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Closing the Enforcement Gap: Improving Employment Standards Protections for People in Precarious Jobs

Resource type
Title
Closing the Enforcement Gap: Improving Employment Standards Protections for People in Precarious Jobs
Abstract
The nature of employment is changing: low wage jobs are increasingly common, fewer workers belong to unions, and workplaces are being transformed through the growth of contracting-out, franchising, and extended supply chains. Closing the Enforcement Gap offers a comprehensive analysis of the enforcement of employment standards in Ontario. Adopting mixed methods, this work includes qualitative research involving in-depth interviews with workers, community advocates, and enforcement officials; extensive archival research excavating decades of ministerial records; and analysis of a previously untapped source of administrative data collected by Ontario’s Ministry of Labour. The authors reveal and trace the roots of a deepening "enforcement gap" that pervades nearly all aspects of the regime, demonstrating that the province’s Employment Standards Act (ESA) fails too many workers who rely on the floor of minimum conditions it was devised to provide. Arguably, there is nothing inevitable about the enforcement gap in Ontario or for that matter elsewhere. Through contributions from leading employment standards enforcement scholars in the US, the UK, and Australia, as well as Quebec, Closing the Enforcement Gap surveys innovative enforcement models that are emerging in a variety of jurisdictions and sets out a bold vision for strengthening employment standards enforcement. -- Publisher's description.
Series
Studies in comparative political economy and public policy
Volume
58
Place
Toronto
Publisher
University of Toronto Press
Date
2020
# of Pages
xviii, 446 pages: illustrations
Language
English
ISBN
978-1-4875-0639-1 978-1-4875-2431-9
Short Title
Closing the Enforcement Gap
Library Catalog
Open WorldCat
Extra
OCLC: 1121454404
Notes

Contents: Mapping the enforcement gap: Historical and contemporary dynamics / John Grundy, Leah F. Vosko. Part 1: Charting the Employment Standards Enforcement Gap in Ontario. Responsibilization, reprisal, and (non)remediation: Interrogating the role of an individualized complaints system / Guliz Akkayamak, Andrea M. Noack, Leah F. Vosko -- Administering complaints: Dilemmas of accountability / Guliz Akkayamak, John Grundy, Leah F. Vosko -- Recovering employees' wages? / Rebecca Casey, John Grundy, Andrea M. Noack, Leah F. Vosko -- The contradictory role of workplace inspections / Alice Hoe, Andrea M. Noack, Leah F. Vosko -- The deterrence gap: Towards an explanation / Alan Hall, Eric M. Tucker -- Strengthening participatory approaches to enforcement / Guliz Akkayamak, Shelley Condratto, Kiran Mirchandani, Urvashi Soni-Sinha, Mercedes Steedman, Mark P. Thomas. Part 2: Views from Elsewhere: Contextualizing the Employment Standards Enforcement Gap in Ontario. Enforcement of wage recovery in Britain / Nick Clark -- Out of the shadows and into the spotlight: The sweeping evolution of employment standards enforcement in Australia / Tess Hardy, John Howe -- Enforcing employment standards in Quebec: One step forward, two steps backward? / Dalia Gesualdi-Fecteau, Guylaine Vallée -- Strategic enforcement to confront wage theft in the US: An insider account / David Weil -- Improving protections for people in precarious jobs / Leah F. Vosko.

Includes: Notes -- Supplementary Information on Quantitative and Qualitative Methods: Ontario Component -- Three appendices -- Bibliography -- Index.

Citation
Vosko, L. F., Closing the Enforcement Gap Research Group, Grundy, J., Akkayamak, G., Noack, A. M., Casey, R., Hoe, A., Hall, A., Tucker, E., Condratto, S., Mirchandani, K., Soni-Sinha, U., Steedman, M., Thomas, M. P., Clark, N., Hardy, T., Howe, J., Gesualdi-Fecteau, D., Vallée, G., … Closing the Enforcement Gap Research Group. (2020). Closing the Enforcement Gap: Improving Employment Standards Protections for People in Precarious Jobs (Vol. 58). University of Toronto Press. https://utorontopress.com/9781487524319/closing-the-enforcement-gap/