September 21, 2010
- 13th World Human Resources Congress to be held in Montreal
- Workplace Safety and Insurance Conference
- U.S. and Canadian Labour Law Compared
- Glass Ceiling or Sticky Floor
- Rethinking Collective Representation
- Arbitrator overrules 'unfair' Ontario wage freeze
- Collective Bargaining Information and Analysis
- Beyond Benefits II: Disability Plans and Absence Management in Canadian Workplaces
- Compensation-Related Risk and Compensation Consultants
- Defined Benefit Plans – Canadian and international focus
- 2010 Global Manufacturing Competitiveness Index
- The Shrinking Middle – the polarization of job opportunities
- International Labour Review -- Special Issue on the Global Crisis
- Global Labour University
- Book of the Week
13th World Human Resources Congress to be held in Montreal September 27 to 29
The 13th World Human Resources Congress will take place at the Palais des Congrès in Montreal from September 27 to 29. Organized by the Ordre des conseillers en ressources humaines agréés on behalf of the Canadian Council of Human Resources Associations, this world-class event will be held for the first time in Canada. No less than 200 international experts and 2,800 participants from 55 countries will attend this major meeting of the global HR community.
13th World Human Resources Congress - September 27 to 29, 2010
Workplace Safety and Insurance Conference
Presented by Lancaster House and the University of Toronto, Centre for Industrial Relations and Human Resources, Wednesday, October 27, 2010, Sheraton Centre Toronto Hotel, 123 Queen Street West, Toronto, ON, M5H 2M9
Conference details & registration information (Early Bird Deadline: Friday, September 24, save $100)
U.S. and Canadian Labour Law Compared
“This article is intended to highlight the basic differences between Canada and the United States in the legal principles governing collective bargaining law. While Canadian labour relations legislation is modeled on the U.S. National Labor Relations Act, there are in fact striking differences arising from the particular socio-economic conditions, cultural traditions, and historical experiences of both countries. Generally speaking, it is not widely disputed on either side of the border that Canadian labour relations law is more "progressive" than its U.S. counterpart. The question arises: Why is this so?” [by Jeffrey Sack]
“U.S. and Canadian Labour Law: significant distinctions,” by Jeffrey Sack in ABA Journal of Labour & Employment Law, Winter 2010, Vol.25, Issue 2. p.241-259. Available on ProQuest to those with UTORids at: http://simplelink.library.utoronto.ca/url.cfm/116328
Glass Ceiling or Sticky Floor
“This study is unique in identifying the mid-level bottleneck, where the careers of many women get stalled. This helps to explain the lack of women in senior management [where], “Women get selected out at this middle level because they’re not promoted as quickly. Those who do advance are so good that they sail through the promotion process at the highest levels.” [from Impact see below]
Globe and Mail, September 16, 2010: Glass ceilings and sticky floors: Barriers to promotion of women, minorities are pronounced even at lower rungs of management, a new study finds, by Wallace Immen
Impact: management research in action, Ivey Business School, September 2010: Glass ceilings, sticky floors, and mid-level bottlenecks, Alison Konrad finds that women and visible minorities are less likely to be promoted than white men
“Gender and Racial Differentials in Promotions: Is There a Sticky Floor, a Mid-Level Bottleneck, or a Glass Ceiling? “ by Margaret Yap; Alison M Konrad in Relations Industrielles; Fall 2009; 64, 4. For those with UTORids click on this link then click on ProQuest 5000 for access to full texthttp://simplelink.library.utoronto.ca/url.cfm/116338
Rethinking Collective Representation
Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research August 2010 Vol. 16, no. 3, currently available free online
This issue of Transfer concerns the analytical frameworks we use to understand trade unions and their actions. Focusing on the conditions for union renewal, it explores key ideas that might stimulate our thinking about union revitalization and future forms of collective representation.
The special issue is the result of an international collaboration of the Interuniversity Research Centre on Globalization and Work (CRIMT: www.crimt.org ) through its Major Collaborative Research Initiatives project funded by the SSHRC in Canada.
Articles in the August 2010 special issue include:
“Rethinking collective representation: introduction,” by Christian Dufour, Gregor Murray, David Peetz and Charlotte Yates
“Trade unions, politics and parties: is a new configuration possible?” by Richard Hyman and Rebecca Gumbrell-McCormick
“Understanding union power: resources and capabilities for renewing union capacity,” by Christian Lévesque and Gregor Murray
“The legitimacy of collective actors and trade union renewa,”l by Christian Dufour and Adelheid Hege
“Democratic dilemmas: union democracy and union renewal,” by Kim Voss
“Are individualistic attitudes killing collectivism?” by David Peetz
“Understanding caring, organizing women: how framing a problem shapes union strategy,” by Charlotte Yates
“Unions as environmental actors,” by Darryn Snell and Peter Fairbrother
Access through the Transfer website: http://trs.sagepub.com click on Current Issue: August 2010
Arbitrator overrules 'unfair' Ontario wage freeze
“In a legally-binding decision, Ontario Arbitrator Norm Jesin denied a request from for-profit long-term care homes to impose a freeze on low-paid caregivers in nursing homes. A freeze would have worsened shortages of nurses and key frontline healthcare workers.” [From SEIU Local 1 Canada website]
Globe and Mail, September 16, 2010: Arbitrator nixes Ontario's plans for wage freezes: Ontario Finance
Mikael's Worklaw Page, Monday, September 20, 2010: Arbitrator imposes 2% wage increases in spite of govt "wage freeze"
Collective Bargaining Information and Analysis
Here is the main access point for Human Resources and Skills Development, Labour Program publications. You can find the most recent edition of the WORKPLACE BULLETIN ( September 15, 2010) by clicking on the title as well as the many valuable publications listed under Products and Services. Book mark this site!
Collective Bargaining Information and Analysis : “The Labour Program is your source of customized information on industrial relations and collective bargaining. We can assist you in preparing for and supporting you at the bargaining table, in keeping abreast of developments in industrial relations and meeting your specific research needs.”
Beyond Benefits II: Disability Plans and Absence Management in Canadian Workplaces
This Conference Board of Canada report documents casual absence/sick leave provisions and practices, as well as short- and long-term disability program coverage in Canadian workplaces. It also looks at successful organizational strategies to manage absenteeism.
The Conference Board of Canada, 36 pages, June 2010: “Beyond Benefits II: Disability Plans and Absence Management in Canadian Workplaces, “ available to the University of Toronto community by creating an e-library account using your “utoronto.ca” email address [for detailed instructions go tohttp://www.cirhr.utoronto.ca/library/confboardcanada.html ]
Compensation-Related Risk and Compensation Consultants
This is the last in a series of four studies developed in collaboration with Davis Polk & Wardwell to provide guidelines and examples to member companies of The Conference Board (New York) on emerging practices following the SEC enhanced disclosure reform. The CIRHR only has access, via our subscription, to this final part.
The Conference Board, Inc., New York, 11 pages, August 2010: Compensation-Related Risk and Compensation Consultants. Available to the University of Toronto community by creating an e-library account using your “utoronto.ca” email address [for detailed instructions go tohttp://www.cirhr.utoronto.ca/library/confboardcanada.html ]
Defined Benefit Plans – Canadian and international focus
“According to new research by Pyramis Global Advisors®, the financial crisis of 2008-2009 has re-focused pension plans in North America, the U.K. and Northern Europe on defining and solving the risk management challenges they face in the decade ahead. The findings also highlight the key lessons learned by plan sponsors from the financial crisis, their top concerns right now, and the investment strategies they believe they will need to meet their challenges in the years ahead.”
Press release, September 8, 2010
2010 Global Defined Benefit Survey: Solutions for a New Decade Canadian Pension Plans (4 pages, PDF)
Solutions for a New Decade: US Corporate Pensions (4 pages, PDF)
Solutions for a New Decade US Public Pensions (4 pages, PDF)
Solutions for a New Decade Pension Schemes (4 pages, PDF)
Solutions for a New Decade Nordic Pension Funds (4 pages, PDF)
2010 Global Manufacturing Competitiveness Index
This study provides unique insight into the new state of 21st century manufacturing. Today, manufacturing spans ideas, products, and services—well beyond the sole production of goods, as in the 20th century. This post-industrial manufacturing ecosystem represents a complex and highly integrated globalized value web. This web includes cutting-edge science and technology, innovation, talent, sustainable design, systems engineering, supply chain excellence and a wide range of smart services, as well as energy-efficient, sustainable and low-carbon manufacturing.
A collaboration between Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu (Deloitte) and the U. S. Council on Competitiveness (Council), the study gathered data from CEOs and senior manufacturing business unit leaders in late 2009 and early 2010 and represents the first major deliverable of a multi-year initiative by the Council exploring the issues of policy and capability development necessary for a nation to achieve superior manufacturing competitiveness.
Deloitte, Press release, June 2010: 2010 Global Manufacturing Competitiveness Index: How Canadian companies can improve their global competitiveness through innovation
The Shrinking Middle – the polarization of job opportunities
In the 1990s employment in middle class skilled jobs declined while employment in both low and high skilled jobs increased. “The pattern was similar in countries with very different levels of unionisation, prevalence of collective bargaining and welfare systems. This “polarisation” of employment almost certainly had a common cause.” [from the Economist see citation below]
“AN ODDLY entrancing YouTube video of a robot folding a pile of freshly laundered towels has been viewed over half a million times. Although it does this quotidian task better than any other robot, it is still much less adept than the average person. The difficulty of programming a towel-folding robot which can outdo humans may help to explain why the past couple of decades have been so unkind to middle-class workers in the rich world.” [from the Economist see citation below]
The Economist, September 9, 2010: Automatic reaction: IT spending has hollowed out labour markets, to the detriment of middle-income workers
International Labour Review -- Special Issue on the Global Crisis
The International Labour Organizartion has made online access to the June 2010 issue of theInternational Labour Review free at this time. Articles include: “A legal perspective on the economic crisis of 2008” by Alain SUPIOT; “It's financialization! “ by Richard B. FREEMAN; “Will only an earthquake shake up economics?” by Ronald SCHETTKAT; “Global crisis and beyond: Sustainable growth trajectories for the developing world” by Jayati GHOSH; “Incomplete crisis responses: Socio-economic costs and policy implications” by Raymond TORRES.
International Labour Review, Special Issue: The Global Crisis, June 2010 Volume 149, Issue 2, 2010Pages 151–237
Global Labour University
The Global Labour University held its annual Conference from 15 to 16 September in Berlin on the theme: Labour and the Global Crisis: Sharing the Burden! Shaping the Future ?. The Conference gathered trade unionists and researchers from over 50 countries to discuss analyses of the crisis, identify short-term stabilization and long-term solutions, and debate how to meet the challenge to re-regulate the global economy in order to increase the control of democratic government over global capital.
Conference papers & presentations are available here
Book of the Week
Migrants for Export: How the Philippine State Brokers Labor to the World, by Robyn Magalit Rodriguez. Minneapolis : University of Minnesota Press, 2010. 194 p. ISBN 9780816665280 (pbk.)
How the Philippines transformed itself into the world’s leading labor brokerage state
Migrant workers from the Philippines are ubiquitous to global capitalism, with nearly 10 percent of the population employed in almost two hundred countries. In a visit to the United States in 2003, Philippine president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo even referred to herself as not only the head of state but also “the CEO of a global Philippine enterprise of eight million Filipinos who live and work abroad.”
Robyn Magalit Rodriguez investigates how and why the Philippine government transformed itself into what she calls a labor brokerage state, which actively prepares, mobilizes, and regulates its citizens for migrant work abroad. Filipino men and women fill a range of jobs around the globe, including domestic work, construction, and engineering, and they have even worked in the Middle East to support U.S. military operations. At the same time, the state redefines nationalism to normalize its citizens to migration while fostering their ties to the Philippines. Those who leave the country to work and send their wages to their families at home are treated as new national heroes.
Drawing on ethnographic research of the Philippine government’s migration bureaucracy, interviews, and archival work, Rodriguez presents a new analysis of neoliberal globalization and its consequences for nation-state formation.
About the Author:
Robyn Magalit Rodriguez is assistant professor of sociology at Rutgers University.
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