Perry Work Report for the week of September 28, 2010

September 28, 2010

Labour Arbitration and Bargaining in the Broader Public Sector Conferences

Lancaster House is pleased to announce the speakers for Lancaster's Labour Arbitration and Bargaining in the Broader Public Sector Conferences and Workshops in Toronto, which will be held from December 8 to 9, 2010, at the Sheraton Centre Toronto Hotel.  Early Bird Rate--Register before October 18 to save $100 off the regular price of both conferences and workshops.
PANEL 1: Government Wage Restraints: Are they justified? Will they work? 8:45 a.m. to 10:00 a.m.

SPEAKERS:  Rafael Gomez, Associate Professor Centre for Industrial Relations and Human Resources, University of Toronto; Carolyn Kay, Employer Counsel, Hicks Morley; Douglas Wray, Union Counsel, CaleyWray

On May 18, 2010, the Ontario government passed legislation that freezes wages in the non-unionized public sector. While employees who bargain compensation collectively are excluded from this new legislation, the government has stated that when contracts expire, it will expect new agreements of at least two years' duration that do not include net compensation increases. This initiative will affect more than one million workers.  On August 9th, the government began a series of consultations with unions and employer groups in relation to the implementation of the wage freeze. Join Lancaster's panel of experts who will analyze the results of these consultations, set to conclude on October 1st, and will address the following issues:
    * Impact on Bargaining: What has been the reaction of unions to the Ontario government’s attempt to freeze wages? How has the threat of wage freeze legislation impacted on bargaining and arbitration in other provinces?
    * Impact on Economy: Can wage restraints be justified from an economic perspective? What will be the likely longer-term impact of the government's public sector wage restraints on collective bargaining in the public sector?
    * Impact vis-à-vis Private Sector: Are public sector wage freezes equitable given the increase in private sector salaries? Will they have any impact on salary determination in the private sector?
    * Other Impacts: What are the likely impacts of the government's wage restraint initiative on the other issues that are brought to the bargaining table? On activities outside of bargaining?

* Impact on Charter Rights: Does the government's wage restraint initiative infringe the Charter right to freedom of association?[from the Lancaster House website for further details click here]

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The Idiot-Proof Guide to Executive Embetterment

Doug Hyatt (Ph.D., 1992, Centre for Industrial Relations, University of Toronto ) is the “professor to stalk” according to the most recent edition of the Globe and Mail’s Report on Business Magazine,September 24, 2010.

QUOTE:  Rotman School of Management:  “Professor to Stalk:  Doug Hyatt.  The economics prof was chosen as the best by students 11 years straight”

Globe and Mail, Report on Business Magazine, September 24, 2010:The Idiot-Proof Guide to Executive Embetterment - Good news! Getting ahead in business is about more than just hard work. In Report on Business magazine's annual guide to executive education, various contributing writers show how to be the smartest, craftiest, brightest and most popular person in your office—and use bigger words, too. And they'll even show the hardworking types how to go back to school. [so far theIdiot–proof guide is in print only]

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The Union Stewart

“I recently created a website and blog devoted to the work that I had previously published as Director of Education and Research for the national Transport Workers Union of America. The website covers current news on bargaining, contract administration material and labor history. The blog includes articles on grievance handling for local union officers and stewards. I am adding articles to the blog about every five days. The website and blog, has relevant information for stewards, union officers, labor educators, and LERA members." [by Robert Wechsler, Ph.D]

The Union Stewart: essential information for the union representative website
The Union Stewart Blog

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Labour Research Review available on Cornell University’s Digital Commons

“To a generation of trade union scholars and activists, Labor Research Review was a central forum for analysis, criticism, and strategic thinking on the American labor movement in the late 20th century.”

Labor Research Review, Number 1 (1982) – Number 24 (1996)

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Leadership on Trial

Following nine months of roundtable discussions with business thought leaders in nine cities on three continents, The Richard Ivey School of Business has announced the release of a report entitled "Leadership on Trial: A Manifesto for Leadership Development."
"Our goal was straightforward," said Carol Stephenson, Dean, Richard Ivey School of Business. "We had a strong feeling that the quality of leadership was a major reason for the recent global financial crisis. The failure to address this issue in the past helps explain why so-called 'black swan events' are in fact recurring events. Based on these assumptions, we felt it was imperative to engage leaders in a discussion on the role that leadership played before, during and after the crisis; in effect, to answer the question, 'Would better leadership have made a difference?'"

Press release: Ivey Business School, September, September 21, 2010: Leadership on Trial:  Ivey Business School asks business leaders if better leadership could have prevented the economic crisis. The answer is yes.

Leadership on Trial: A Manifesto for Leadership Development (for purchase)

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Ivey Business Journal on Leadership

The current edition of the Ivey Business Journal is on Leadership.  All articles are available free online.

Ivey Business Journal online September/October 2010

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Toronto Best City for Employers

“Aon Consulting has identified ... five areas of People Risk: Demographic risks are those associated with labor supply, the economy and the society; People risks associated with Government Supportare those where government policies and practices either help or hinder the management of people in that location; Education risk factors seek to measure risks associated with finding qualified professionals in a location; Talent Development risk factors look at the quality and availability of recruiting and training resources; Employment Practices risk factors seek to measure the risks associated with employing people in a given location.”

Aon Consulting, September 26, 2010: Highlights of the 2010 People Risk™ Index Ratings Organization Risks Related to Recruitment, Employment and Retirement (13 pages, PDF)

Globe and Mail, September 27, 2010: Toronto, Montreal win top marks for employers, by Tavia Grant

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State of Working life 2010

In February 2010, WFD Consulting and the Alliance for Work-Life Progress (AWLP) at WorldatWork launched a survey to understand the current state of work-life among U.S.-based corporations and plans and prospects for the future. Workload and Stress & Burnout are the most serious issues facing organizations, consistent with the slowly recovering level of employment and continuing lean workforces in the face of global competition. In third place is employee engagement/commitment, in part a serious issue because of the negative effects on engagement/commitment from overwork, stress, and burnout.

The State of Work-Life 2010:  Work-Life is alive and well. Senior management commitment is robust and budgets and staffing are holding their own. Yet, there is a curious mismatch between the most serious workforce issues companies are facing and where they are investing their resources in 2010 (5 pages, PDF)

Sloan Work and Family Research Network, Network News, September 2010: The State of Work-Life 2010: An Interview with Jan Civian by Judi Casey (2 pages, PDF)

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Bill Moyers Interviews David Simon creator of THE WIRE

DAVID SIMON:  -- he's describing a capitalist pyramid where nobody moves. Where there is no improvement in anyone's station. And we were basically setting out a preamble for what the next five seasons would show, with regard to the city. You know, in second season there was a character who said, almost prescient of the of the Wall Street debacle. He said, "We used to make stuff in this country. Build stuff." He didn't say 'stuff' but it's HBO. But he said, "Now, we just put our hands in the next guy's pocket."

The fact that these really are the excess people in America, we-- our economy doesn't need them. We don't need ten or 15 percent of our population. And certainly the ones that are undereducated, that have been ill served by the inner city school system, that have been unprepared for the technocracy of the modern economy. We pretend to need them. We pretend to educate the kids. We pretend that we're actually including them in the American ideal, but we're not. And they're not foolish. They get it.”

Oh, I would decriminalize drugs in a heartbeat. I would put all the interdiction money, all the incarceration money, all the enforcement money, all of the pretrial, all the prep, all of that cash, I would hurl it, as fast as I could, into drug treatment and job training and jobs programs. I would rather turn these neighborhoods inward with jobs programs. Even if it was the equivalent of the urban CCC, if it was New Deal-type logic, it would be doing less damage than creating a war syndrome, where we're basically treating our underclass. The drug war's war on the underclass now. That's all it is. It has no other meaning. [from the complete transcript – link provided below]

Bill Moyers Journal, PBS, September 2010: David Simon talks about The Wire - the socio economic inequality that is America and is the bases of this acclaimed series – worth watching again!

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Salaries and Salary Scales of Full-time Teaching Staff at Canadian Universities

The report, "Salaries and Salary Scales of Full-time Teaching Staff at Canadian Universities, 2009/2010: Preliminary Report", presents information on the salaries of full-time teaching staff at 31 Canadian universities for 2009/2010. The institutions included are those that completed the survey by the beginning of August and that have more than 100 staff. In 2008/2009, these institutions accounted for 45% of the full-time teaching staff of the 115 institutions included in the survey.

Statistics Canada, September 28, 2010: "Salaries and Salary Scales of Full-time Teaching Staff at Canadian Universities, 2009/2010

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Obesity and the Economics of Prevention: Fit not Fat

This book contributes to evidence-based policy making by exploring multiple dimensions of the obesity problem. It examines the scale and characteristics of the epidemic, the respective roles and influence of market forces and governments, and the impact of interventions. It outlines an economic approach to the prevention of chronic diseases that provides novel insights relative to a more traditional public health approach.

Executive Summary, September 23, 2010(8 pages, PDF)

Obesity and the Economics of Prevention: Fit not Fat - Canada Key Facts

Obesity and the Economics of Prevention: Fit not Fat website Chapter 3:  The Social Dimensions of Obesity: Does obesity affect employment, wages and productivity? (full text available to the University of Toronto community through SourceOECD)

The Economist, September 23, 2010:  Fat of the lands: The bulging problem of obesity

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Developing Countries come to the Global Economy’s Rescue

“According to a new book released by the World Bank titled, The Day After Tomorrow: a Handbook on the Future of Economic Policy in the Developing World, almost half of global growth is currently coming from developing countries. As a group, it is projected that their economic size will surpass that of their developed peers in 2015”
Links to individual chapters and synthesis of the 466 page book are available here: The Day After Tomorrow: a Handbook on the Future of Economic Policy in the Developing World

World Bank press release, September 27, 2010: Developing Countries Come to the Global Economy’s Rescue: They account for half of global growth and will surpass economic size of developed nations by 2015 (2 pages, PDF)

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Book of the Week

Managing the Global Workforce, by Paula Caligiuri, David Lepak and Jaime Bonache. Hoboken, N.J. : Wiley, 2010. 218 p. ISBN 9781405107327

In today's highly competitive global business environment, organizations need to aggressively compete for new markets, products, services, and top human talent in order to develop and sustain competitive advantage in the global arena. For many years, international firms have effectively managed their financial and material resources globally, leveraging economies of scale, low cost production, currency fluctuations, and the like. Human resources, as all other resources in multinational firms, are now being managed on a global scale.

About the Authors:

Paula Caligiuri, Professor of Human Resource Management, School of Management and Labor Relations, Rutgers University, USA; Jaime Bonache, Professor of Human Resources, ESADE Business School, Spain; David Lepak, Professor of Human Resource Management, and Chairperson of the Human Resource Management, School of Management and Labor Relations, Rutgers University, USA.

Visit the Recent Books at the CIRHR Library blog.

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This publication is protected by Canadian copyright laws and may not be copied, posted or forwarded electronically without permission. 

Questions or comments: cirhr.library@utoronto.ca

Editor: Vicki Skelton
Designer: Nick Strupat

Copyright © 2010 Centre for Industrial Relations and Human Resources, University of Toronto. All rights reserved.

 

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