Your search

In Canada, unionization rates declined in the 1980s and the 1990s, but remained relatively stable over the 2000s. However, the rates evolved differently across various characteristics, including gender, age groups, provinces, and industries. In this brief, unionization rates are examined across various characteristics over the last 3 decades.

Although several recent articles have underscored the importance of human resource management, employee involvement, and labour-management cooperation, there has been very little research addressing these topics from the perspective of organized labour. This study is aimed at providing some practical information about labour-management relations across the country.

The objective of this report is to examine Aboriginal labour market performance in Canada from 2007 to 2011 using data from the Labour Force Survey, which excludes people living on-reserve or in the territories. This is performed by first providing an overview of how the recession affected the Canadian labour market, followed by a Canada-wide portrait of the Aboriginal labour market in 2011. The Aboriginal labour market performance from 2007 to 2011 is then compared to the rest of the labour force on a national level, before being broken down by province and main heritage group. Using this information, the report then discusses the implications of future labour market developments for Aboriginal Canadians and for the labour market policies and programs that support their labour market performance. [Prepared for the Métis National Council by the Centre for the Study of Living Standards.]

In Canada, many workers do not earn a living wage because of discrimination. Women work­ers and those who are racialized, immigrant, Aboriginal, living with disabil­ities or similarly disadvantaged are all segregated into low wage job ghettoes—their work systemically devalued. Governments and employers need to deliver more equitable compensation incomes for vulnerable workers. This paper explores how we can close discriminatory pay gaps, so that this basic human right — the right to work and to earn pay free of discrimination — is realized for Canada’s low-paid workers. --Website description

In the past decade, Canada’s labour market has undergone a significant shift to rely increasingly on migrant workers who come to Canada from around the globe on time-limited work permits to provide labour in an expanding range of industries. Since 2000, the number of migrant workers employed in Canada has more than tripled. Expanding in response to employer demand, with little public debate, the greatest proportionate growth in migrant labour has been among low-skill, low-wage workers in sectors such as caregiving, agriculture, hospitality, food services, construction and tourism. This report provides a critical analysis of the federal and provincial laws that regulate and constrain the rights of low-wage migrant workers, proposes a rights-based framework to assess their treatment, identifies the ways in which the law constructs migrant workers’ insecurity through each stage of the labour migration cycle, and examines options for systemic change to increase workers’ security.... Executive summary

Every year, 30,000 agricultural migrant workers arrive in Canada as part of the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP), the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program and the Low Skill Pilot Project. Although the TFWP is intended to address short-term labour demands, most of these workers return to the same communities year after year, sometimes for more than 25 years. As a result, growing numbers of migrant farm workers are permanently temporary. The increased presence of temporary workers will most certainly have an impact on Canadian communities and workplaces for years to come. Is there a way to conceptualize integration in the context of these migration patterns? How does the TFWP fit into Canada’s multicultural landscape and its goals of integration and social cohesion? In this study, Jenna Hennebry draws on experience with agricultural workers to address some of these questions. The author uses empirical data, interviews and research on the situation in Ontario, the province with the largest number of agricultural migrants, to examine the degree of integration of migrant farm workers. She finds that their inclusion in the communities where they live and work is poor, despite laudable efforts by nongovernmental organizations, community groups and unions – notably the United Food and Commercial Workers Canada union, which has sponsored some unique transnational initiatives.

The term ‘working poor’ is in common usage, but it does not have a widely accepted definition. We use the term throughout the paper to refer to persons with non-trivial paid earnings who live in a household with low income. Our report provides a new definition of ‘working poverty,’ one that allows researchers to measure the incidence of working poverty now and in the future. It identifies the areas in the Toronto Region where they live, and describes the changing trends for this group, based on custom tabulations drawn from Statistics Canada microdata using both the Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics (SLID) and the Canadian Census. --From Summary

Study of housing for Mexican migrant workers in the Okanagan Valley under the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program. Concludes that the workforce is "captive" (i.e., lacking basic rights) to its employer, including for accommodation.

[This report] draws on 2006 Census data to compare work and income trends among racialized and non-racialized Canadians. It’s among the more comprehensive post-Census studies on this issue to date. This joint report from the Wellesley Institute and the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives reveals that despite an increasingly diverse population, Canada’s racialized income gap shows a colour code is still at work in Canada’s labour market. --Publisher's information

Canada’s agricultural sector has relied on temporary foreign workers from Latin America and the Caribbean for more than 40 years. Since 1999, their numbers have tripled. Most temporary workers on farms are men, but the number of women is on the rise. Both depend on these work opportunities for the livelihoods of their families, yet women rely more heavily than men on this source of income since most are single mothers who have limited access to the labour market in sending countries because of persisting gender inequalities. In Canada, they endure precarious working and living conditions on the farms and face gender-specific challenges. This policy brief documents this new trend in temporary migration and highlights the vulnerabilities of female workers employed in Canada’s agricultural industry. The analysis is informed by various research projects, observation work and interviews with female migrant farm workers conducted in rural Canada and in sending countries over the past 10 years.

[This report] draws on Statistics Canada data and broad academic literature to present a conceptual and empirical profile of the Ontario’s service class. We define the ‘service class’ as an occupational grouping of typically low-pay service jobs. This term was developed by Richard Florida as part of his framework for understanding creativity-led economic growth; however, it is a concept developed in counterpoint to the creative class, and has been neglected in recent research and policy debates.

This research report presents findings from research comparing employment equity policies in Canada’s 10 provinces and the federal government. We approach the issue of employment equity from the standpoint of challenging systemic oppression. We have sought to describe, explain and suggest ways to rectify a perceived impasse in the effective implementation of employment equity policy regarding the implications it holds for the advancement of visible minority women within the provincial government sector. We premised our study on a recognizable gap between legislative policy designed to promote greater workplace diversity for groups that have experienced systemic oppression within Canada, and the effective implementation of such policies in the workplace. --From Executive Summary

I) Objective: The study aimed to explore the health effects of precarious employment relationships in Ontario, and understand how various forms of support shape health. II) Methods: Three measures make up our "Employment Strain" model: employment relationship uncertainty; employment relationship effort; and, employment relationship support. This new framework was used to measure the characteristics of precarious employment and their effect on health using data from a structured, self-administered, population-based survey completed by 3,244 workers, and 82 semi-structured interviews using a stratified sampling technique to select participants. III) Results: Precarious employment has negative health consequences for many workers. However, the relationship between precarious employment and health is complex, whereby the characteristics of the employment relationship and levels of support determine health outcomes. Using the "Employment Strain" framework, we found that workers exposed to High Employment Strain - workers with high levels of employment relationship uncertainty and high levels of employment relationship effort - have poorer health. Importantly, support does shapes health and can help to buffer the health risks associated with precarious employment.

Addresses the growing trend towards income inequality by focusing on wages and salaries. The authors find that the benefits of economic growth are not reflected in Canadian wages over the past generation.

In April 2003, funding by Status of Women Canada was provided to carry out a research project to understand the nature, extent and conditions of rural women’s employment in forestry and agri-food industries. While women have a long history of employment in these resource sectors, surprisingly, their employment contributions and experiences have not been publicly discussed. The goal of this research was to make visible the employment experiences of rural women in these industries, particularly as rural women have fewer job opportunities than women living in cities. We describe issues faced by women working in the forestry and agri-food industries and recommend policies to enhance women’s employment experiences.

The research draws attention to racial discrimination in employment in Canada, and discusses the impact on the status of racialized groups in the Canadian labour market. Racial discrimination occurs in Canada in at least two forms, economic discrimination, (when employers make generalized assumptions about the worth of racialized employees), and exclusionary discrimination (when members of a racialized group are not hired, paid equally or promoted regardless of their skills and experience). Recognizing the growth of the racialized population of Canada, the report emphasizes the concern about hierarchical structures affecting the distribution of opportunity in the labour market and argues that this growth in the racialized population makes the issue of racial discrimination one of great importance. If the racialized and immigrant population of Canada do not have equal access to the labour market, Canada will not reap the benefits of the potential of this growing proportion of its population.

Privatization has eliminated 30 years of pay equity gains and has put BC at the bottom of the barrel nationally when it comes to wages and benefits for women working in health support occupations. This is the central finding of a study released today by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. It documents the dramatic reversal of pay equity resulting from the provincial government's push to contract out hospital support services (cleaners, care aids and laundry, food service and clerical workers). "Bill 29 has turned the clock back thirty years on fair wages for women in health support occupations," says co-author Marjorie Griffin Cohen, a CCPA research associate and Chair of SFU's Women's Studies Department. -- CCPA news release, April 21, 2004

Professor Jill Rubery was commissioned by the ILO to write this Working Paper, as an input for the preparation of the 2003 Global Report on the elimination of discrimination in the world of work. The establishment of a floor to the wage structure is of paramount importance to groups of workers discriminated on grounds such as sex, ethnicity, national origin, age and disability, as these groups are disproportionately represented at the bottom of the occupational hierarchy. By identifying the role that minimum wages can play in reducing gender discrimination in pay, Jill Rubery’s paper contributes to our understanding of the forms of labour market processes compatible with the promotion of non-discrimination, equality and decent work.

This assessment was prepared for the Ontario Public Service Employees Union. It examines the conditions of work at the Don Jail. I was asked by the union whether under-staffing and the resulting levels of overtime represented a health risk and to offer recommendations, if any, arising out of my assessment. The assessment provides evidence in support of the union's claim that long hours of work represent a potential health risk to the staff of the Don Jail.

This report compares work organization and workload at three [Ontario] developmental service agencies in order to identify factors that precipitate and contribute to injuries, stress and health problems in the social services. The restructuring of services in this sector has resulted in reduced funding and therefore workloads and health risks associated with overwork and burnout appear to have increased dramatically in all three sites studied. Restructuring has also exposed workers and clients to higher levels of stress and violence. This study also uncovered serious incidents of workplace bullying and traumatic work cultures. While workplace bullying certainly predates restructuring, some studies show that it is a phenomena that has seen rapid growth within the context of restructured public sector and non profit workplaces. Given the serious under funding of this sector it may appear that there is little that can be done to improve health and safety in the short term. However, this report recommends several measures including an immediate increase in government funding, the incorporation of worker’s knowledge into how work is to be organized and planned, guarantees to part-time workers of enough hours of work to support themselves, an end to the use of split shifts, a cap on overtime and subsequent hiring additional fulltime staff in order to ensure workplace stability and the introduction of immediate, assertive, transparent measures to improve workplace morale and eradicate traumatic workplace cultures. --Executive Summary