budget watchdog questions Flaherty's deficit accounting
Parliamentary Budget Officer Kevin Page says fall economic update underestimated revenues
Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer, November 29, 2012: An Assessment of the Revisions to the Government’s Fiscal Outlook Ottawa, Canada (11 pages, PDF)
CBC Radio’s Sunday Night Edition with Michael Enright has done a feature on Parliamentary Budget Officer Kevin Page. The Conservative government and Mr. Page have often found themselves at loggerheads over all manner of matters of account … from the real cost of the F-35 fighter jets to whether the government was headed for a long-term deficit. Now, they’re at an impasse over just what Mr. Page’s job really is … a standoff he says is preventing him from doing his job. You can listen to the show or download the podcast from CBC’s site (running time approximately 25 minutes).
CBC Radio, Nov 23, 2012: Sunday Night Edition: Kevin Page, Parliamentary Budget Officer
Huffington Post, November 21, 2012 “Kevin Page Takes Government 'Goliath' To Court Over Information Request”
Federal Austerity Disproportionately Affecting Atlantic Provinces
A recent Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives report makes projections for federal public sector job loss in Atlantic Canada and discusses the breadth and depth of its impact in the region. While 43% of the cuts will occur in the national capital region, 22% of all the rest of the cuts will be in the Atlantic region -- 12% of all estimated job cuts will be in the Atlantic Region. And those job losses are in addition to the jobs that have already been lost, at least 1057 positions as of the end of March 2012.
Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, Nov 27, 2012: Public Disservice: The Impact of Federal Job Cuts in Atlantic Canada by Michael Bourgeois, Joanne Hussey, Christine Saulnier, Sara Wuite (News release)
The Canadian Press, Nov 27, 2012: "Atlantic region facing disproportionate share of federal job cuts: study," by Michael MacDonald
Federal, Provincial Bills Propose Greater Transgender Protection
A private member’s bill by NDP Randall Garrison has split support among Harper’s caucus. Bill C-279 would make it illegal to discriminate against transgendered Canadians and to disseminate hate on the basis of someone's gender identity or expression. Information about the bill and debates surrounding it can be found at openparliament.org, an “independent, non-governmental site aim[ing] to make… information more easily accessible.”
At the provincial level, Nova Scotia may join Ontario, Manitoba, and the Northwest Territories in specifically protecting transgendered people in human rights legislation. The changes would allow transgender people to file human rights complaints based on their identity in cases where they believe they have been discriminated against on the job or in the community.
Open Parliament: Bill C-279 An Act to amend the Canadian Human Rights Act and the Criminal Code (gender identity and gender expression)
CBC News, Nov 28, 2012: “Tories split over transgendered rights bill”
The Globe and Mail, Nov 20, 2012: “Nova Scotia minister seeks to clarify rights of transgender people”
CBC News, Nov 20, 2012: “N.S. bill would give transgender people legal footing”
Gender Imbalance in Academia
The Council of Canada Academics has released the report Strengthening Canada’s Research Capacity: The Gender Dimension, which assessed the factors that influence university research careers of women, both in Canada and internationally. The key factors determined by the Panel that impact the career paths of women start early in life with stereotypes that define roles and expectations, followed by a lack of knowledge about requisites for potential career paths, and a lack of role models and mentors. These issues, combined with a rigid tenure track structure, challenges associated with the paid work-family life balance, and the importance of increased support and coordination amongst governments and institutions should be examined if Canada is going to achieve a greater gender balance within academia.
Council of Canadian Academics, Nov 21, 2012: Strengthening Canada’s Research Capacity: The Gender Dimension by The Expert Panel on Women in University Research (PDF, 252 pages)
Report in Focus (abridged version)
Corporate Knights Releases Diversity Issue
Corporate Knights has released their 2012 Diversity Index in the Diversity in the Boardroom issue. They found that female representation on corporate boards has yet to reach critical mass in Canada. As well, 72% of Canadian boards fail to provide representation by visible minorities. Statistics Canada estimates that the proportion of Canadians belonging to a visible minority group is set to grow to between 29-32% by 2030.
Corporate Knights, Nov 27, 2012: The Diversity Issue
Editorial: Minority Report by Jeremy Runnals
Ranking: Female Representation on Canadian Boards
Ranking: Visible Minority & Aboriginal Representation on Canadian BoardsAppendix: Methodology
Divvying Up the Family Chores
“No one likes doing chores. In happiness surveys, housework is ranked down there with commuting as activities that people enjoy the least. Maybe that’s why figuring out who does which chores usually prompts, at best, tense discussion in a household and, at worst, outright fighting.
“Often one person is better at everything. (And let’s be honest, often that person is the woman.) Better at the laundry, the grocery shopping, the cleaning, the cooking. But does that mean she should have to do everything?”
Slate, Nov 21 2012: “You’re Dividing the Chores Wrong,” by Emily Oster
The Journals of Economic Perspectives, 2006: Developments in the Measurement of Subjective Well-Being by Daniel Kahneman and Alan B. Krueger (23 pages, PDF)
Reporting the Conditions of U.S. Domestic Workers
The first national survey of the working conditions for domestic workers in the United States was conducted jointly by the National Domestic Workers Alliance (NDWA), the Centre for Urban Economic Development at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and the DataCenter. The survey found high rates of exploitation and abuse occurring, including systemically low pay, lack of employment benefits, acute financial hardship, and little control over working conditions. American domestic workers are excluded from many of the basic protections guaranteed by the Fair Labor Standards Act to most other workers in the U.S, including minimum wages, overtime, sick leave, and vacation pay.
NDWA, Center for Urban Economic Development, University of Illinois at Chicago, DataCenter 2012: Home Economics: The Invisible and Unregulated World of Domestic Work (68 pages, PDF)
The New York Times, Nov 26, 2012: A Study of Home Help Finds Low Worker Pay by Steven Greenhouse
The Nation, Nov 28, 2012: When Domestic Workers Suffer, Our Economy Suffers by Bryce Covert
The Relevancy of Labor Relations Issues to U.S. Legislators and their Constituents
Since 1926, Congress has enacted three major laws that govern labor-management relations for private sector and federal employees. An issue for Congress is the effect of these laws on employers, workers, and the nation’s economy. The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that, nationwide, 14.8 million employees are union members.
In the 112th Congress alone, more than 30 bills were introduced to amend federal labor relations statutes. The proposals ranged from making union recognition without a secret ballot election illegal to further modifying runoff election procedures. These legislative activities, and the significant number of employees affected by federal labor relations laws, illustrate the current relevance of labor relations issues to legislators and their constituents.
Congressional Research Service, Nov 26, 2012: Federal Labor Relations Statues: An Overview by Alexandra Hegji (51 pages, PDF)
Sounds from the Past
Office equipment was quite noisy before the latest incarnation of silent computers (dial-up, anyone?). In honor of his country's National Exposition in 1964, Swiss composer Rolf Liebermann composed a song for 156 machines, including typewriters, calculators, metronomes, claxons, and telephones, among others. The Atlantic story includes a video of the piece being performed.
The Atlantic, Nov 26, 2012: The Surprisingly Awesome Sound of 156 Office Machines From the '60s by Alexis C. Madrigal
Book of the Week
The Punjabis in British Columbia: Location, Labour, First Nations, and Multiculturalism, by Kamala Elizabeth Nayar. Montreal : McGill-Queen's University Press, 2012. 361 p. ISBN 9780773540712 (pbk.)
UTLibraries link to catalogue record: http://go.utlib.ca/cat/8600886
The Punjabis in British Columbia illustrates the complex and diverse experiences of an immigrant community that merits greater attention.
Exploring themes of gender, employment, rural and urban migrant life, and the relationships between the Punjabis and surrounding First Nations and other immigrant groups, Nayar creates a portrait of a community in transition. Shedding light on the ways in which economic circumstances affect immigrant communities, Nayar presents findings from interviews conducted with over one hundred participants.
About the Author: Kamala Elizabeth Nayar is a faculty member in Asian studies at Kwantlen Polytechnic University.
Visit the Recent Books at the CIRHR Library blog.
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Editor: Vicki Skelton and Melody Tacit
Designer: Nick Strupat
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