DOCSLIB.ORG

Canadian Labour and Employment Law Journal Revue Canadienne De Droit Du Travail Et De L'emploi VOLUME 18

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Canadian Labour and Employment Law Journal Revue Canadienne De Droit Du Travail Et De L'emploi VOLUME 18 Canadian Labour and Employment Law Journal Revue canadienne de droit du travail et de l’emploi VOLUME 18 EDITOR IN CHIEF / RÉDACTEUR EN CHEF Bernard Adell Faculty of Law, Queen’s University 2015 CanLIIDocs 535 ARTICLES EDITORS / RESPONSABLES DES ARTICLES Kevin Banks Faculty of Law, Queen’s University David Doorey School of Human Resource Management, York University ASSOCIATE EDITORS / RÉDACTEURS CONSULTATIFS Jeffrey Sack of the Ontario Bar Brian Burkett of the Ontario Bar QUEBEC EDITOR / RÉDACTRICE POUR LE QUÉBEC Renée-Claude Drouin Faculté de droit, Université de Montréal BOOK REVIEW EDITOR / RÉDACTEUR DES COMPTES RENDUS Peter Neumann of the Ontario Bar MANAGING EDITOR / DIRECTEUR ADMINISTRATIF Boris Bohuslawsky of the Ontario Bar 00_Frontmatter_v18n2.indd 1 15-03-23 5:37 PM SENIOR STUDENT EDITORS / RÉDACTEURS ÉTUDIANTS Cody Kolsteren Yorke Giovanna Di Sauro Chanelle Wong STUDENT EDITORS / RÉDACTEURS ASSOCIÉS Swarna Perinparajah Angela Wiggins Julian Yang STUDENT EDITORIAL ASSISTANTS / 2015 CanLIIDocs 535 ASSISTANTS À LA RÉDACTION Hailey Abramski Katie Bala Chris Dickinson Jordan Moss Shalom Cumbo-Steinmetz Adam James Jessica Toldo Levi Vandersteen Melissa Feriozzo Andrew Haroun Daniel Clarke Nika Farahani Jason Paquette Katrina van Kessel Tova Cranford Nicolas Guadagnolo Brittany Scott Michael Scott Faculty of Law, Queen’s University 00_Frontmatter_v18n2.indd 2 15-03-23 5:37 PM EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD / COMITÉ CONSULTATIF DE RÉDACTION CHAIR Hon. Warren Winkler Chief Justice of Ontario Professor Roy Adams Professor Ronald McCalIum McMaster University University of Sydney Hon. Marie-France Bich Professor Alan Neal Court of Appeal of Quebec University of Warwick 2015 CanLIIDocs 535 Professor Keith Ewing Professor Jean Sexton King’s College, London Laval University Professor Matthew Finkin Mr. Kenneth Swan University of Illinois Mediator and Arbitrator Hon. Sheila Greckol Hon. Katherine Swinton Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench Ontario Superior Court of Justice Dr. Patricia Hughes Professor Paul Weiler Law Foundation of Ontario Harvard University Professor Thomas Kuttner Professor Manfred Weiss University of Windsor J.W. Goethe University, Frankfurt PRACTICE ADVISORY PANEL / COMITÉ CONSULTATIF PROFESSIONNEL David Blair Gordon Petrie Vancouver, B.C. Fredericton, New Brunswick David Corry Ronald Pink Calgary, Alberta Halifax, Nova Scotia Donald McDougall Thomas Roper Halifax, Nova Scotia Vancouver, B.C. Gaston Nadeau Suzanne Thibaudeau Montreal, Quebec Montreal, Quebec 00_Frontmatter_v18n2.indd 3 15-03-23 5:37 PM INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF LABOUR LAW JOURNALS www.labourlawjournals.com Análisis Laboral (Peru) Arbeit und Recht (Germany) Australian Journal of Labour Law (Australia) Bulletin de Droit Comparé du Travail et de la Securité Sociale (France) Bulletin of Comparative Labour Relations (Belgium) Canadian Labour & Employment Law Journal (Canada) Comparative Labor Law & Policy Journal (US) 2015 CanLIIDocs 535 Industrial Law Journal (South Africa) Industrial Law Journal (UK) International Journal of Comparative Labour Law & Industrial Relations (Italy) International Labour Review (ILO) Japan Labor Review (Japan) Labour, Society and Law (Israel) Lavoro e Diritto (Italy) Relaciones Laborales (Spain) Zeitschrift für ausländisches und internationales Arbeits- und Sozialrecht (Germany) The International Association of Labour Law Journals was established for the following purposes: 1. Advancing research and scholarship in the fields of labour and employ- ment law; 2. Encouraging the exchange of information regarding all aspects of the publishing process; 3. Promoting closer relations among editors of national and international labour and employment law journals. 00_Frontmatter_v18n2.indd 4 15-03-23 5:37 PM “Privacy: Its Constitution and Vicissitudes” – A Half-Century On Matthew W. Finkin* Half a century ago, on the verge of the Information Age, the sociologist Edward Shils took the measure of how matters stood with privacy. He argued that privacy was being systematically engulfed by societal elites — government, journalists, business, and social scientists — even as they sought privacy for themselves. He saw a passive populace, indifferent to the intrusion, and a near- total absence of protective law. This essay reflects on what Shils saw from the perspective of a half-century’s experience. It argues that the populace is no 2015 CanLIIDocs 535 longer passive, that the public’s concern for privacy as consumers has had a rip- ple effect in a concern for privacy in employment. Nor is the law totally absent; but the legislative approach has been piecemeal, attending only to those per- ceived abuses that most strike the public ire. In terms of the common law, in its address to the large lacunae left by legislation, the legal establishment — repre- sented by the American Law Institute — continues to serve as a handmaiden to those business interests that had and would continue to engulf employee privacy. 1. INTRODUCTION A half-century ago, the distinguished sociologist, Edward Shils, addressed “Privacy: Its Constitution and Vicissitudes.”1 He adverted to the trajectory of social practice, not law, from pre-industrial times in Western Europe and America to the last quarter of the nineteenth century, which he termed the “golden age of privacy,”2 and on to “the institutional organization of privacy intrusion in the middle of the twentieth century.”3 His primary address was to informational privacy — the collection and use of personal information by govern- ment, the press, employers and social scientists. But he also adverted * Professor of Law, University of Illinois. 1 Edward Shils, “Privacy: Its Constitution and Vicissitudes” (1966) 31:2 L & Contemp Probs 281. Shils had earlier addressed the threat worked by the loyal- ty-security measures taken by the U.S. government in the 1950s. Edward Shils, The Torment of Secrecy: The Background and Consequences of American Security Policies (Glencoe, Ill: Free Press, 1956). 2 Ibid at 292. 3 Ibid at 300. 01_Finkin.indd 349 15-03-24 10:54 AM 350 CDN. LABOUR & EMPLOYMENT LAW JOURNAL [18 CLELJ] to individual liberty as a correlative of informational privacy, the invasion of which bore identical implications: “[T]he growth of indi- viduality has contributed to the demand for privacy. The awareness of self, of the uniqueness of the self, makes for a greater sensitivity to impingement on self, to intrusion into the zone around that self.”4 Shils argued, however, that privacy was of concern almost exclusively to elites — to government officials, employers, journal- ists and social scientists5 not, in passing, to the working class.6 And therein lay an anomaly, for it was those very elites whose expansion of power and ambition engulfs privacy.7 Shils did not pursue this observation, but the fair implication was that, for purposes of privacy protection, the policy elite was part of the problem. 2015 CanLIIDocs 535 Without doubting that some loss of privacy is necessary for pub- lic order and security to be protected, for industry to be efficient, for the citizenry to be informed, for systematic empirical study of human society to be cultivated, Shils concluded that much that is done in the name of these ends is at once privacy invasive and “useless and unnecessary from any serious standpoint” — that it is, in fact, “an immoral affront to human dignity.”8 Shils closed on a note of alarm: the individual’s thoughts and conversations, the disposition of what belongs to a person, her body, its image — and, one should add, its very deployment — is inherent in the person’s existence “as an individual soul.”9 “A society that claims to be both humane and civil is committed to their respect. When its practice departs from that respect, it also departs from that degree from humanity and civility.”10 It is fitting a half-century on to reflect on Shils’ analysis of where we were, where we are, and where we are going; that is, how Shils’ perceptions stand up today insofar as the world of employment is involved. A recasting for analytical purposes would be this: (1) that 4 Ibid note 12 at 304. 5 Ibid at 301. 6 Ibid (noting that mostly only union officials have objected to video monitoring of the workplace, note 11 at 303). 7 Ibid at 305. 8 Ibid. 9 Ibid. 10 Ibid at 306. 01_Finkin.indd 350 15-03-24 10:54 AM “PRIVACY: ITS CONSTITUTION AND VICISSITUDES” 351 one of the consequences of capitalism and industrialization was to stimulate a desire for privacy and to create the circumstances for its enjoyment; (2) that as respect for the individual, whose auton- omy in the market was a fundamental precept of capitalism, became accepted as a societal imperative, so too did respect for privacy; (3) that as capitalism paradoxically invades privacy by virtue of its very market-driven logic, a necessary though unaddressed implication is (4) that the exercise of private power should not intrude beyond what is necessary and proportionate; and consequently, (5) that the law should impose commensurate constraints, for no other means of social ordering seem ready to hand; but (6) that as the general public was largely disengaged from the issue and as it was not in the interest 2015 CanLIIDocs 535 of the elite to insulate what they wished to invade, the condition of privacy going forward was that of inexorable, unchecked loss. Let us take each in turn. 2. THE DEMAND FOR AND THE ENJOYMENT OF PRIVACY (a) The Pre-Industrial World Privacy was not a social condition in the pre-industrial world. Even in the early modern period in Western Europe and
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Political Ideas and Movements That Created the Modern World
    harri+b.cov 27/5/03 4:15 pm Page 1 UNDERSTANDINGPOLITICS Understanding RITTEN with the A2 component of the GCE WGovernment and Politics A level in mind, this book is a comprehensive introduction to the political ideas and movements that created the modern world. Underpinned by the work of major thinkers such as Hobbes, Locke, Marx, Mill, Weber and others, the first half of the book looks at core political concepts including the British and European political issues state and sovereignty, the nation, democracy, representation and legitimacy, freedom, equality and rights, obligation and citizenship. The role of ideology in modern politics and society is also discussed. The second half of the book addresses established ideologies such as Conservatism, Liberalism, Socialism, Marxism and Nationalism, before moving on to more recent movements such as Environmentalism and Ecologism, Fascism, and Feminism. The subject is covered in a clear, accessible style, including Understanding a number of student-friendly features, such as chapter summaries, key points to consider, definitions and tips for further sources of information. There is a definite need for a text of this kind. It will be invaluable for students of Government and Politics on introductory courses, whether they be A level candidates or undergraduates. political ideas KEVIN HARRISON IS A LECTURER IN POLITICS AND HISTORY AT MANCHESTER COLLEGE OF ARTS AND TECHNOLOGY. HE IS ALSO AN ASSOCIATE McNAUGHTON LECTURER IN SOCIAL SCIENCES WITH THE OPEN UNIVERSITY. HE HAS WRITTEN ARTICLES ON POLITICS AND HISTORY AND IS JOINT AUTHOR, WITH TONY BOYD, OF THE BRITISH CONSTITUTION: EVOLUTION OR REVOLUTION? and TONY BOYD WAS FORMERLY HEAD OF GENERAL STUDIES AT XAVERIAN VI FORM COLLEGE, MANCHESTER, WHERE HE TAUGHT POLITICS AND HISTORY.
    [Show full text]
  • (COP 19) Freedom of Association and Collective Bargaining
    STANDARD GUIDANCE (COP 19) Freedom of Association and Collective Bargaining A. Definitions and applicability Freedom of association is the right of workers and employers to freely form and join Workers Organisations such as trade unions, worker associations and worker councils or committees for the promotion and defence of occupational interests. Collective bargaining is a process through which employers (or their organisations) and workers’ associations (or in their absence, freely designated workers’ representatives) negotiate terms and conditions of work. Both are fundamental rights and they are linked. Collective bargaining cannot work without freedom of association because workers’ views cannot be properly represented. Workers must be free to choose whether and how they are to be represented and employers must not interfere in this process. A Collective Bargaining Agreement is a legally enforceable written contract between the management of a company and its employees, represented by a Workers Organisation, that defines terms and conditions of work. Collective bargaining agreements must comply with Applicable Law. A Workers Organisation is a voluntary association of workers organised on a continuing basis for the purpose of maintaining and improving their terms of employment and workplace conditions. Source: ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work http://www.ilo.org/declaration/principles/freedomofassociation/lang--en/index.htm ILO Better Work, Guidance Sheet 4: Freedom of Association and Collective Bargaining http://betterwork.com/global/wp-content/uploads/4-Freedom-of-Association.pdf RJC Code of Practices (2013) The Freedom of Association and Collective Bargaining section of the COP is applicable to all Members with employees. B. Issue background The right to freedom of association is proclaimed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
    [Show full text]
  • Markets Not Capitalism Explores the Gap Between Radically Freed Markets and the Capitalist-Controlled Markets That Prevail Today
    individualist anarchism against bosses, inequality, corporate power, and structural poverty Edited by Gary Chartier & Charles W. Johnson Individualist anarchists believe in mutual exchange, not economic privilege. They believe in freed markets, not capitalism. They defend a distinctive response to the challenges of ending global capitalism and achieving social justice: eliminate the political privileges that prop up capitalists. Massive concentrations of wealth, rigid economic hierarchies, and unsustainable modes of production are not the results of the market form, but of markets deformed and rigged by a network of state-secured controls and privileges to the business class. Markets Not Capitalism explores the gap between radically freed markets and the capitalist-controlled markets that prevail today. It explains how liberating market exchange from state capitalist privilege can abolish structural poverty, help working people take control over the conditions of their labor, and redistribute wealth and social power. Featuring discussions of socialism, capitalism, markets, ownership, labor struggle, grassroots privatization, intellectual property, health care, racism, sexism, and environmental issues, this unique collection brings together classic essays by Cleyre, and such contemporary innovators as Kevin Carson and Roderick Long. It introduces an eye-opening approach to radical social thought, rooted equally in libertarian socialism and market anarchism. “We on the left need a good shake to get us thinking, and these arguments for market anarchism do the job in lively and thoughtful fashion.” – Alexander Cockburn, editor and publisher, Counterpunch “Anarchy is not chaos; nor is it violence. This rich and provocative gathering of essays by anarchists past and present imagines society unburdened by state, markets un-warped by capitalism.
    [Show full text]
  • Right to Freedom of Association in the Workplace: Australia's Compliance with International Human Rights Law
    UCLA UCLA Pacific Basin Law Journal Title The Right to Freedom of Association in the Workplace: Australia's Compliance with International Human Rights Law Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/98v0c0jj Journal UCLA Pacific Basin Law Journal, 27(2) Author Hutchinson, Zoé Publication Date 2010 DOI 10.5070/P8272022218 Peer reviewed eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California ARTICLES THE RIGHT TO FREEDOM OF ASSOCIATION IN THE WORKPLACE: AUSTRALIA'S COMPLIANCE WITH INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS LAW Zoe Hutchinson BA LLB (Hons, 1st Class)* ABSTRACT The right to freedom of association in the workplace is a well- established norm of internationalhuman rights law. However, it has traditionally received insubstantial attention within human rights scholarship. This article situates the right to freedom of as- sociation at work within human rights discourses. It looks at the status, scope and importance of the right as it has evolved in inter- nationalhuman rights law. In so doing, a case is put that there are strong reasons for states to comply with the right to freedom of association not only in terms of internationalhuman rights obliga- tions but also from the perspective of human dignity in the context of an interconnected world. A detailed case study is offered that examines the right to free- dom of association in the Australian context. There has been a series of significant changes to Australian labor law in recent years. The Rudd-Gillard Labor government claimed that recent changes were to bring Australia into greater compliance with its obligations under internationallaw. This policy was presented to electors as in sharp contrast to the Work Choices legislation of the Howard Liberal-Nationalparty coalitiongovernment.
    [Show full text]
  • The Contract As Social Artifact Mark C. Suchman
    91 The Contract as Social Artifact Mark C. Suchman This article outlines a distinctive, albeit not entirely unprecedented, research agenda for the sociolegal study of contracts. In the past, law and society scholars have tended to examine contracts either through the intellectual history of contract doctrine ‘‘on the books’’ or through the empirical study of how real-world exchange relations are governed ‘‘in action.’’ Although both of these traditions have contributed greatly to our understanding of contract law, neither has devoted much attention to the most distinctive concrete product of contractual transactionsFcontract documents themselves. Without denying the value of studying either contract doctrine or relational governance, this article argues that contract documents are independently interesting social artifacts and that they should be studied as such. As social artifacts, contracts possess both technical and symbolic properties, and the sociolegal study of contract-as-artifact can profitably apply prevailing social scientific theories of technology and symbolism to understand both: (1) the microdynamics of why and how transacting parties craft individual contract devices, and (2) the macrodynamics of why and how larger social systems generate and sustain distinctive contract regimes. Seen in this light, the microdynamics of contract implicate ‘‘technical’’ theories of transaction cost engineering and private lawmaking, and ‘‘symbolic’’ theories of ceremony and gesture. In a parallel fashion, the macrodynamics of contract implicate ‘‘technical’’ theories of innovation diffusion, path dependence, and technology cycles, and ‘‘symbolic’’ theories of ideology, legitimacy, and communication. Together, these micro and macro explorations suggest that contract artifacts may best be understood as scripts and signalsFcollections of symbols designed to yield technically efficacious practical action when interpreted by culture-bearing social actors within the context of preexisting vocabularies and conventions.
    [Show full text]
  • In Canadian Labour Law Brian A
    Osgoode Hall Law Journal Article 5 Volume 21, Number 3 (October 1983) "Equal Partnership" in Canadian Labour Law Brian A. Langille Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.osgoode.yorku.ca/ohlj Article Citation Information Langille, Brian A.. ""Equal Partnership" in Canadian Labour Law." Osgoode Hall Law Journal 21.3 (1983) : 496-536. http://digitalcommons.osgoode.yorku.ca/ohlj/vol21/iss3/5 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at Osgoode Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Osgoode Hall Law Journal by an authorized editor of Osgoode Digital Commons. "EQUAL PARTNERSHIP" IN CANADIAN LABOUR LAW By BRIAN A. LANGILLE* I. THE ISSUE ............................................... 497 II. AN AMERICAN STARTING POINT ......................... 499 III. THE SCOPE OF THE DUTY TO BARGAIN IN CANADA ...... 503 IV. CERTIFICATION AND CERTIFICATES ..................... 506 V. AN EVALUATION ........................................ 508 VI. OTHER PARTS OF THE PUZZLE ........................... 512 A. The Statutory Timetable .................................. 512 B. The FunctionalContent of the Duty to Bargain .............. 514 C. The Freeze ............................................. 523 D. UnfairLabour Practices.................................. 528 E. The ArbitrationJurisprudence on ContractingOut ........... 532 VII. CONCLUSION ............................................ 536 © Copyright, 1983, Brian A. Langille. * Associate Professor of Law, Faculty of Law, University of Toronto. 1983] Partnershipsin LabourLaw ... by permiting labour to organize freely and effectively we can convert the relation of master and servant in to an equal and cooperativepartnership.... I Senator Wagner (1932) ... Congress had no expectation that the elected union representative2 would become an equalpartnerin the running of the business enterprise. Blackmun J. (1981) The union is an equalpartner ... 3 Canada Labour Relations Board (1981) (Dorsey, Vice Chairman) We cannot subscribe to an interpretation .
    [Show full text]
  • Liberalism and the Charter: Freedom of Association and the Right to Strike
    Dalhousie Journal of Legal Studies Volume 5 Article 5 1-1-1996 Liberalism and the Charter: Freedom of Association and the Right to Strike Terry Sheppard Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.schulichlaw.dal.ca/djls This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License. Recommended Citation Terry Sheppard, "Liberalism and the Charter: Freedom of Association and the Right to Strike" (1996) 5 Dal J Leg Stud 117. This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at Schulich Law Scholars. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dalhousie Journal of Legal Studies by an authorized editor of Schulich Law Scholars. For more information, please contact [email protected]. LIBERALISM AND THE CHARTER: FREEDOM OF ASSOCIATION AND THE RIGHT TO STRIKE TERRY SHEPPARDt Liberalism, for the most part, has been opposed to unions because they are perceived to be opposed to individualism and detrimental to the free market. This paper will attempt to show how union rights, and more particularly the right to strike, can be accomodated in the liberal philosophy. As a preliminary matter, some principal tenets of liberal theory are examined: ethical individualism; the concept of liberty as negative liberty; the focus on individuals rather than groups as the locus of rights; and a desire to restrain the actions ofgovernment. The paper then proceeds to use liberal philosophy to critique decisions of the Supreme Court of Canada denying Charter protection to the right to strike. The right to strike, it is concluded, is more aptly phrased a freedom to strike.
    [Show full text]
  • Law-And-Economics Approaches to Labour and Employment Law Stewart J
    Cornell University Law School Scholarship@Cornell Law: A Digital Repository Cornell Law Faculty Publications Faculty Scholarship 3-2017 Law-and-Economics Approaches to Labour and Employment Law Stewart J. Schwab Cornell Law School, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarship.law.cornell.edu/facpub Part of the Labor and Employment Law Commons, and the Law and Economics Commons Recommended Citation Stewart J. Schwab, "Law-and-Economics Approaches to Labour and Employment Law," 33 International Journal of Comparative Labour Law and Industrial Relations (2017) This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Faculty Scholarship at Scholarship@Cornell Law: A Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Cornell Law Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of Scholarship@Cornell Law: A Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Law-and-Economics Approaches to Labour and Employment Law * Stewart J. SCHWAB This article describes the distinctive approaches that law and economics takes to labour and employment law. The article distinguishes between ‘economic analysis of law’ and ‘law and economics’, with the former applying economic models to generally simple legal rules while the latter blends messier institutional detail with legal and economic thought. The article describes three eras of law-and-economics scholarship, recognizing that economics teaches that markets work and markets fail. Era One emphasizes that labour laws and mandatory employment rules might reduce overall social welfare by preventing a benefit or term from going to the party that values it most highly. Era Two emphasizes that labour and employment laws might enhance overall social welfare by correcting market failures arising from monopsony power, externalities, public goods, asymmetric information, information-processing heuristics, and internal labour markets.
    [Show full text]
  • Does Labour Law Need Philosophical Foundations? (Introduction)
    Columbia Law School Scholarship Archive Faculty Scholarship Faculty Publications 2018 Does Labour Law Need Philosophical Foundations? (Introduction) Hugh Collins Oxford University All Souls College, [email protected] Gillian L. Lester Columbia Law School, [email protected] Virginia Mantouvalou University College London, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.law.columbia.edu/faculty_scholarship Part of the Labor and Employment Law Commons, Law and Philosophy Commons, and the Law and Politics Commons Recommended Citation Hugh Collins, Gillian L. Lester & Virginia Mantouvalou, Does Labour Law Need Philosophical Foundations? (Introduction), PHILOSOPHICAL FOUNDATIONS OF LABOUR LAW, HUGH COLLINS, GILLIAN LESTER & VIRGINIA MANTOUVALOU, EDS., OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS, 2018 (2018). Available at: https://scholarship.law.columbia.edu/faculty_scholarship/2534 This Working Paper is brought to you for free and open access by the Faculty Publications at Scholarship Archive. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Scholarship by an authorized administrator of Scholarship Archive. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Introduction: Does Labour Law Need Philosophical Foundations? Hugh Collins,* Gillian Lester** and Virginia Mantouvalou*** Philosophical foundations of labour law is emerging as a new field of scholarship. As far as we know, a book on this subject has not yet been published, though in recent years several exploratory articles and book chapters have directly addressed the theme.1 In addition, some monographs that engage with philosophy have examined aspects of labour law such as dismissal, the statutory minimum wage, freedom of association, recognition of trade unions for the purpose of collective bargaining, and the right to work.2 Building on those initiatives, this collection of essays tries to develop a philosophical perspective on the subject of labour law as a whole.
    [Show full text]
  • Unions Matter
    Unions Matter How the Ability of Labour Unions to Reduce Income Inequality and Influence Public Policy has been affected by Regressive Labour Laws Garry Sran with Michael Lynk, James Clancy and Derek Fudge Abstract Copyright March 2013: Ottawa Canadian Foundation for Labour Rights THERE IS EXTENSIVE RESEARCH literature that suggests Design and layout by Skip Hambling there are significant social benefits for countries with strong labour rights and a more extensive collective bargaining The Canadian Foundation for Labour Rights (CFLR) is a system. Income inequality is less extreme according to a national voice devoted to promoting labour rights as an im- variety of measures, civic engagement is higher, there are portant means to strengthening democracy, equality and more extensive social programs such as health care and economic justice here in Canada and internationally. pensions plans, and the incidence of poverty is significant- www.labourrights.ca ly smaller. This paper adds to the literature by examining the relationship between labour unions, income inequal- CFLR was established and is sponsored by the ity and regressive labour laws. National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE). www.nupge.ca The underlying causes of declining unionization rates will be examined for Canada and will be compared to other The authors would like to acknowledge the assistance of developed economies. C. Meyer, M. Luff, B. Hildahl and D. Wells in the preparation of this paper. The paper finds that regressive labour laws in Canada have reduced unionization rates which has led to rising income inequality and reduced civic participation. UNIONS MATTER | CANADIAN FOUNDATION FOR LABOUR RIGHTS 1 n 1 Introduction FOR OVER 30 YEARS income inequality in Canada and throughout the world has been rising.
    [Show full text]
  • Economic Voting and Incumbent Mayoral Elections in Canada: 1997-2010
    Economic Voting and Incumbent Mayoral Elections in Canada: 1997-2010 Cameron D. Anderson Assistant Professor Department of Political Science The University of Western Ontario London, CA [email protected] Josh Morgan PhD Student Recruitment and Development Officer Local Government Program Department of Political Science The University of Western Ontario London, CA [email protected] Paper prepared for presentation at the Annual Meetings of the Canadian Political Science Association, Waterloo, CA, May 2011. 2 Introduction Voting is a core right of citizens in a democracy and often the only political act for most of the electorate. Given the centrality of voting to empower legitimate democratic authority, the objective of elucidating why citizens vote the way they do has resulted in a large sub-field of political science that is concerned with assessing the impulses of voters in democracies the world over. While this collective interest has fostered a great many studies of voting behaviour in federal and provincial elections in Canada, there remains an evident gap in our comparable understanding of electoral behaviour at the local government level in Canada. As Sancton recently noted: “the harsh reality is that we know very little about the municipal voting behaviour in Canada” (2011, 193). While we do not endeavour to fill this entire omission, this paper represents a sustained effort to explore how one factor- economic conditions - influences local-level electoral behaviour in Canada. In the analyses which follow, we test the key proposition underlying economic voting theory at the local level in Canada. Briefly, the theory of economic voting suggests that incumbent office holders are more (less) likely to be re-elected when the economy is doing well (poorly).
    [Show full text]
  • Cbc ,!0), N"Uio-Canada
    Cabinet du Canadian Broadcasting 3[ffi."i.'l?.. président-directeur général corporation 1400, boul. René-Lévesque E Société Radio-Ganada hi:,:"ï"åïï1i",ig' ' Montréal Qc H2L 2M2 cBc ,!0), n"Uio-Canada '[ OFFICE OF THE ¡ A'0tlT 2012 MAYOR The Honourable Joe Fontana Mayor RECEIVED AU - 3 7012 The Corporation of the City of London Refaned to 300 Dufferin Avenue Subsquånt t tr ForAcllon E PO Box 5035 tr For lnhrmatlon tr tor Flle London, Ontario NA 419 (^^, ¡ntlr hr,6ffie0", nk you for your letter regarding CBC/Radio-Canada's decision to shut down its analogue over-the-air television broadcasting system in London, Ontario. As you're aware, CBC/Radio-Canada has been asked to contribute to the government's Deficit Reduction Action Plan (DRAP). To minimize the need for programming reductions, CBC/Radio-Canada took a close look at the effect that the evolution of technology has had on the services it currently provides. Over-the-air television in Canada has been in steep decline for years. Today, 95 percent of Canadians get their television from cable and satellite companies. Given this trend, over-the-air can no longer be considered as an efficient way of distributing television signals to Canadians. As a result, the Corporation will shut down all of its 620 analogue transmitters at the end of July, including the one located in London. The measure will result in over $10 million of annual savings for CBC/Radio-Canada by 2013-2014. CBC/Radio-Canada has installed a digital transmitter for every one of its television stations, for a tolal of 27 transmitters.
    [Show full text]