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The focus of this research is the economic, social and health impacts of a living wage for employees in Ontario who were previously earning less than a living wage. The living wage is a calculation based on how much it costs for a family to live in a specific region. The rise of living wage campaigns is a response to the prevalence of low wage work. This research explains the significance of a living wage from the perspectives of workers compared to current research which concentrates on labour market impacts and how this policy affects businesses. Lived experience is emphasized as an important type of knowledge by including the voices of workers through qualitative interviews. Their experiences highlight how low-income and precarious work can affect workers’ lives and how the living wage addresses these problems. Their experiences also demonstrate how a living wage is a vast improvement from the minimum wage but also reveal the shortfalls of the current living wage framework. Overall, the living wage has a significant impact on the economic, social and health aspects of living wage workers, but falls short as an all-encompassing solution for achieving a decent standard of work. Issues such as unaffordable housing, high tuition costs, lack of job opportunities for young workers and precarious work all contribute to an insufficient living wage. These types of social policies from governments and decent work provided by employers need to assist the living wage in achieving a good standard of living for all workers.

The article reviews the book, "On the Formation of Marxism: Karl Kautsky's Theory of Capitalism, the Marxism of the Second International and Karl Marx's Critique of Political Economy," by Jukka Grunow.

The article reviews the book, "Escape from the Staples Trap: Canadian Political Economy After Left-Nationalism," by Paul Kellogg.

The article reviews the book, "Sex Work Politics: From Protest to Service Provision," by Samantha Majic.

The nature of work arrangements in the film industry and the professional characteristics of cultural workers involved in film production impact the legal qualification of these workers. They highlight the difficult task of classifying actual work arrangements in one specific legal category: either an “employment relationship” or a “contract for services relationship”. If adequate legal frameworks are not in place to capture the reality of those work arrangements properly, the legal qualification may lead to uncertainty detrimental to workers’ access to collective representation. This uncertainty opens the door to work conflicts and contestations of different types. This paper builds a dialogue between two disciplines, legal analysis and cultural labour analysis, by comparing two locally embedded case studies: the “Hobbit Law” in New Zealand and the “Spiderwick Case” in Quebec (Canada). Firstly, we outline our theoretical and methodological approach, drawing on literature on cultural labour studies as well as legal analysis. Secondly, we compare the legal status of cultural workers and collective representation within each of our cases. Thirdly, we present full accounts of the chronology, conflicts and contestations within our two cases, as well as outlining the legislative outcomes in each. And finally, in comparing these cases, we illustrate the difficulty of legally qualifying these relations, the uncertainty this engenders and the differing impacts these difficulties have had on collective action in each industry. We emphasize that each case, with their vastly differing outcomes, provides evidence of both the inclusion of cultural workers within the boundaries of specific legislation fostering collective representation of artists (in the Spiderwick Case) and the exclusion of cultural workers from the boundaries of labour legislation enabling collective representation of employees (in the Hobbit Case). This is telling because these cases both took place in a location attracting Hollywood’s productions and, for both, this power of attraction remains crucial for the local industry. Understanding the impact of local cultural work regulation in the context of major global productions still lacks sustained attention and in this paper, we build a dialogue between our two cases to begin to remedy this.

The article reviews the book, "Decolonizing Employment: Aboriginal Inclusion in Canada's Labour Market," by Shauna MacKinnon.

This article reviews the book, "Exhibiting Nation: Multicultural Nationalism (and Its Limits) in Canada's Museums," by Caitlin Gordon-Walker.

Le contrat de franchise consiste à transmettre au franchisé le savoir-faire du franchiseur, moyennant des contreparties financières. Cependant, la transmission de ce savoir-faire va au-delà de la simple mise à disposition d’une « recette ». Elle se prolonge par une assistance de tous les instants délivrée par le franchiseur au franchisé. À certains égards, cette relation contractuelle ne ressemble-t-elle pas à celle d’un employeur avec le salarié ? Cet article étudie la relation émanant de ce contrat à l’aide des facteurs juridiques (le caractère subordonnant de la relation contractuelle) et économiques (la puissance économique du franchiseur) qui la structurent. L’étude s’appuie tant sur une analyse sociojuridique de la jurisprudence québécoise (1994-2016) au moyen d’une appréhension du contenu relationnel de ce contrat, que sur la littérature économique dans le but de comprendre les éléments de subordination et de puissance économique qui empreignent cette relation. Le constat révèle que la relation de franchise comporte de fortes composantes de subordination et d’inégalité de puissance économique pour le franchisé, engendrant un assujettissement aussi réel que celui mis en place par le salariat, même s’il n’est pas institué formellement par le contrat de franchisage. Plusieurs pistes d’action sont proposées. Si la requalification de certains contrats de franchise en contrat de travail semble une avenue préconisée par plusieurs pays, nos tribunaux y sont peu enclins. La deuxième piste d’action résiderait dans l’adoption d’une loi encadrant l’établissement et le contenu des contrats de franchise afin de réduire l’asymétrie informationnelle existante entre franchiseur et franchisé, ainsi que de mieux encadrer les qualités du « concept » sur lequel s’appuient les franchiseurs pour séduire les franchisés. Une troisième piste serait de reconnaître l’inégalité de puissance économique, point de départ de la reconnaissance « d’un droit de la dépendance dans l’indépendance » capable d’appréhender ces multiples situations d’entrepreneuriat dépendant dont la franchise n’est qu’un exemple.

This article reviews the book, "Building Global Labor Solidarity in a Time of Accelerating Globalization," edited by Kim Scipes.

The article reviews the book, "Redesigning Work: A Blueprint for Canada’s Future Well-being and Prosperity," by Graham Lowe and Frank Graves.

Cette recherche vise à étudier la présence de conflits de rôle au sein des comités de retraite au Québec. Elle met en relation la gouvernance des régimes de retraite et la présence de conflits de rôle entre la représentation collective et la responsabilité fiduciaire du point de vue des membres de comités de retraite. Nous exploitons une particularité de la gestion québécoise, soit l’obligation de créer un comité de retraite sur lequel siègent des membres représentant l’employeur, les syndicats, les travailleurs, les retraités, ainsi que des membres indépendants. À l’aide d’une méthodologie mixte par questionnaire et par entrevue, il a été possible d’analyser les sources et la nature des conflits. Contrairement à nos anticipations, notre étude ne démontre pas de conflits systématiques causés par la coexistence du système de relations du travail et de la responsabilité fiduciaire des régimes complémentaires de retraite. Les tensions reliées aux relations du travail sont minimes. Nous avons bien identifié quelques enjeux, notamment au niveau du financement des régimes, de la viabilité des régimes, qui relèvent de la confusion des rôles. Toutefois ces éléments ne sont pas perçus comme des sources de tensions, mais plutôt comme des enjeux à discuter. La qualité de la gouvernance des régimes de retraite dépend des ressources investies par les acteurs des relations du travail dans l’accompagnement des membres des comités de retraite. La recherche sur les conflits de rôle dans la gouvernance des régimes de retraite au Québec montre que la gestion de ces conflits dépend, dans une large mesure, de la qualité de la législation sur l’administration des régimes complémentaires de retraite au Québec et, également, des ressources consacrées à la formation des membres des comités de retraite et des participants aux relations du travail.

The principal elements of just cause protection for unionized workers in the context of industrial discipline can be summed up in what the author refers to as the 'four Rs": reasons, reinstatement, equitable relief and representation. While the scope and meaning of just cause came to be fully developed in the arbitral jurisprudence of the 1960s and 1970s, several of its core aspects are of considerably older provenance. This paper throws light on a little-known chapter in the development of the "common law of the shop" by reporting on the results of primary research into mostly unreported arbitration awards in disci- pline cases, conducted under the auspices of the Ontario Department of Labour in the wartime and immediate post-war periods. Although they did not set out to create a systematic jurisprudence, the arbitrators in those early cases clearly anticipated the established model of corrective and industrial discipline: they gave effect to a requirement for reasons; reinstated employees found innocent of allegations of wrongdoing and awarded compensation; articulated a need for prior warnings and a culminating incident; "made the punishment fit the crime" by substituting lesser penalties and taking into account mitigating factors such as length of service; and afforded a measure of protection to union officials against reprisal while emphasizing their responsibility for securing compliance with grievance procedures. Ultimately, the author argues, the early arbitrators saw their role chiefly as the cultivation of workplace harmony and avoidance of work stoppages, seeking to reconcile industrial unionism with industrial peace.

The article reviews the book, "Depression Folk: Grassroots Music and Left-Wing Politics in 1930's America," by Ronald D. Cohen.

Though not monolithic, the non-profit social services sector has been an arena where workers and management participated in various forms of shared planning, service development and organizing the labour process. This included: 1- formal participation processes such as collective bargaining with union representation, and 2- practice-profession or task participation. Drawing on 34 qualitative interviews undertaken with a variety of actors (Chief Executive/Senior Directors, senior operational management, Human Resource Managers, frontline staff, and, where available, union representatives) in two non-profit social service agencies in Ontario (Canada), the article traces how these forms of participation have changed as a result of government austerity policies alongside the expansion of precarious employment and funding in the non-profit sector.Using exemplar quotes and qualitative analysis, the article shows that worker’s participation in each form has declined, while management simultaneously has extended greater control over the labour process and removed or reduced forums and opportunities for input from staff. In terms of task participation, measurement and governance structure of New Public Management (NPM) and austerity have led to less autonomy and choice, especially in the area of working time. The study also found that unitarist approaches, intolerant of staff voice and possible dissent, have displaced earlier representative participatory approaches that either utilized the management chain, or embraced and worked constructively with unions. Though these pressures existed prior to the introduction of austerity policies, the data show that decreased worker’s participation coincides and is further undermined by the financial and governance processes associated with NPM and austerity-linked cuts in government and other forms of funding. Overall, the data and analysis suggest that participation in the Non-profit Social Services (NPSS) may be another casualty of this current wave of neoliberalism.

This research is motivated by the lack of recent empirical studies investigating delay in grievance arbitration, despite increasing concerns being voiced about the issue. I performed content analysis on a random sample of about 400 Ontario arbitration awards, and then used a proportional hazards model to examine the extent of delay and its determinants. consistent with common perception, the results suggest that delay has become a worse problem over the past two decades. I find that certain legalistic factors and the expanded jurisdiction of arbitrators over specific types of issues are associated with delay. the results also show that certain dispute resolution procedures are related to decreased delay, and this suggests some practical solutions.

In this paper the authors provide a review and critique of existing legal standards and methods, at common law and under employment standards legis- lation, for determining the length of notice to which employees are entitled as a result of without-cause termination. They argue that, at common law, the factors relied on to determine the amount of termination notice contribute to systemic bias and power imbalances between employers and employees, while fostering the illusion of individualized assessment. As well, the regime is inaccessible to low- and middle-income employees due to the costs of litigation. Minimum statutory notice in Ontario, which relies solely on the factor of length of service, is heavily discounted in relation to the common law, and suffers from poor enforcement and widespread non-compliance. In light of the shortcomings of the common law and statutory regimes, the authors conclude that there is a clear need for reform. While other proposals for reform have been advanced, the authors contend that they focus too heavily on length of service, are likely to perpetuate the problems associated with the existing systems, and fail to comprehensively take into account the primary purpose of notice - to provide employees with a "cushion" between termination and re-employment. The auth- ors then set out their proposal for a "Middle Course" approach to determining length of notice, which would be based on a series of objective factors related to the estimated time needed by a dismissed employee to obtain re-employment. It would be implemented by replacing the existing formula under employment standards legislation with one that would enable notice entitlements to be deter- mined in a more predictable, rational and equitable fashion.

This article reviews the book, "American Labor and Economic Citizenship: New Capitalism from World War 1 to the Great Depression," by Mark Hendrickson.

Thiis article reviews the book, "Lost Champions: Four Men, Two Teams, and the Breaking of Pro Football’s Color Line," by Gretchen Atwood.

This article reviews the book, "Neoliberal Labour Governments and the Union Response: The Politics of the End of Labourism," by Jason Schulman.

The article reviews the book, "Unions in Court: Organized Labour and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms," by Larry Savage and Charles W. Smith.