September 21, 2012
Welcome to a new academic year for the Perry Work Report. The PWR is an e-publication linking students, alumni, academics and practitioners to current publications, research and resources in the fields of industrial relations and human resources. For current news in IR/HR please follow the CIRHR Library on Twitter.
Many thanks to Claire Wollen, a most able PWR editor during my six month research leave and welcome to our new co-editor, Melody Tacit, an iSchool Candidate 2013. We are off to a great start at the Centre for Industrial Relations and Human Resources welcoming 57 new students into our Masters of Industrial Relations and Human Resources program (MIRHR) and two PhD students (three PhDs in 2011).
Please feel free to send questions or comments to cirhr.library@utoronto.ca. We look forward to hearing from you.
Vicki Skelton, CIRHR Librarian
- Conversation on Work and Labour Series continues…
- Occupy Wall Street: One Year Later
- Public Sector Reductions are Trending
- Cutting our Governments Down to Size
- Saskatchewan: Modernizing Employment and Labour Relations Legislation
- Perspectives on Labour and Income discontinued
- Centre for Law in the Contemporary Workplace
- Online Privacy Laws
- Employment law and industrial relations blogs and resources worth visiting
- Work and Climate Change Report
- Youth Unemployment
- A New Global Era for Talent
- Collective Bargaining and Good Jobs
- World Economic Forum—global competitiveness
- Book of the Week
Conversation on Work and Labour Series continues…
The Centre for Industrial Relations and Human Resources has joined with Osgoode Hall Law School in presenting the Conversations on Work and Labour Series, organized by Professor Sara Slinn. We began with our first Conversation of the year on September 17th, Professor John Howe, from the Centre for Employment and Labour Relations Law, University of Melbourne speaking on “The Use of Enforceable Undertakings and Accessorial Liability to Motivate Employment Standards Compliance by Corporations in Australia.
The next Conversation: Made in Canada: How the Law Constructs Migrant Workers’ Insecurity by Fay Faraday on Wednesday October 31, 2012, 11:30a.m. – 12:45 p.m. Presented by Osgoode Hall and the Centre for Industrial Relations and Human Resources at 121 St. George Street, Room 205. The full text of the paper in PDF was released by the Metcalf Foundation and the link is provided below.
Canada’s reliance on low-wage migrant workers with temporary immigration status is growing but our laws make them vulnerable to abuse, says a new report published by the Metcalf Foundation.
Metcalf Foundation website, September 17, 2012: Summary
Metcalf Foundation, September 17, 2012: Made in Canada: How the Law Constructs Migrant Workers’ Insecurity by Fay Faraday (120 pages, PDF)
Occupy Wall Street: One Year Later
September 17 marked the one year anniversary of Occupy Wall Street. As The Economist points out, the movement has not lead to sweeping legislative or regulatory changes, but it has propelled an awareness of growing inequality into the mainstream. Professor Miles Corak states “The problem is that markets and politics have never been separate spheres, and a gross divergence in economic status changes political discourse, and the rules of the game—both the subtle rules of how industries and interests are regulated, but also broader rules governing the design of taxes and social policy—in a way that threatens to be of relatively more advantage to the relatively advantaged. This is something clear to the academic crowd, but because of [Occupy Wall Street] also to everyone else.”
Economics for Public Policy, September 17, 2012: #S17 is today, and reminds us of the price of inequality by Miles Corak
The Globe and Mail, September 14, 2012: “The comeback of Occupy Wall Street,” by Joanna Slater
The Economist, September 22, 2012: “Occupy Wall Street Afterthoughts”
The Washington Post, September 15, 2012: “Occupy protesters arrested in N.Y. on anniversary of movement,” by Annie Gowan (with photo gallery)
New York Review of Books, October 11, 2012 (date is for upcoming print issue): New York: The Police and the Protesters by Michael Greenberg
“What has been most disturbing, however, is strong evidence that Occupy organizers have been infiltrated, spied upon, and aggressively harassed by the counterterrorism unit of the department’s Intelligence Division. Protesters, in effect, have been treated as part of a terrorist continuum that includes violent jihadists and sympathizers with al-Qaeda, though police well know that Occupy activists are not terrorists in any sense of the word.”
Occupy Wall Street, September 14, 2012: The Occu-versary is Here: Join Us This Weekend For #S17
Public Sector Reductions are Trending
The Public Services Alliance of Canada (PSAC) called a National Day of Action on September 15 to protest the hundreds of notices that federal government employees received stating that their jobs may be “affected” by cuts. Reductions are also occurring on the provincial level. Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty has announced a proposed pay cap on public sector executives just a week after calling “upon all public-sector workers to be “part of the solution” by voluntarily agreeing to freeze their wages for two years. If they don’t co-operate, he warned, the government will use legislation to impose contracts.” [The Globe and Mail]. Darlene Bembridge, New Brunswick director for PSAC Atlantic, points to the negative implications these cuts will have for communities as “laid-off workers will have enough trouble paying the bills and aren't likely to contribute to local economies.” [CBC].
The Globe and Mail, September 20, 2012: Ontario Liberals move to freeze wages for public sector executives by Karen Howlett
CBC News, September 15, 2012: Public sector workers protest cuts across Canada
Public Service Alliance of Canada, September 13, 2012: Hundreds more PSAC members told they could lose their jobs HRSDC hardest hit
CBC News, September 13, 2012: Federal civil service hit with 1,700 more job notices
Cutting our Governments Down to Size
“Nowhere are the effects of unequal power clearer than in the shifting commitment of elites to limited government and deficit reduction… “balancing the budget…is the attention-getting device that enables me to reduce the size of government. Because the national concern over the deficit is larger than life…. So I take what I can get and focus it on the job I want. If you’re anxious about the deficit, then let me use your anxiety to cut the size of government.”” [1990s House Majority Leader Dick Armey]
New York Review of Books, September 27, 2012: “What Krugman & Stiglitz Can Tell Us,” by Jacob Hacker and Paul Pierson
Saskatchewan: Modernizing Employment and Labour Relations Legislation
The Saskatchewan Government is undertaking a comprehensive review of all employment and labour relations legislation. Links to submissions from: Public Sector Organizations, Professional/Special Interest Groups, Organized Labour/Collective Bargaining Associations, Businesses, and Individuals are available on the website. Background to these proposed changes is available from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. Watch for a new paper by Chris Schenk to be released by the CCPA in late September.
Government of Saskatchewan. Labour Relations and Workplace Safety: Modernizing Employment and Labour Relations Legislation website
For the background to these proposed changes see:
Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, February 7, 2012: Saskatchewan Labour wins Essential Services Challenge: Court Rules Bill 5 "Unconstitutional."
Canadian Press, September 14, 2012: Submissions show Saskatchewan unions, business groups at odds over labour changes
Perspectives on Labour and Income discontinued
Statistics Canada is discontinuing Perspectives on Labour and Income, a publication on labour market, household income and related studies. The reason given is the “current fiscal environment.” The first online issue was published in June 1989. The last online edition of Perspectives was released in August 2012. Featured articles and assessments of the social issues which appeared inPerspectives on Labour and Income or in Canadian Social Trends will be combined into a new online publication on social statistics – it will be free of charge and released in Fall 2012.
Perspective on Labour and Income Subject Access: Topics of interest on labour and income – a good subject index up until 2011 – see online publication for 2012 articles.
Centre for Law in the Contemporary Workplace
In November 2010, Queen's Law launched the Centre for Law in the Contemporary Workplace(CLCW). The first of its kind in Canada, the Centre will provide an intellectual home for the Canadian labour and employment law community.
On Friday, June 22, 2012 the Centre hosted a workshop that brought together many of the leading labour relations and labour law experts and industrial relations leaders to consider the prospects for policy reform in industrial relations in the Ontario broader public sector, in light of the recent Drummond Commission Report on the reform of Ontario's public services and the recent Ontario budget.
In the Wake of the Drummond Report and Ontario Budget: Prospects for Reform of Industrial Relations in the Ontario Broader Public Sector Workshop: speaker presentations available here
Earlier presentations by the Centre available here.
Online Privacy Laws
These reports describe the constitutional foundations of data privacy and the statutory requirements that must be met in order for data to be collected, used, and transferred to third parties. Informed consent, transparency, data minimization, and describe the rights and remedies of data subjects, particularly the rights of access, rectification, and erasure.
In addition, the reports examine whether the existing laws on data privacy are adequate to deal with online privacy in an era of rapid technological development and globalization, and with an increased scale of data sharing and collecting.
European Union: Online Privacy Laws Part One, June 2012 (31 pages, PDF). Prepared for the 2012 American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) Annual Meeting and Conference Boston, MA (July 21-24, 2012) includes all EU countries
Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom: Online Privacy Laws Part Two, June 2012 (220 pages, PDF) Prepared for the 2012 American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) Annual Meeting and Conference Boston, MA (July 21-24, 2012) – Online privacy law for Canada is on pages 23–29 in this document.
Employment law and industrial relations blogs and resources worth visiting
* Clawbies.ca
* Conversations on Work and Labour
* Doorey's Workplace Law Blog
* Human Rights in the Workplace
* Labour & Employment Blogs
* Lancaster House
* Slaw
* The Court
* The Progressive Economics Forum
* Thoughts from a Management Lawyer
* Workplace Wire
* Youth and Work
Work and Climate Change Report
The Work and Climate Change Report is a monthly online publication which alerts and informs academics, practitioners and students about important new research and legislation from Canada and around the world. WCR is published by the Work in a Warming World Research Unit, York University. For questions, comments, or if you wish to subscribe to this monthly report, please send an e-mail to: w3info@yorku.ca Website at: www.workinawarmingworld.yorku.ca
Youth Unemployment
A recent report from TD Canada finds that youth in Europe are facing almost impossible conditions. Youth unemployment rates are above 50 percent in Greece and Spain. In Canada the rate fluctuates around 14 percent and in the United States 16 percent.
TD Economics: Europe’s Lost Generation, August 21, 2012 (5 pages, PDF)
The Agenda Steve Paiken, June 1, 2012: Young and Unemployed: Youth unemployment sits at nearly twice the national rate for the overall labour market in Canada. The financial crisis of 2008 wiped out all the youth employment gains that had been made since 2002. The Agenda examines the social and economic consequences of jobless youth. Visit Andrew Langille's Youth and Work website/blog
ILO Youth Employment Website – current papers available to download
Global Employment Outlook September 2012: Bleak Labour Market Prospects for Youth, ILO, Employment and Labour Market Analysis, Employment Sector, September 4, 2012 (4 pages, PDF).This update of the Global Employment Trends Report 2012 shows that jobless rates among young people will get even worse globally as the spillover of the euro crisis spreads from advanced to emerging economies. Summary available here.
A New Global Era for Talent
Oxford Economics collaborated with Towers Watson and various partners to explore how market transformations will affect senior HR executives and their companies. The initiative features an in-depth global survey of 352 HR professionals, two-thirds of them CHROs and senior vice presidents or vice presidents of HR. The survey reveals that tomorrow's landscape for global talent will be dramatically different — and that certain countries and industries will need to adapt more quickly to remain competitive.
Towers Watson, September 19, 2012: Global Talent 2021: How the new geography of talent will transform human resource strategies (21 pages, PDF)
Collective Bargaining and Good Jobs
There are more educated individuals in the workforce today than in the 1970s, yet the economy is generating fewer good jobs. Challenging the customary explanation “that most workers’ skills have not kept up with the rapid pace of technological change,” Schmitt and Jones consider “deterioration in the bargaining power of workers, especially those at the middle and the bottom of the income scale” a more plausible explanation.
Centre for Economic and Policy Research, July 2012: Where Have All the Good Jobs Gone? by John Schmitt and Janelle Jones (18 pages, PDF)
The Globe and Mail, September 2, 2012: “The weakening state of Canadian labour unions,” by Janet Mcfarland
World Economic Forum—global competitiveness
This year’s Global Competitiveness Report features a record number of 144 economies, and thus continues to be the most comprehensive assessment of its kind. It contains a detailed profile for each of the economies included in the study as well as an extensive section of data tables with global rankings covering over 100 indicators.
From the main page you can scroll down to Section 2.2 Data Tables on the left and select a section using the drop down menu. Try Table 7 - Labour Market Efficiency for the following tables of country comparisons:
7.01 Cooperation in labor-employer relations
How would you characterize labor-employer relations in your country? [1 = generally confrontational; 7 = generally cooperative] | 2011–12 weighted average (United States has a greater cooperative rating than Canada does)
7.07 Brain drain
Does your country retain and attract talented people? [1 = no, the best and brightest normally leave to pursue opportunities in other countries; 7 = yes, there are many opportunities for talented people within the country] | 2011–12 weighted average
World Economic Forum, Geneva Switzerland, September 2012: The Global Competitiveness Report 2012 – 2013 – web access
Urban Institute, September 19, 2012: International Competitiveness: Who Competes Against Whom and for What? By Eric Toder (30 pages, PDF)
Book of the Week
The Price of Inequality: How Today's Divided Society Endangers Our Future, by Joseph E. Stiglitz. New York : W.W. Norton & Co., 2012. 414 p. ISBN 9780393088694.
A forceful argument against America's vicious circle of growing inequality by the Nobel Prize–winning economist. The top 1 percent of Americans control 40 percent of the nation’s wealth. And, as Joseph E. Stiglitz explains, while those at the top enjoy the best health care, education, and benefits of wealth, they fail to realize that “their fate is bound up with how the other 99 percent live.”
About the Author: Winner of the 2001 Nobel Memorial Prize for Economics, Joseph E. Stiglitz is the best-selling author of Making Globalization Work; Globalization and Its Discontents; and, with Linda Bilmes, The Three Trillion Dollar War. He was chairman of President Clinton's Council of Economic Advisers and served as senior vice president and chief economist at the World Bank. He teaches at Columbia University and lives in New York City.
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Editors: Vicki Skelton and Melody Tacit
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