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We utilize two representative cross-national data sets to shed light on what has been a vexing problem in the industrial relations literature; namely, the existence and persistence of the representation gap documented more than a decade ago by Freeman and Rogers (1999). Specifically, we estimate the determinants of employee desire for a range of collective voice mechanisms, including unionization. We do this separately for the US and Canada and then, using an application of the Oaxaca decomposition technique, we decompose the differences in those desires between the two countries into a component due to differences in the characteristics of respondents and another due to differences in preferences for collective voice mechanisms. Our results indicate that: (1) roughly half of workers in both countries expressed a desire for a range of collective voice mechanisms to deal with workplace issues; (2) that desire for collective voice was stronger in the US than in Canada; and (3) that virtually all of the stronger desire for collective workplace voice in the US, as compared to Canada, was due to stronger employee preferences for collective solutions as opposed to differences in the characteristics of workers. We offer plausible explanations for our findings and discuss the implications for labour law reform.
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In 1986, British Columbia's Workers' Compensation Board introduced an experience rating program that provided a modest financial incentive for employers to reduce the costs of claims. Using a comprehensive panel data set, we find that claims frequency for health care only and short-term disability claims was reduced following the introduction of experience rating. The introduction of the program did not affect costs for most claim types, except for health care only claims.
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We study the propensity of persons with disabilities to engage in volunteer activity using the Participation and Activity Limitation Survey (PALS). Our principal focus is on the effects of various income support programs on persons with disabilities participation in volunteer activities because income support programs can differ with respect to their treatment of unpaid work. For example, workers' compensation programs embody strong disincentives to volunteering while public disability insurance programs explicitly encourage unpaid work. We find that workers' compensation is associated with decreases in the probability of volunteering while public disability insurance is associated with increases in the propensity to volunteer. The relevance of these results to both theories of volunteerism and public policy is discussed.
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Based upon unique Canadian administrative data from the years 1996 to 1999, this study examines the duration of absences from work due to injuries arising from workplace violence with a hazard model. We find that policing and nursing occupations, larger health care expenditures and more severe acts of violence are associated with longer absences from work. On the other hand, workers from larger firms have shorter absences from work. Our estimates are also quite sensitive to the inclusion of unobserved heterogeneity distribution, i.e., an individual specific random effect. This suggests that unobservable factors, such as stress and psychological or psychosomatic problems resulting from the workplace violence could have a large impact on the duration of work absences.
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We use data from a unique survey of Ontario physicians to examine the determinants of work and personal stress in physicians with six stress indexes we constructed. We have a number of findings of particular interest. First, we find that males experience significantly less stress than women in a number of our regressions. Second, some of our estimates suggest that physicians who practice in health service organizations, which are paid primarily by capitation rather than fee-for-service, experience less stress. This estimate suggests that alternative payment systems, which are becoming more prevalent, may help to alleviate the stress experienced by physicians. Third, increases in the percentage of billings required to cover overhead expenses are associated with higher levels of stress. Finally, our most consistent empirical finding relates to the number of hours a week the physician works, which had a significant effect on all six of our stress indexes.
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We study public-sector bargaining and contract outcomes using Canadian data from 1978 to 2008. We have a number of interesting results, but our principal findings are from our analysis of wage settlements. We find that the essential services designation, which only allows non-essential members of a bargain unit to strike, is associated with decreases in wages. Our estimates also suggest that there is an arbitration wage premium and that making adjustments to the ability to pay criterion used by arbitrators to determine awards does not affect this premium. We also discuss the implications of our estimates.
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We examine the effects of collective bargaining legislation, such as (among others) bans on replacement workers and reinstatement rights, on private sector strike activity and wage settlements using Canadian data from 1978 to 2008. Our estimates indicate that this legislation does not have a statistically significant effect on the incidence of strikes. However, we do find that some of the policy variables have a statistically significant effect on strike duration and wage settlements.
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We estimate the effect of minimum wages on employment using the Master Files of the Canadian Labour Force Survey over the recent period 1997–2008. Particular attention is paid to the differences between permanent and temporary minimum wage workers—an important distinction not made in the existing literature. Our estimates for permanent and temporary minimum wage workers combined are at the lower end of estimates based on Canadian studies estimated over earlier time periods, suggesting that the adverse employment effects are declining over time for reasons discussed. Importantly, the adverse employment effects are substantially larger for permanent compared to temporary minimum wage workers; in fact they fall almost exclusively on permanent minimum wage workers.
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- Journal Article (8)