The Youth and Work website now has its own Youtube channel.

Youth and Work now has a Youtube channel up and running! Check it out here. Moving into video was a logical next step for the website as it's a wonderful tool to deliver information to young people about workplace law and dovetails nicely into the website's mandate of utilizing emerging forms of technology. I've been meaning to get into video for awhile now, but between school and work I'm pretty swamped these days.

The first video that I've posted is from a recent talk that I gave at Glendon College in Toronto - some lovely students invited me down and I was more than happy to oblige. The talk has two distinct parts to it. The first part covers some of the theoretical tools that I use in my current research to critically assess the regulatory structure of workplace law and youth labour markets; I run through concepts such as social location, intersectionality, intergenerational equity, and inclusive equality. 

The second part of my talk explores the changes that have taken place within the economy over the past three decades and the impact on young Canadians. This portion uses trends such as globalization, the commodification of post-secondary eduction, the growing precariat class, and the rise of the knowledge economy to highlight structural problems within the youth labour market such as unemployment, stagnating wages, income inequality, and unpaid internships. The talk was titled "Precarity, intergenerational equity, and the deteriorating youth labour market in Canada" and you can take a peek at the talk here (it starts at 3:25 in):

I'm going to start using video a lot more on the website as a way to inform young people about their rights in the workplace. It might take some time, but expect a riveting Youtube channel developing in the months (I've even found a crack digital video wiz to help me in this regard). Also, if you have any ideas for video topics, please drop me a line to chat. 

Are class action lawsuits over unpaid internships coming to Canada?

The Canadian HR Reporter has a front page page story on the (il)legality of using unpaid internships schemes on the front-page of its current issue. The article focuses on the recent class action lawsuits contesting unpaid internships against the Hearst Corporation and Fox Searchlight Pictures; additionally, it reviews the provisions in the Employment Standards Act, 2000 governing the use of unpaid interns.

I'm quoted heavily in the article and while I can't link directly to the article due to a pay-wall I can share a couple of my more memorable quotes from it. I suggest that "these sorts of position are fairly exploitive, they're unpaid and young people are becoming more aware of their rights vis-a-vis internships. The class-action lawsuits are the next logical step in contesting the position of young people within the labour market." Essentially, my thought here is that Canada's legal culture mimics America's one to a certain extent and often novel legal approaches get pioneered in the U.S. and exported to Canada; furthermore, class action lawsuits are a sensible way to deal with the cases of systemic misclassification of employees (later in the article I even reference the U.S. Department of Labour's duck test, but I digress).

I go on to say that "In Canada, I've seen a number of large corporate organizations that are using this form of employment and misclassifying employees as interns. The environment exists where a class-action lawsuit could possibly work, the trick is you have to find the people - but they're out there." The point here is that as information about workplace laws becomes more accessible to young people there's going to be more contestation of the exploitation, wage theft, precarity, and lack of voice that interns experience.

The final point that I make in the article is the following: "As baby boomers start retiring en masse, there's going to be very stiff competition and if your organization gets a reputation for taking advantage of young workers, it can be quite detrimental." My thought here is that as the talent war begins to heat up there's going to be a vicious fight for workers, if employers get labelled having taken advantage of people when times were bad then they'll lose out on the option of getting the best talent and will have to pay a premium for recruitment, remuneration, and retention.

That's the article in a nutshell, if you're an human resources professional who's running an internship program I'd suggest you get a subscription to the Canadian HR Reporter and read the article as it contains excellent analysis. Beyond that check out my previous blog posts discussing unpaid internships in Canada, see: the legality of internships in Ontario; the complicity of universities in the unpaid internship scam; and, the public policy implications on unpaid internships. Finally, here a great video of Ross Perlin discussing unpaid internships at this year's Left Forum, see:

On bloodletting and unmiraculous (neoliberal) cures: the 2012 Ontario budget

The 2012 Ontario budget was tabled yesterday by Dwight Duncan and it's an unsurprisingly harsh response to the deficit left in the wake of the financial crisis. This budget sets a nasty (and brutish) tone going forward for the province with threats of legislated wage freezes, changes to interest arbitration, a B.C. style approach to labour relations, changes to pension funding, attacks on the poor through cuts to social assistance, and the general cry of "fiscal austerity". Really this budget sets out to continue the work of Mike Harris right where he left off.

Make no mistake about it - this crisis wasn't created by public sector spending, rather private sector greed drove the financial markets to collapse and governments had to respond. The public is now paying the price through a reconsolidation of neoliberal public policy responses sold as "necessary" measures to overcome our fiscal problems. It's a bunch of baloney really and the same old divisive politics that have characterized Ontario's politics for the better part of my lifetime that have allowed our moral compass to spin wildly off kilter. This isn't leadership, rather it's the absence of it and as we're about to find out it's going to cost most of us dearly as the public services we rely upon are slashed.

This isn't an economic growth or a jobs budget, this is budget that may well push Ontario's economy back into recession and put ten of thousands citizens out of work and onto the welfare rolls. Don't believe me? Then I ask, where is the innovative programs to put the unemployed to work? Or the training initiatives to turn Ontario into a leader in the knowledge economy? Or the strength of character to confront an exceedingly unfair national monetary policy and petrodollar that's destroying the industrial and manufacturing heartland of Ontario? It's not there, it's lacking, and that needs to change fast if we hope to see any semblance of a sustained recovery. 

The impact that this budget will have on youth will be particularly dire. For the majority of students tuition and debt are skyrocketing as the 30% rebate only covers a small fraction of students. In a bizarre move high school students are going to get the boot after 34 credits and by doing so this will deny many students the ability to upgrade their marks to gain entry into post-secondary institutions. There was also an utter lack of ameliorative interventions to boost job creation amid a stagnating labour market that's hitting young Ontarions in their 20s and 30s rather hard. If one drills into the Statscan numbers for the cohorts between 15 and 34 you'll find declining full-time employment, people dropping out of the labour force entirely, and a rise in precarious part-time jobs. I've said it before and I'll say it again - it's a very bad time to be young (and have dreams) in Ontario.

Below I've culled various commentaries (even the erroneous ones) on the 2012 Ontario budget - give them a read, get informed, and then make a decision about whether Ontario is headed in the right direction. See:

Wellesley Institute

Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives

People For Education

Ontario Coalition for Better Childcare

Andrea Horwath

Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations

Adam Radwanski

Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance

Tim Hudak

Ontario Nurses' Association

Canadian Union of Public Employees

United Food and Commercial Workers

Conference Board of Canada

Well, that's my recap of the whole 2012 Ontario budget mess. There's not much of a silver lining so in closing I'll leave you with the heartfelt tale of how austerity impacts on one average Canadian. See Carla Lucchetta's video essay from The Agenda below:

The social network: youth, social media, background checks, and recruitment.

Over the past week there has been a lot of attention paid to employers requesting that job applicants hand over their social media passwords. This isn't a new story, but given the level of interest I thought I'd do a post covering off some of the gaps in the public discourse.

Some prominent Toronto lawyers have either stated that the current laws don't prohibit employers from asking for social media passwords or that the current laws sufficiently protect employees. Neither are particularly accurate assessments on the intersection of privacy, technology, and workplace law; furthermore, both fail to situate the current discussion within the wide array of problems presented by social media that are going unaddressed by the government and being exploited by employers. Let's run through a few problems that young people are encountering in the job hunt and offer a few tips for defeat unscrupulous employers.

Let's start with the biggest problem currently out there: Google searches on applicants for publicly accessible information. This is a far more pervasive and common problem. Recruiters can glean an incredible amount of information from an online search: where a person went to high-school, pictures of an applicant, family history, marital status, whether they have children, and political opinions. Google searches are clearly akin to requesting social media passwords with a far higher potential for abuse. Just consider the number of steps that Dan Michaluk outlines for conducting proper online searches, few employers are going to take the necessary steps to ensure fairness when conducting online searches as part of the hiring process.

Employers requiring social media passwords is clearly an egregious breach of privacy, human rights, and a person's dignity. There's simply is no reason why an employer operating in most industries would require access to a person's accounts prior to a position being offered. For a young person to hand over social media passwords it's akin to an adult handing over their email passwords or a home's alarm code.

Currently, workplace laws in Canada are inadequate to address the rapidly evolving technology that social media represents. Beyond this, being able to contest an online search or an employer accessing an publicly available social media account is extremely difficult to detect by an average job applicant; furthermore, even in cases where an employer requests passwords for social media website the job applicant is in a difficult position given the time, expense, and turmoil involved in contesting the actions of a potential employer.

Governments in Canada don't seem to be in any hurry to enact specific laws to prevent employers from running online searches or requesting social media passwords. The Ontario Human Rights Commission issued a statement on Facebook addressing some concerns, but it fails to acknowledge the wider problems that internet technology poses for job applicants like online background searches and more importantly it carries little legal weigh as soft law. As usual on issues that matter to young workers the Ministry of Labour remains missing in action and Minister of Labour Linda Jeffrey hasn't given any indication that she's prepared to update workplace law to reflect our interconnected reality.

So if you're a young person in the midst or at the start of a job search what are some tips? Well, given the lack of effective workplace laws to prevent employer abuses, the lack of enforcement, and high cost of legally contesting illegal recruitment techniques - you're operating in a labour market where prospective employers might request your passwords and you might have to give them up if you really want the job.

Here are a few strategies from ranging from severe to subversive: (1) you can get rid of your Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and Myspace, just don't use any and prospective employers literally won't be able to find anything; (2) keep all content on your social media account ultra-clean and controversy free if you're asked to produce your passwords; (3) ghost your personal social media accounts (i.e. make them inaccessible to the public online) and create new publicly accessible employer friendly accounts that can be offered up enthusiastically when required ("Of course Ms. Human Resources, I'd love to give you access to all my social media passwords."); or, (4) tell them to go take a hike if they ask and then file a human rights complaint based on a breach of s. 5 or s. 23(2) of Ontario's Human Rights Code.

If you want more information on this topic, check out David Doorey's take on the controversy here, here, and here. I've written extensively on the problems that social media poses for workplace law, see: here, here, and here. Finally, here's an interesting video that shows just far we've come in five years, scope this:

Students take to the streets in Quebec to protest tuition hikes and austerity measures.

There's a massive student protest today in Montreal. It starts at 1:00 p.m. at Place du Canada in downtown Montreal. It's part of the student strike against the neoliberal policies of Jean Charest's corrupt Liberal government (Maurice Duplessis certainly would have been proud of him). The student strike has been gaining quite a lot of steam over the past month and now more than 200,000 students in Quebec are refusing to attend classes to protest rapidly increasing tuition fees and the utter lack of intergenerational equity. If you're in Quebec or close to it I encourage you to show up and support the students in their struggle for an affordable post-secondary education system. Check out the video below for more information on the situation:

The East/West economic divide, labour market mobility, and internal youth migration.

The terrain within Canada is changing in relation to the economic and political landscape with the rise of Western Canada and the relative decline of the Eastern Canada. Essentially there's a shift in the projection of power within Canada that's going to continue to have profound impact on the country's political culture. This blog post is going to examine a couple of the implications of this development in relation to young people, internal migration, and labour market prospects.

One of the issues lying beneath the surface of the shifting power balance is the rising frequency of the migration of young people from Eastern Canada to Western Canada. Just an anecdotally I've had any number of friends move to British Columbia and Alberta over the past couple years for work and given the continuing stagnation of the economy in Ontario, Quebec, and in parts of the Maritimes this trend will continue into the foreseeable future.

Driving the western shift of talent is the increasing fiscal divide characterized by the increasing reliance on commodity exports, the rise of the petrodollar,  an uneven monetary policy, the changing nature of the redistributive federalist project between have and have-not provinces, and the lasting impact of the financial crisis on the decline of the manufacturing sector. 

Underpinning internal migration is the deteriorating labour market in Eastern Canada is fueling the movement of young people from Maritimes, Quebec, and Ontario to the Western provinces. With the dollar at parity with the American greenback the manufacturing sector in Ontario hasn't been able to recover much from the medium and long-term declines that it has experienced. Generally, when there's an increase in the unemployment rate in Canada there's a jump in the number of people migrating to other provinces.

There doesn't appear to be any public policy developments on the horizon that might stem the out-flow of talent from the East to the West (and South, because many young people now look to the U.S. for opportunities). With Dalton McGuinty adamant in his irrational resolve to implement neoliberal austerity measures in the face of a weak labour market and economy we're going to be seeing more young people fleeing West for secure opportunities for their futures.

Simply put, this isn't a good time to be a young person in Ontario with the rise in precarious employment, stagnating or declining wages, rising income inequality, the elimination of mandatory retirement, boomers stealing jobs from youth, and regressive action from government to address youth unemployment. Beyond Ontario, the economic picture doesn't look good for Quebec or the Maritime provinces (with the exception of Newfoundland) due to a combination of an aging population, escalating job losses, and difficult economic conditions.

For some more reading on this subject, take a look at the following: Statscan's "Interprovincial mobility and earnings" and "Labour Market, Business Activity, and Population Growth and Mobility in Canadian CMAs" reports; also, this recent Toronto Star article provides a good overview of recent trends.

The London, Ontario riots, stupidity, and social media.

Social media is a powerful tool. Just look at role it played in the rise of the Occupy movement, the spread of the English riots last summer, or the ever evolving Arab Spring - we're living amidst the creation of a global communications network and it's rapidly changing the we interact with each other and our institutions. This past weekend there was riot in London, Ontario by young people, mainly Fanshawe College students, that resulted in a CTV truck being torched, riot police being attacked for hours, and a massive disturbance to the bucolic nature of London's suburbs. Observing how students use social media today is helpful in predicting how these future employees will be using it once they hit the workplace. Prognosis: not good.

What's incredible is that people were taking to social media to gleefully report on their involvement in the riot. Perhaps I come at this a bit differently being a lawyer, but it's never advisable to broadcast participating in or committing a criminal act via a public facing communication. That's exactly what Brenden Dowden did last night after possibly engaging in some good ole' arson while visiting friends. Despite changing his identity on Facebook the damage was already done.

In the harsh light of Sunday morning people weren't exactly enthralled with Brenden's alleged performance and began disseminating information about him across the Internet (I say alleged because he now denies it). His employer, Ontario Power Generation, has started receiving tweets requesting Brenden's firing (which might make for an interesting off-duty conduct case). Beyond this, criminal charges are an almost certainty in the wake of the harsh backlash from the public.

For my previous articles on social media take a look: here, here, and here; furthermore, Lisa Stam wrote a great overview last week about some of the problems social media creates in the workplace. Beyond this, check out some of the incredible footage from Saturday night. See:

The youth unemployment rate spikes in February. When will the bleeding stop?

2012 continues to shape as a brutal year for young Canadians as the labour market continued to deteriorate for the fifth straight month with no relief in sight. Youth unemployment across the country remains at troubling levels amid regressive government actions (zero action on the housing bubble, austerity initiatives, and an uneven monetary policy) that will only serve to worsen the jobs crisis and push the economy towards the precipice of a recession.

Earlier this morning Statistics Canada released their monthly labour market report. The news isn't good for youth. The 15 to 24, 25 to 29, and 30 to 34 cohorts either saw very marginal increases or declines which points to a serious ongoing policy issue that is being ignored at present and publicly unacknowledged. Simply put, young people are experiencing economic scarring in the wake of the recession and little is being done to address the problem.

The Statscan report stated "Employment among youths aged 15 to 24 fell for the fifth consecutive month, down 27,000 in February, and their unemployment rate was 14.7%. Compared with February 2011, youth employment was down 69,000 (-2.8%). With fewer youths participating in the labour market, their participation rate in February was 63.3%, down from the most recent peak of 68.1% in September 2008."

Beneath the numbers a bunch of interesting trends are emerging. First, the labour market participation rate is falling for the 20 to 24, 25 to 29, and 30 to 34 age cohorts - this is driving the reduction in the unemployment rate as discouraged job seekers stop looking for employment. Second, the unemployment rate for youth aged 15 to 24 has edged up to 14.8%, which continues the five month deterioration in the youth labour market. Third, at best the labour market can described as stagnating for young Canadian between the ages of 15 to 34, clearly there has been no recovery and for most youth the economy remains in recession; furthermore, there's nothing on the horizon that would suggest any near term improvement.

Another ominous trend that presents a major obstacle for a recovery in the youth labour market are the job gains in the 55+ demographic. Job stealing boomers (kidding) who had their retirement savings gutted in the wake of the financial meltdown are making incredible gains in the labour market in sectors traditionally dominated by youth. This is a demographic flip and a trend that is also being seen in the United States and presents a massive barrier for any sort of recovery that minimizes the long-term economic scarring of youth people. The question in my mind is starting not to be whether there's going to be a lost generation, but how the impact from socio-economic damage to the new generation of young workers can be reduced through ameliorative public policy.

For some additional reading and perspective on the current problems facing youth in the labour market, see the new TD Economics report called "The Plight of Younger Workers"; also, check out my previous analysis from earlier in the year where I cover the deterioration of the youth labour market, see: here and here.

Hey Diane, is this how our kids find jobs?

There has been a lot of coverage on the decision by Human Resources and Skills Development Canada to eliminate funding for the student summer job centres across Canada. This blog post is designed to critically examine the policy rationale behind then move and provide a brief overview of some of the reactions that have been forthcoming in the wake of Minister Diane Finley's decision. I should note that I don't generally revisit topics, but since I've received hundreds of emails from my readers asking me to comment on this issue further I though it was appropriate.

By way of background, let us take a look at the purpose of these centres. The initiative was first established back in 1968 as a pilot project in Saskatchewan and had been funded summer for over forty years. The purpose was to assist students across the country find seasonal employment. The program was remarkably successful in helping hundreds of thousands of young Canadian gain crucial experience in the labour market.

The decision to cut funding to these centres was made in January, but wasn't publicly announced and the information only came to light after a leak. Minister Finley's justification was the decision was that youth themselves requested in light of the need for better online services. Considering the lack of consultation and secretive nature of the decision it appears that this reasoning is ill-informed at best and probably an example of demagoguery.

With the official youth unemployment rate hovering around 14.5%, the real youth unemployment rate pushing 20%, and the labour market participation rate for youth falling in the wake of the recession - this decision stands as proof that the current Federal government is willing to put ideological partisanship far ahead of the actual needs of young workers. This is a significant problem as targeting young workers for cuts is bad for the economy - young people experience economic scarring, small businesses are denied access to eager young workers, and the corporate sector is denied the opportunity to impart crucial skills in face of looming labour market shortage.

With the continuing problems in the youth labour market it makes absolutely no sense to eliminate a crucial support system for young people trying to enter the labour market, especially from a government that holds up economic development as the centrepiece of its policy agenda. If anything, the student summer job centres should have seen their funding increased alongside a greater focus on providing services over the internet for young job seekers as part of a coordinated policy response to youth unemployment in Canada.

The public response to the cuts has been highly critical. Letters to the editors, articles, and editorials have all criticized the Federal government's decision in this matter. Here's a sample of the response broken down regionally. Western Canada: Victoria Times Colonist, Portage Daily Graphic; Central Canada: Windsor Star, Toronto Star, Belleville Intelligencer, The Globe and Mail, Canadian University Press; Atlantic Canada: Western Star, The Georgian.

It's important to cast this decision as part of a sustained anti-worker/anti-family strategy that Prime Minister Stephen Harper is currently pursuing at the expense of a sustainable economic growth; particularly, this strategy explicitly economically assaults young Canadians through various policy initiatives. From supporting discriminatory orphan clauses at Canada Post to creating an EI backlog thereby creating barriers for unemployed Canadians from accessing benefits to Minister Finley's deliberate attempt at intergenerational fracturing to build support for widely unpopular (and totally unnecessary) changes to pensions. 

There's a twisted logic underpinning the policy direction and it's targeting young people in their 20's and 30's. Finally, let's remember the lip service that Minister Finley has previously given to youth unemployment and student debt. Check out the clip below and ask yourself if this decision is coming from someone who cares about young people? See:

Quebec Student Strike Heats Up

Just a short post today as I have to do a wee bit of traveling. The student strike in Quebec is gaining steam as more and more young people take a stand against neoliberal austerity measures that impose taxes and user fees (in the form of higher tuition) on the right to an education. Yesterday afternoon a massive march occurred in Quebec City to protest the policies of the Charest government. Police responded with violence and tear gas volleys against the peaceful students. 

The strike has been running for close to a month now and is part of a long history of student strikes in Quebec which often resulted in significant political change; recent history shows that this sorts of political action can be quite effective in stopping cuts to programs that benefit young people. Here's a view from the street, see: