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The future of worker health and safety as a fundamental human right is dependent upon revitalizing labor rights in the working environment. A new global direction is needed to move the international norms and in turn national labor policy models away from market voluntarism and towards models that protect human rights in the working environment as first principles. What is needed is a foundational dialog on the boundaries of labor rights as they relate to the working environment because the current international labor and human rights jurisprudence is lacking. --From author's conclusion

Background: This article introduces the idea of human rights to the topic of workers' compensation in the United States. It discusses what constitutes a human rights approach and explains how this approach conflicts with those policy ideas that have provided the foundation historically for workers' compensation in the United States. Methods: Using legal and historical research, key international labor and human rights standards on employment injury benefits and influential writings in the development of the U.S. workers' compensation system are cited. Results Workers' injury and illness compensation in the United States does not conform to basic international human rights norms. Conclusions: A comprehensive review of the U.S. workers' compensation system under international human rights standards is needed. Examples of policy changes are highlighted that would begin the process of moving workers' compensation into conformity with human rights standards.

“the 18 women and two men attending a course called History of Women in Canada” at the University of Toronto, wrote a Globe and Mail reporter in spring 1976,“could hardly wait to comment on their own experiences when instructor Sylvia Van Kirk introduced the subject of women’s rights in Canada.” The journalist, Constance Mungall, went on to describe the course—a new third-year seminar being offered by the (now defunct) interdisciplinary studies department at the University of Toronto—and the class (“After the vote: Did it make any difference?”) she had just observed. Sylvia had promoted discussion in the seminar by noting that “in the 1930s suffragette Nellie McClung had said the place of women in dating is ‘to wait… wait… wait’” and then asking if they thought it was still true today. Various students jumped in with their opinion and “the consensus was that it’s still the same and it’s hypocritical.” Mungall had attended the class as the course was nearing its end. By then, the seminar had covered a series of topics that would become standard fare for survey courses in Canadian women’s history, including Native women in the fur trade (a topic that, of course, Sylvia’s own research had helped make possible), white settler pioneers, and women in education, medicine, waged work, and moral and political reform movements. But these were also early days for women’s history and Sylvia was drawing on limited resources—still convincing people of the value of the field—and introducing little known historical female. --Introduction

This dissertation examines the intersection of gender, employment law and public health policies through an analysis of the federal government's efforts to regulate the work/leisure relationship. The study asks how and why, despite over 50 years of state interventions to regulate leisure and healthy lifestyle, concerns about 'work-life balance' have surfaced in labour policy arenas in recent years. The study builds a feminist political economy framework for understanding changes in policy developments over time. I use the concepts of social reproduction and time- and work-discipline as lenses with which to probe the relationship between the changing temporal dimensions of paid and unpaid work and efforts to manage the new realities of the labour market through the institutions of the state. The dissertation considers how the changes in the gendered organization of social reproduction, the nature and regulation of employment, and the power of organized labour to advocate on behalf of workers have influenced the types of policies used to manage the work/life interface. The empirical dimension of this study traces the emergence of a framework for regulating social reproduction through state-led management of the work/life relationship. Following the evolution of such frameworks through federal policy debates, policy papers and program materials, I trace the continuities and changes in dominant leisure discourses and policy mechanisms through four phases of federal policy development: early fitness policies (pre-1960); ParticipACTION (1960 to early 1970s); employee fitness experiments (mid-1970s to 1990); and the Work/Life Balance Strategy (1990s to mid-2000s). The central argument put forward in this dissertation is that the gender- neutral and individualized framework for regulating the healthy reproduction of workers, developed in Canadian law and policy since the 1950s, has produced highly gendered outcomes through its failure to address the changing dynamics of work and family life. By continuing to uphold the notion of a worker 'unencumbered' by familial and household responsibilities, 'new' work-life balance policies exacerbate the tensions between paid and unpaid work and contribute to the ongoing marginalization of women in the labour market.

The article reviews the book, "When the State Trembled: How A.J. Andrews and the Citizens' Committee Broke the Winnipeg General Strike," by Reinhold Kramer and Tom Mitchell.

La théorie de l’action raisonnée et les modèles du roulement volontaire ont toujours considéré l’intention de quitter son emploi pour un autre employeur comme le meilleur prédicteur du roulement de personnel. Cependant, dans les faits, les employés disposent de deux autres options, à savoir progresser vers un autre emploi au sein de leur entreprise (roulement interne) ou encore rester dans leur emploi actuel pour une certaine période. Dans une perspective de prévention du roulement, la recherche aurait avantage à identifier des profils d’intentions en fonction de ces trois options. La présente étude vise à vérifier si les employés présentent des profils d’intentions différents et si leur satisfaction au travail, leurs comportements de recherche d’emploi et les taux de roulement volontaire et interne diffèrent selon ces profils.L’analyse des résultats recueillis auprès de 434 agents issus de trois centres d’appels suggère l’existence de quatre profils d’intentions à peu près équivalents en nombre : (1) rester dans l’emploi actuel (forte intention de rester dans l’emploi actuel, faible intention de progresser à l’interne et faible intention de quitter à l’externe); (2) rester en attendant de progresser (forte intention de rester dans l’emploi actuel, mais forte intention de progresser à l’interne et faible intention de quitter à l’externe); (3) priorité à la progression (faible intention de rester dans l’emploi actuel, forte intention de progresser à l’interne et faible intention de quitter à l’externe); (4) priorité à la mobilité (faible intention de rester dans l’emploi actuel, forte intention de progresser à l’interne et de quitter à l’externe).Les résultats de l’étude montrent que ces quatre profils d’intentions présentent des niveaux de satisfaction au travail et des comportements de recherche d’emploi différents. De même, les taux de roulement volontaire du personnel et le taux de roulement interne, mesurés un an plus tard, diffèrent selon les profils d’intentions. // Studies of public administration question more and more the idea of convergence toward a single model of reform and many challenge the existence of a coherent set of policies and practices subsumed under the label New Public Management. There does exist, however, a growing consensus that reform has generally meant a degradation of working conditions for public sector employees. The study contributes to this body of knowledge by demonstrating the variability of restructuring practices within a single public administration and the variability of outcomes for employees within the same reform framework. Observations and analysis are drawn from a study of the implementation of a Modernization Plan set in motion in 2004 by the provincial liberal government. First, the results allow the researchers to identify six configurations ranging from a quasi status quo. Second, their research shows also that these diverse configurations led to differentiated results for public sector workers.

The article reviews the book, "Histoire des relations du travail dans la construction au Québec," by Louis Delagrave.

Contemporary research on immigrant economic integration identifies growing economic disadvantages faced by immigrants and probes sources of the disadvantages by focusing on immigrants' pre-migration and ascriptive characteristics. However, little empirical evaluation exists on how immigrants overcome their initial economic disadvantages over time. This dissertation departs from previous research by studying the roles of two post-migration factors - schooling (formal education and language training) and the employment of female spouses - in the exits from low wages and low family income (poverty) among recent immigrants. The analysis of the Longitudinal Survey of Immigrants to Canada (LSIC) - a three-wave survey of immigrants who arrived in Canada in 2000-2001 - produces three main findings. First, investing in host country formal education is beneficial for the economic advancement of new immigrants - especially highly educated ones. This finding confirms the role of skill upgrading programs for adult immigrants as an effective immigrant settlement policy, given that the majority of recent immigrants have postsecondary education but that their initial economic hardships are growing. Second, the benefits of English/French language lessons are real. This finding counters a common criticism that language lessons for adult new immigrants, which are often funded by the governments, are not helpful. Indeed, standard logistic regression analysis of the LSIC data shows that immigrants who enrolled in language lessons have no advantage in exiting poverty or low wages. However, the bivariate probit model demonstrates that this is because unmeasured characteristics of the language lesson participants confound the true benefit of language lessons. Third, this dissertation research highlights the role immigrant women play in lifting their families out of poverty when they work. This finding has an implication particularly for women of Arab and Middle Eastern origins as their notably lower labour force participation rates explain much of their high poverty rates.

The rise of the New Economy has restructured work, necessitated changing skills requirements, as well as spurred new training needs amongst employees. Such new skills and training needs are prerequisites to survive and thrive in the New Economy. Importantly, these skills and training are also prerequisites for upward mobility in a system of inequality. This paper illustrates the case of Malaysian tellers as the Malaysian banking industry operates in the New Economy. Although the New Economy and the emergence of the sales culture requires Malaysian tellers to be more knowledgeable, this paper argues that due to their unionised status and given their positions at the bottom rung of the occupational hierarchy, tellers in Malaysia are disadvantaged and often excluded in the process of training and knowledge acquisition.

The article reviews the book, "The New Mole: Paths of the Latin American Left," by Emir Sader.

The article reviews the book, "Derelict Paradise: Homelessness and Urban Development in Cleveland, Ohio," by Daniel R. Kerr.

The article reviews the book, "The Way of the Bachelor: Early Chinese Settlement in Manitoba," by Alison Marshall.

Cette thèse propose une analyse de la production de munitions au Canada durant la Deuxième Guerre mondiale dans le but d'exposer les politiques mises de l'avant par le gouvernement canadien pour répondre aux exigences matérielles de la guerre. Afin de combler les besoins du ministère de la Défense et de ses alliés, le ministère des Munitions et Approvisionnements réussit un tour de force en transformant une industrie munitionnaire insignifiante en un vaste programme qui employait plus de 103 000 personnes à son apogée. L'analyse des politiques à l'origine de cette production montre que le gouvernement fédéral géra autant que possible sa contribution matérielle de manière à fournir une aide considérable à ses alliés tout en poursuivant ses objectifs de relance économique à long terme. Le Comité de guerre du Cabinet tenta également de limiter l'impact négatif de ses décisions sur la vie des Canadiens. La participation matérielle du Canada prit forme graduellement, restreinte par la volonté de limiter les dépenses militaires. Les projectiles ne figuraient pas parmi les priorités avant la chute de la France. À partir de l'automne 1940, les principaux ministères se montrèrent plus ouverts à la mise en place et au financement d'un vaste programme. Ils consolidèrent leur collaboration avec les gouvernements britannique et américain afin d'obtenir le soutien technique et financier nécessaire pour surpasser les faiblesses industrielles du pays, de manière à permettre une collaboration qui ne nuirait pas à long terme aux finances publiques. Ensuite, l'interventionnisme sans précédent pour stimuler ce secteur non traditionnel s'effectua, malgré l'ampleur des investissements, dans un esprit d'économie et mené par une volonté de ne pas disloquer inutilement les structures de l'économie civile. Le gouvernement misa sur une collaboration avec les entreprises compétentes qui dominaient déjà le marché. Les entrepreneurs jouèrent un rôle clé dans la stratégie fédérale de gestion des ressources humaines. L'élaboration d'une solution à la pénurie de travailleurs s'effectua autant que possible sans l'imposition de mesures coercitives, de manière à ne pas nuire à la relance de l'économie dans l'après-guerre et à ne pas saper le moral des citoyens. Le ministère des Munitions et Approvisionnements opta plutôt pour la mise en place d'un État-providence de guerre et d'un paternalisme industriel. Le secteur privé, appuyé par diverses initiatives du gouvernement fédéral, se devait d'imposer un encadrement strict du milieu de travail afin de maximiser la productivité, de diminuer l'absentéisme et de lutter contre les interruptions de production.

The article focuses on discrepancies between institutional stipulations for apprenticeship placement conditions in the Quebec Training for a Semiskilled Trade (TST) program in contrast to socio-environmental realities encountered by students in the workplace. An intervention research study was held in order to integrate Occupational Health and Safety concerns into the training program. The methodological frame used data triangulation, including document analysis, teacher and student interviews and workplace observation. Contrary to program stipulations, most students were guided by several coworkers during apprenticeships. Insufficient access to resources, however, has led to young workers encountering difficulties in getting assistance when needed. The traditional supervisor-apprentice partnership would be best revised to maximize the use of all valuable on-site resources and ensure students develop skills to stay healthy at work.

The article reviews the book, "Les nouvelles dimensions du politique : relations professionnelles et régulations sociales," edited by Laurent Duclos, Guy Groux and Olivier Mériaux.

This dissertation is divided into three main components that each relate to the socioeconomic wellbeing of Aboriginal peoples in the Canadian labour market. Specifically, using data from the master file of the Canadian census for the years 1996, 2001 and 2006, the first section examines the wage differential for various Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal groups, including a comparison of those living on-and-off-reserves. The study finds that, while a sizeable wage gap between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal persons still exists, this disparity has narrowed over the three census periods for those living off-reserve. The Aboriginal-non-Aboriginal wage differential is largest among the on-reserve population and this gap has remained relatively constant over the three census periods considered in the study. The second study in the dissertation uses data from the master file of the Canadian Labour Force Survey for 2008 and 2009 to estimate the probability that an individual is a labour force participant, and, conditional on labour force participation, the probability that a respondent is unemployed, comparing several Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal groups. The results reveal that Aboriginal men and women have lower rates of labour force participation and higher rates or unemployment in both periods as compared to their non-Aboriginal counterparts. Aboriginal peoples were also disproportionately burdened by a slowdown in economic activity as measured by a change in the probability of unemployment moving from 2008 to 2009, as compared to non-Aboriginal people, who experienced a smaller increase in the probability of unemployment moving from a period of positive to negative economic growth. Finally, the third study examines the probability of high school dropout comparing Aboriginal peoples living on-and-off-reserve using data from the master file of the Aboriginal Peoples Survey for 2001. The findings reveal dramatically higher rates of dropout among Aboriginal people living on-reserve as compared to those living off-reserve. Limitations of all three studies as well as some possible directions of future research related to similar issues concerning Canada's Aboriginal population are discussed in the concluding chapter of the dissertation.

The article reviews two books written by Andrée Lévesque including "Éva Circé-Côté. Libre-penseuse, 1871-1949" and "Chroniques d'Éva Circé-Côté. Lumière sur la société québécoise, 1900-1942."

The article reviews the book, "Being Again of One Mind: Oneida Women and the Struggle for Decolonization," by Lina Sunseri.

The article reviews the book, "Perspectives internationales sur le travail des jeunes," edited by Mircea Vultur and Daniel Mercure.