youth and work

Quebec Student Strike Heats Up

2012-03-02T12:08:00.000-05:00

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:

Defying logic: Diane Finley eliminates youth summer jobs centres across Canada

2012-02-29T13:50:00.001-05:00

Youth unemployment in Canada is getting worst and not better; currently the unemployment rate for young people stands at 14.5% with the real unemployment rate hovering around 20%. With this in mind it's absolutely unbelievable that the Federal government would even consider eliminating ameliorative initiatives that help young people get jobs in the summer, but that exactly what they're doing through eliminating student jobs centres across Canada. This is a concrete example of the strategic abandonment of young people through public policy and shows how the current focus on austerity measures will scar the economic prospects of the current generation for decades.

If you're concerned about the logic of this decision then I suggest you take some action and ask that this poor decision be reversed, here are the people to contact: Ian Shugart, Deputy Minister of HRSDC (tel: 819-994-6060; email: ian.shugart@hrsdc-rhdcc.gc.ca) and Diane Finley, Minister of HRSDC (tel: 819-994-2482; email: diane.finley@parl.gc.ca). In closing, this is a very detrimental move that calls into question whether the overall job creation strategy is little more than a slick propaganda campaign rather than a substantive policy.

The Cotton Internship: Stephen Colbert Takes On Unpaid Internships

2012-02-29T11:53:00.000-05:00

Ross Eisenbrey, the Vice-President of the Economic Policy Institute ("EPI"), was on the Colbert Report last night discussing unpaid internships; watch it here (my American readers can watch it here). EPI has been at the forefront of identifying the serious threat that unpaid internships represent to the labour market. It has developed cutting-edge research that traces the scope of the rise of this form of precarious employment and the detrimental impact that unpaid internships have had on the youth labour market.

As Mr. Eisenbury posits in a recent editorial "Unpaid work is exploitation. It is illegal, and colleges and universities should reexamine their role in promoting it. And as Ross Perlin, the author of Intern Nation bluntly puts it, 'It's time to enforce the law'." EPI research is excellent and I highly recommend reading the reports "No-So-Equal Protection - Reforming the Regulation of Unpaid Internships" and "Unpaid internships hurt mobility". Beyond that it's great to see that this issue is entering the mainstream media for discussion as it's a long overdue development and sorely needed. Below check out Ross Perlin talking about the scourge of unpaid internships in the United States in relation to structural joblessness and youth unemployment, see:

Kitchen confidential: what's wrong in Toronto's restaurant industry?

2012-02-27T08:00:00.000-05:00

I have a lot of friends who work in restaurants, be it on a count of a depressed economy, by choice, as a stop-gap to total poverty, or as a means to fund school. I've also heard a lot of horror stories about the industry; physical assaults, sexual harrassment, and unpaid wages seem to be the norm. From what I can ascertain the whole industry is a cesspool of workplace law violations and is predicated on harassing staff, long hours, stress, frequent burnout, and rampant addiction issues.

Generally, food service industry jobs are a precarious form of employment that doesn't over much in the way of security, good wages, or a basis from which a young person can build a life. With that in mind it was with great interest that I read an article this past weekend in the Globe discussing the labour shortages in Toronto's burgeoning restaurant scene and the "problems" that restauranteurs face in hiring staff. This blog post is going to comment on the article, make a few observations, and offer some tips to young workers in the food service industry.

The Globe article interviews a number of players in Toronto's restaurant scene, but the focus of the article ends up being on Rob Rossi, the chef at the new restaurant Bestellen. I've never met Rossi, but I suspect he cried a lot as a child as he whines his way through a litany of complaints about the problems he has encounted hiring staff, such as: interviewing countless people, outrageous salary demands (a living wage is always outrageous), young inexperienced staff, the transitory nature of employees in the industry, and the dedication of his staff.

Boo hoo! Rossi seems like a reall swell boss and is clearly the norm within the industry. His comments point to some of the bizarre and deeper developments that have occurred within Canada's labour market and the attitudes that Canadian employers have developed over the past thirty odd years.

Within the new economy employers are typically no longer willing to train new employees and frequently demand fully formed workers from day one as a way to save costs in on-boarding employees, increase productivity, and avoid serving as training ground for their competitiors. In a labour market where the entry level job is an increasingly extinct species, one either has to have the exact skills the employers needs or has to engaged in unpaid work (read internship or a training program) to develop the necessary skill set for the industry.

This situation is a recent development within the labour market and can be traced back to the impact of neoliberal public policy through developments like governments not engaging in meaningful labour market planning, the imposed flexibility of corporate cost-cutting measures, workplace laws not responding to wider changes in the economy, and the lack of funding for programs that transition young people from school into the labour market.

The end result of all of this is that young workers get taken advantage of in the food service industry through employment standards being avoid, overtime pay not being provided, not paying back wages and a climate of fear where people are afraid to assert their rights. In situations where people are living paycheque to paycheque it's intimidating to ask for something that may well get you fired.

If you suspect you've experienced a violation of your rights, get informed about the Employment Standards Act and obtain legal advice. In the downtown core of Toronto there are a number of organizations that provide free legal assistance to workers who have had their rights violated, these are: Parkdale Community Legal Services, the Workers' Action Centre, West Toronto Community Legal Services, Kensington Bellwoods Community Legal Services, and the Human Rights Legal Support Centre. Also, if you really want to protect yourself in the workplace and have like minded co-workers, the UFCW-Canada and UNITE HERE respresent workers in the food service industry. In closing, here's an excellent video from CTV Victoria exposing a common scenario that young workers face, see:

No future: dissecting Diane Finley's direct appeal to youth over pensions

2012-02-23T16:22:00.000-05:00

Diane Finley, Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development Canada, was on the prowl earlier this week on Bay Street to give a keynote address to the Canadian Club on the "Changing Demographics of Canada". With the Tories having enraged older Canadians with their surprise Old Age Security ("OAS") reforms, Finley was dispatched from Ottawa to lecture young people about how they're going to need to save more for retirement and to engage in some divisive intergenerational fracturing.

Finley told the audience that "Any necessary changes will be made with a substantial notice period, allowing plenty of time for Canadians — some of you here today — to adjust your retirement planning accordingly and prepare for the future." Now, that sounds all quite reasonable on first blush, but what's beneath Finley's remarks and do young Canadians even have the tools to save more for retirement? I would suggest that they don't and I've jotted down a few concerns below about the overall approach taken by Steven Harper's government towards young people.

The Tories have pursued a course of action that directly attacks any notion of intergenerational equity through inaction on youth unemployment, backing public and private sector employers who propose discriminatory orphan clauses, the targeting of racialized youth through unnecessary crime legislation, by failing to address surging income inequality either through taxation reforms or altering monetary policy, and via proposing austerity measures that will push tens of thousands of young Canadians into unemployment.

Finley has yet to lift a finger to address surging youth unemployment in Canada, but she did have time last fall to berate young Canadians by casting them as a "demoralized" group who have "chosen never to get a job". Despite the shiny Jonestownesqe television ads touting "Canada's Economic Action Plan" the reality on the ground is that the economy is deteriorating rather than getting better for young Canadians. Many young graduates either can't find work or end up in dead-end jobs in the service or retail sectors. Good jobs that provide benefits, pensions, and secure career paths are being replaced by precarious contingent, part-time, or temporary positions devoid of any sense of security or a future.

Now it's all well and good for Finley to tell young people to save more for retirement, but it rings hollow when one considers stagnating wages, surging student debt, historically low interest rates, and unaffordable housing in major urban centres. The vast majority of young Canadians in their 20s and 30s simply don't possess the means to save for retirement. Finley isn't presenting any solutions, it's pure spin and sound-bites devoid of content, though, or long-term strategy.

Finley's maneuver strikes me as simple demagoguery awash in the banality of Canada's political class, a group that has been characteristically unresponsive to the needs of young people throughout the past three decades (see attacking youth is a sport of both the Left and Right in Canada). The policy blunders of the past (increasing tuition fees, free trade, hollowing out the middle class, dismantling labour market regulation) are now bearing fruit through depressed birthrates, increased rates of mental illness in young people, young men adrift with no hope, and a real youth unemployment rate that's topping 20%.

While I see some glimmers of hope in the current environment, a more likely future for Canadian youth played out of streets of Vancouver and London last summer through rioting and the subsequent repression. Unless changes are implemented that address intergenerational equity in a meaningful fashion young people will increasingly be standing in the shadow of the future with no hope for brighter days amid unending alienation. I don't want to live in that future Canada, as the old refrain goes: I want change. To do this we need actual reforms that address pressing economic issues important to young Canadian. In closing I'll leave you with a recent clip of Finley failing to address a question about the surging youth unemployment rate in Canada, check it out:

Are the Hamilton Tiger-Cats running an unpaid internship scam?

2012-02-20T08:00:00.000-05:00

If the Hamilton Tiger-Cats can't excel at winning, at least they excel in other areas. Too bad one of those areas appears to be exploiting young workers trying to gain a toe-hold in the professional sports industry. From a gander at the Ti-Cats' website there's an extensive internship recruitment process underway in preparation for the 2012 CFL season.

The problem is that it appears that all of the positions being recruited for contravene provisions contained in the Employment Standards Act, 2000 ("ESA") governing the use of unpaid interns. The advertised positions appear to breach multiple prongs of the six-fold test enumerated under s. 1(2) of the ESA and it's arguably a case of misclassification of employees as interns.

I'll let people judge for themselves the legality of these positions, but it's troubling to see a major Hamilton institution embroiled in a situation of questionable legality. Unpaid internships have become a blight on the economic and job prospects of too many young workers in Ontario. This sort of unpaid labour does little to transition students into the labour market, rather it serves as a form of exploitation of young people with dimming job opportunities and perpetuates the deteriorating youth labour market in Ontario.

Hopefully the Ti-Cats organization will see the possible error of their ways and offer their summer employees minimum wage at the bare minimum. It should be noted that I discovered this job posting on the York University Career Centre's website. It troubling that post-secondary institutions in Ontario don't engage in simple due diligence to see if job postings contravene the ESA. For some of my past articles on unpaid internships, see: here, here, and here. Finally, what would a football story be without some nostalgia, so here's a choice clip from 1983:

Tesco, forced unpaid labour, and the U.K.'s failed youth employment strategy

2012-02-19T00:20:00.000-05:00

The supermarket chain Tesco is the U.K.'s largest private employer, they're also the largest beneficiary of the Department of Work and Pensions flagship unemployment program that forces tens of thousands of young people into compulsory unpaid labour to receive government benefits. These aren't "lazy" kids either, rather the unemployed young people forced into this program often have university degrees and represent some of the best talent in the U.K. has to offer, yet they're stacking shelves on High Street.

In recent days Tesco and other large British retailers have come under increasing criticism for the use of forced labour amid a public outcry and in response many are pulling out of the program altogether; futhermore, this backlash comes at a time when there are mounting legal challenges against the use of forced labour under the provisions in the U.K.'s Human Rights Act.

The U.K. stands as a global model for how not to go about addressing intergenerational equity. Young people in the U.K. have been under prolonged attack from progressive government who have created an environment which is ripe for exploiting young workers, consider that: youth unemployment is at an all time high in the U.K., employers consider unpaid labour to be almost a right (be it through workfare programs or the rise of unpaid internships), and the skyrocketing tuition fees at British post-secondary institutions. It's a tense situation as austerity measures slash the lingering remains of the social welfare state and underlying problems that gave rise to last summer's riots go unaddressed amid growing intergenerational fracturing.

What we're seeing with the U.K.'s experimentation with forced unpaid labour is a concrete example of how neoliberal public policy is birthing the formation of a precariat class in post-industrial societies, of which youth figure heavily into it's structure. With little or no prospects of gaining a secure job youth have become perpetual outsiders cast out of the mainstream economy and political discourse.

The disenfranchisement of youth has come about as a result of the failure of neoliberal public policy projects, which have left young people to confront and pick up the pieces of what Henry Giroux terms a "debilitating and humiliating disinvestment in their future." As the Occupy Wall Street, the San Precario Connection, and Indignado movements gain strength the impacts from precarious and forced unpaid labour will need to be addressed through comprehensive ameliorative public policies aimed at reducing income inequality, labour market insecurity, and precarity.

For more about forced labour there are a number of great resources on the web: the International Labour Organization's website has a great microsite on forced labour; the Boycott Workfare campaign is extremely topical as it deals with the situation at Tesco; and, Ontario's shameful history of deploying workfare programs. Also, I recently wrote a couple of topical articles: here's an interview with Guy Standing about the growth of the precariat and another on the campaign against unpaid internships in the U.K. started by the TUC and NUS. Finally, check out this video from an anti-Tesco protest yesterday in the heart of London, see:

Dalton McGuinty's Shock doctrine: EI, precarity, and Ontario's economic decline

2012-02-18T03:37:00.000-05:00

This week the Drummond Report hit Ontario like an eight-ball swinging in a sock. Chock full of neoliberal shock doctrine and decline oriented austerity measures predicated on a ranking of life is a harsh medicine that may force Ontario's labour market into depression level unemployment and economic stagnation. It's also totally unnecessary and ill-timed as Ontario's economy is already starting to tank with broad-based deterioration in the youth labour market. Any further decline in public sector spending may well start an unrecoverable death spiral. Finally, the segment of society that's going to bear the brunt of the cuts will be the poor and the middle-class, while neither group was remotely responsible for the 2008 crash and the subsequent debt that was incurred they will nonetheless pay a heavy price through cuts to public sector services, increased user fees, and increased corporate welfare. All of this is amid inaction at the Federal level on issues like monetary policy and (un)equalization payments that result in a unbalanced form of federalism.

The foregoing being said there was one section that caught my eye. It deals with the Employment Insurance ("EI") system in Ontario. EI is a program that provides temporary financial assistance to people who lose their jobs. Now, the problem with the current system is that a person qualifies on the basis of hours worked and what region they live in (i.e. it's far easier to qualify in the Maritimes rather than Ontario). Also, for young people it's incredibly difficult to qualify given the changes in the labour market which have given rise to an increasing proportion of part-time contingent precarious work and self-employment. Simply put, it's near impossible to for young people to get EI to train for a new career or move to another locale in Canada that needs workers.

Drummond doesn't do a lot of his own thinking when it comes to the EI question, but he does pick up on the problems facing young workers in the new economy. He outsources much of the 'thinking' to the neoliberal cheerleaders at the Mowat Institute who recently released the final recommendations from their Employment Insurance Task Force. While the Mowat Institute's report picks up on the problem of youth unemployment in Canada and suggests some minimal changes to the program it doesn't go far enough in addressing the structural labour market issues that are impacting young workers such as income inequality, lack of career ladders, and precarious employment. Without innovative public policy that addresses these long-standing labour market problems we're going to continue to see increasing social strife, surging inequality, and intergenerational fracturing.

One interesting point that arises out of Drummond's discussion of EI is his suggestion of the establishment of a "national income-support for people with disabilities who are unlikely to re-enter the workforce". This is interesting, as it's a form of a guaranteed minimum income which is a public policy tool that seeks to establish a basic income floor for all citizens. This is an idea that deserves consideration for implementation across Canada for all citizens as a means to address the increasingly harsh economic conditions that we're all facing. Below, check out Naomi Klein discussing disaster capitalism and the shock doctrine, see:

Foxconn ♥ Interns

2012-02-16T15:32:00.001-05:00

Motherboard magazine has published an excellent expose about the Foxconn's labour practices surrounding internships and it's the stuff of nightmares. Foxconn is an electronics manufacturer that does outsourcing for companies like Apple, Microsoft, Intel, and Nintendo. The company has seen a string of intern suicides, protests, and vast outside interest in their operations given the high-profile nature of the products it produces. Essentially, it appears that Foxconn is exploiting tens of thousands of interns as a reserve labour force to supplement its already massive workforce.

Ross Perlin, author of Intern Nation, indicated that Foxconn might be running “the world’s single largest internship program – and one of the most exploitative.” That's a pretty harsh critique, but one that's probably dead on target. What's driving Foxconn bottom line is the West's insatiable need for consumer goods, which get snapped up as fast as they can be produced. For some additional reading on Foxconn's labour practices, see: here and here. Also, check out the video below documenting a protest by Foxconn workers over unfair labour practices, see:

U.K. civil society groups launch "Unpaid Unfair Illegal" campaign against unpaid internships

2012-02-14T17:11:00.000-05:00

Yesterday an interesting campaign challenging the rise of unpaid internships in the U.K. was launched by Trades Union Congress ("TUC") and the National Union of Students ("NUS"). The year-long campaign is aimed at ending the practice of unpaid internships and it's being endorsed by Interns Aware and the National Union of Journalists. The goals of the campaign are to demand enforcement of the national minimum wage regulations, to ensure that interns know and have a means of enforcing their rights, and publicly identifying employers' exploitative human resources practices.

Francis O'Grady, TUC General Secretary, commented that “Too many employers are ripping off young people by employing them in unpaid internships that are not only unfair but, in most cases, probably illegal. Internships can offer a kick-start to a career that many young people value. But as more and more graduates are being forced to turn to internships in place of traditional entry level jobs, we’re concerned that a growing number of interns are at risk of real exploitation. Employers need to know that there’s no such thing as free labour.”

There's a interesting point here that's applicable to the Canadian context. It's great to see organized labour, student organizations, and wider civil groups working together to address this serious problem and good to see this level of organization in the U.K., but it raises questions about organizations in Canada are (not) doing in relation to challenging unpaid internships in jurisdictions Canada. Unpaid internships are certainly an issue that groups like the Canadian Federation of Students, the Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance, the Ontario Federation of Labour, the Canadian Labour Congress, or the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations.

The NUS has put together a range of resources for the campaign: they've released a couple of excellent briefing documents (see: here and here); produced a poster for the campaign; created a website where interns can share their experience; and, a smartphone app will be launched in March to help interns ascertain the legality of their internships. They also released a cheeky video about the situation (love the pug shots), see it below:

Does the Pan Am Games deserve a gold medal for exploiting young workers?

2012-02-10T12:20:00.000-05:00

Unpaid internships are a serious blight on the youth labour market in Ontario. These positions erode entry level jobs in organizations, contribute to rising youth unemployment, get worked into business models thereby institutionalizing the practice of precarious unpaid labour, and make the school to work transition extremely difficult for young people. With those thoughts in mind it's come to my attention that the 2015 Toronto Pan/Parapan America Games committee is recruiting for illegal internship positions for the summer of 2012.

Check out this job description for an "Intern Volunteer" role (backup link) in the Pan Am Games' Communications and Public Relations department. What makes the position most likely a violation of the Employment Standards Act, 2000 ("the ESA") is the wording on the provision of a stipend. The job posting says that the intern will be given $30.00 per day, but they have to work forty hours per week. Any way you analyze those numbers it doesn't come out to the Ontario's minimum wage, which is normally $10.25 per hour. This a prima facie breach of the sixth part of test enumerated under s. 1(2) of the ESA, it reads "The individual is advised that he or she will receive no remuneration for the time that he or she spends in training." The language in the job description speaking to criteria that the applicant has to be a post-secondary student and undergoing practical training appears to be obfuscation aimed at justifying the misclassification of the employe.

This seems like the classic unpaid internship scam to me. The Pan Am Games isn't paying the minimum wage under the ESA and there's a probable misclassification of the employee as an intern to avoid meeting the obligations under the ESA. What's most troubling about this situation is that 2015 Toronto Pan/Parapan American Games is essentially an operation run and funded by the Government of Ontario, replete with its own Cabinet Minister (Charles Sousa, ex-Minister of Labour) and the Ontario Pan Am Games Secretariat. Why the government can't afford to pay young people the statutory minimum wage is beyond me and points to how pervasive the problem of unpaid internships have become in Ontario's labour market.

I'll give an update if I hear about any developments on this story. For some of my previous articles on the rise of unpaid internships, see: here, here, and here. Also, if you've previously been an intern with the Pan Am Games in Toronto I'd love to hear from you, I can be reached here. (Update: Elissa Freeman, the Vice President of Communication and Public Relations, tweeted at me: "@youthandwork happy to address your concerns. We will be in touch on Monday.")

Internsheep X Youth and Work: the Shameless Article

2012-02-09T00:18:00.001-05:00

Shameless Magazine is a Canadian alternative magazine for young women and trans youth. The current issue (order it here) is all about youth at work and it has some great features on young female farmers, sex workers' rights, taking on the union busters, and unpaid internships! Carley Centen, the brains behind Internsheep, wrote an excellent article exploring the rise of unpaid internships in Canada. It provides an excellent overview of the dimensions of the problems associated with this form of unpaid labour such as how unpaid internships are eroding entry level jobs and how it's a form of precarious employment.

Carley interviewed me for the article and on unpaid internships I'm quoted as saying "This is exploitation of the worst sort and it is an epidemic that is infecting the current generation of workers entering the workforce. Precarity is the new watchword for young people as they come to grips with a world in which their labour is as disposable as their possessions." At other points in the article I discuss how internships are a by-product of neoliberalism, what young workers can do to put themselves on a better legal footing to contest their misclassification, and how unpaid internships are a growing segment of the labour market.

For some of my previous articles discussing unpaid internships, see: the legality of unpaid internships in Ontario; public policy considerations; the complicity of universities in the unpaid internship scam and my analysis of York University's practices vis-a-vis unpaid internships; and, the use of unpaid internships in the cultural/non-profit sector and in journalism/publishing. Also, the New York Times has a "Room for Debate" feature on unpaid internships this past weekend, author Ross Perlin (Intern Nation) was featured as one of the writers.

To the barricades! Saskatchewan Court finds a Charter protected right to stike

2012-02-07T12:44:00.000-05:00

The rapid developments in Canadian labour law keep on coming. Yesterday Justice Dennis Ball of the Court of Queen's Bench For Saskatchewan released a groundbreaking decision that found the right to strike is freedom protected under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The case dealt with a Charter challenge to two provincial laws: The Public Service Essential Services Act and The Trade Union Amendment Act 2008 (for the actual changes, see: here and here).

Some background is necessary here. Back in 2007 Brad Wall was elected premier of Saskatchewan on the Saskatchewan Party ticket. The party is politically conservative and sought, unsurprisingly, to severely curtail the power of Unions through anti-worker initiatives. One of the first legislative initiatives that Brad Wall brought in was essential services legislation. This type of legislation is fairly common in Canada, but Saskatchewan's approached differed significantly in that the legislation covered almost the entire public sector and gave employers ultimate authority to decide which employees are providing essential services.

The decision finds that the right to strike is protected under the "freedom of association" clause found in section 2(d) of the Charter. This case pushes the ball forward from the previous high-water mark established in the Supreme Court's B.C. Health Services decision that found a limited right to collective bargaining. This case flies in the face of recently decided Fraser case, which was a heavily divided decision and marked a significant retreat from the language previously used in B.C. Health Services. This undoubtedly sets the stage for an epic legal battle at the Supreme Court on whether the right to strike is actually protected under the Charter, remember this is ruling of a lower Court and there are two appellate Courts that will review this decision.

What hit me while reading the decision is how much Justice Ball rooted his analysis in international law. The decision is seeped with references to UN treaties (the ICESCR and ICCPR), jurisprudence emanating out of the International Labour Organization (mostly Committee on Freedom of Association and the Committee of Experts) , and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It's heartening to see such a thorough discussion of the implications arising out of Canada's obligations under international law.

That all on this case for now. For additional commentary, check out the following: Doorey's Law Blog has posted a very thorough analysis; also, the CBC has coverage of the decision up.

Cold, bored and broke: Canada's youth labour market deteriorates further

2012-02-04T00:17:00.000-05:00

Things continue to look grim for young job seekers in January as Canada's economic engine continues to stall. For the fourth straight month youth aged 15 to 24 incurred significant job losses (to recap January saw losses of -9,000; December -17,000; November -18,000; October -14,600). I drilled down on the data relating to young adults aged 25 to 29 and 30 to 34, these demographic groups have also seen an overall deterioration in the rate of employment over the past four months. Essentially, what we're seeing is an overall slump in the job prospects for young Canadians right now.

This slide is going to continue into the spring, if not much, much longer. Events that might stop the bleeding of youth jobs would be a rebound in demand from the U.S., if recent positive indicators hold, and a positive resolution in the European debt crisis; however, what's clouding matters is the moves by provincial and Federal governments to implement austerity measures - any move in this direction will further devastate an already weak labour market. If the cuts are as severe as rumoured, we could be looking at an unemployment rate of 8.0% or higher. None of which is good for young people looking for work; right now the official youth unemployment rate is 14.5%, but as I've previously reported the "real" unemployment rate for youth is probably closer to 20%.

What we're lacking here is any sort of official acknowledgement or public policy response to the growing crisis of youth unemployment. Stimulus spending directed at the real economy and providing young people with sorely needed jobs would go along way at this juncture, but no politicians are talking about the dire state of the labour market for young people. Also of concern are the structural labour market problems such as training, workforce development and providing the skills that are needed by youth in the new economy. There's a lot of work to be done to put Canada's economy on a sustainable solid path to the future, but we're seeing very little by way of innovation at present.

That's my take for now. I've written quite a bit recently about the youth labour market, check out the articles: here, here and here.

Caterpillar, Globalization and Labour Relations: an Interview with Michael Lynk

2012-02-02T09:26:00.000-05:00

I'm delighted to share an interview that I recently conducted with Michael Lynk. He's a labour law professor at Western's law school and one of Canada's foremost experts on labour relations. We discussed the ongoing lockout at the Electro-Motive Diesel plant in London, possible futures for labour relations in Ontario and the difficulties governments face in formulating responses to breaches of domestic workplace laws in a globalized economy.

The Backstory

Before we get into the interview let's briefly run through the backstory behind the lockout. Electro-Motive Diesel manufactures locomotives and was purchased by Caterpillar Inc. back in 2010. On January 1, 2012, the unionized workers were locked-out from their jobs with Caterpillar tabling an offer that would see the wages of employees at the plant slashed by between 43% and 50%. It should be noted that Caterpillar isn't a company in dire financial straights, quite the opposite with the company's annual profits jumping 83% over the last year to $4.9 billion.

On January 21, 2012, there was a massive rally in London to protest the ongoing lockout and on Tuesday Premier Dalton McGuinty made some unusually strong comments (see the video here) about how Caterpillar should "come to the table and demonstrate some flexibility". In the background of all of this is a belief in some quarters that what Caterpillar was after all along was the technology that Electro-Motive possessed and its intention is to move production to Indiana which has weak labour laws. This lockout comes on the heels of protracted labour disputes with foreign employers at U.S. Steel in Hamilton and Vale in Sudbury. Now onto the interview.

The Interview

A.L.: The lockout of the workers at the Electro-Motive Diesel plant in London, Ontario by Caterpillar Inc. comes on the heels of a number of protracted industrial conflicts at U.S. Steel in Hamilton and Vale in Voisey's Bay and Sudbury over the past few years. Is there a trend developing in private sector labour relations in Canada with employers moving towards more aggressive bargaining strategies?

M.L.: Lord Acton once said that it is difficult to prophesize, especially about the future. These strikes and lockouts might indicate several different trends: 1. One can see a move towards the Americanization of private sector collective bargaining in Canada, particularly in the manufacturing and resource extraction sectors where foreign investors are becoming more noticeable. There has been an upsurge of foreign investment in these sectors lately, and all three labour relations conflicts that you cite arose in the aftermath of recent acquisitions by foreign corporations (two of them American and the third Brazilian) of established companies with relatively stable union-management relations. The new owners have then sought to significantly re-order the collective bargaining relationships, and have been willing to endure lengthy strikes or lockouts to reach their new industrial relations goals. Keep in mind that private sector unionization in Canada has been steadily shrinking -- it now stands at around 16% -- and private sector unionization in the US, at 7%, demonstrates that there is still more room to fall further. 2. Or it might be that these labour conflicts are the exception to the rule that mature, sophisticated and stable industrial relations reign in Canada. Until I see a more definitive pattern, I am assuming that these conflicts are the exception to the rule.

A.L.: In the academic discourse surrounding labour relations in a globalized world there's an under-utilized concept called "exit", this is where a corporation can completely leave one jurisdiction for another that has less labour market regulation. It has been suggested that Caterpillar's end-goal is to move production to the United States. Might the final result of this lockout be the exit of Caterpillar from Ontario's economy? Is this a troubling trend for Canada's manufacturing base?

M.L.: The speculation in London, Ontario -- where I live and where the Caterpillar lockout is front-page news in the London Free Press virtually every day -- is that Caterpillar is looking to re-locate its locomotive assembly operations to Muncie, Indiana. Caterpillar has bought an enormous empty factory once owned by Westinghouse in Muncie, and has started locomotive production with a non-unionized workforce that is paid wage and benefit rates similar to what Caterpillar is offering the CAW local in London. The state legislature in Indiana is controlled by the Republican Party, and it has recently introduced "right-to-work" legislation that would restrict the ability of unions to collect dues. The state has also offered approximately $30 million in grants and tax rebates to Caterpillar to assist the Muncie plant. One curious pattern in the labour conflict in London is that Caterpillar has kept an exceptionally low public relations profile during the lock-out, issuing a static press statement, and responding only by e-mail to requests for comments; one might have thought that a company interested in staying put would be more pro-active in telling its side of the industrial relations story to the broader community. The impact of globalization and free trade agreements over the past twenty years has been to significantly broaden the competitive space for workers and companies alike: they now have to pay attention to pay and benefit rates and labour laws not only in the next county and city, but also in neighbouring and distant countries as well. The CAW lockout at Caterpillar is Exhibit A.

A.L.: One of the areas that I'm interested in is the public policy response from governments to transnational corporations which can use their economic weight to do an end run around domestic workplace laws. What are the difficulties in formulating a regulatory or public policy response in the era of globalization? Do governments even have the right tools to effectively address protracted industrial conflicts given the transnational nature of capital and production?

M.L.: An obvious and visible problem, with no easy solution. The orthodox and uniform government response has been to lower corporate tax rates, harmonize the corporate regulatory environment, freeze labour and employment law reforms, and compete as the best place to do business in this brave new world. All of these factors have been cited as contributory elements to the growing rates of income and wealth inequality in the industrialized and industrializing world: see the writings of Paul Krugman and James Galbraith, among others. One emerging trend might be that as the popular understanding of economic inequality grows (the influence of the Occupy movement), this will push governments to bring in comprehensive tax reforms, maintain social spending levels and encourage tighter regulation of the national and international capital markets. What I fear is that any reforms in this direction will be modest and ineffective in scope (given that every major Western government is either ruled by a conservative party, or, in the US, the combination of Republican control of the House, and the unchecked rise in corporate political funding will checkmate any reforms), and the dominant trend towards, at best, a loose regulation of transnational capital will prevail.

A.L.: You've previously commented that Caterpillar's tactics are a throwback to the early days of industrial America. What lead you to make those comments and are we seeing tactics being deployed in this lockout that similar to those used in pre-Wagner Act era labour relations in the United States?

M.L.: In modern, mature industrial relations, unions and corporations accept and respect each other's presence and each other's mission. They might fight over concessions in hard times or innovative employee-friendly proposals in good times, but this is all within a stable framework that ensures the union has a permanent place in the workplace, and the prevailing collective agreement is the general standard for future wages and benefits. I cannot recall an industrial relations fight in Canada where a large company was looking for such a drastic overhaul of the collective agreement, even in rough economic times. In these circumstances, Caterpillar has just posted record company profits over the past two years, the locomotive market for the foreseeable future is bright, and the current CAW collective agreement is comparable to prevailing industry standards (Caterpillar's main competition is a GE locomotive plant in Erie, Pennsylvania, with a similar wage and benefit structure in its newly-renewed collective agreement). An inquiring mind might ask whether Caterpillar's bargaining proposals are consistent with the legal duty to bargain in good faith, in that it would have to offer a persuasive industrial relations justification for its extraordinary final offer in order to comply with the duty.

Harper's Bazaar sued over use of unpaid interns

2012-02-01T15:15:00.000-05:00

You really got to hand it to the NYC labour and employment firm Outten & Golden LLP for tackling the rising prevalence of unpaid internships. Back in the fall they launched a class action lawsuit against Fox Searchlight Pictures over the use of illegal unpaid interns during the filming of the blockbuster ballet noir hit Black Swan. Now they've struck another blow against the unpaid internship scam by filing a lawsuit against the Hearst Corporation over the practice by Harper's Bazaar of using unpaid interns. The firm is representing Xuedan Wang, a former intern at the magazine, in the class action and is presently looking for other plaintiffs to represent.

The lawsuit states the "Employers' failure to compensate interns for their work, and the prevalence of the practice nationwide, curtails opportunities for employment, fosters class divisions between those who can afford to work for no wages and those who cannot, and indirectly contributes to rising unemployment." Those be fighting words and as I've previously argued are part of the core problem of profitable media corporations using unpaid labour - it inevitably (and quickly) leads to situations that are precarious, exploitative and sometimes even deadly for interns.

I've been writing a lot about unpaid internships and will talking about a great deal more in the coming months as I've decided to write my thesis in the LL.M program on the topic. For some of my previous article on the subject, see: here, here and here.

Are Ontario's students right to complain about tuition fees?

2012-02-01T08:00:00.000-05:00

Today is the Canadian Federation of Students' annual tuition protest (might it be time to try a different tactic?) and this year finds post-secondary students in Ontario still caught between a rock and a hard place. Here are some numbers - average tuition per year for undergraduates in Ontario for 2011: $6,640.00; rate of tuition increase between 1990 and 2011: 244%; estimated total amount of students debt owed to the Federal government as of 2013: $15,000,000,000.00.

Students face increasing tuition fees and a deteriorating youth labour market, while their families face higher debt burdens and take longer to pay for the cost of education for children. This situation isn't right as it's a stealth tax aimed at the next generation that has shifted the burden of funding the post-secondary education system onto young people who are often faced with small mortgages before they've ever held a full-time job. Any notion of intergenerational equity is lost when students are told by their leaders to get a good education, but are then pushed into the labour market without nary a thought from politicians about who's going to employ all the bright-eyed graduates.

Here are some resources that tracks the current scope of the problems that students face: the CCPA's Under Pressure report; OUSA's tuition policy paper; a great post from David Doorey about income inequality, youth and labour market policy; and, the CFS' report on the impact of government underfunding. Below I've posted a video that covers a lot of the issues facing students in Ontario today, see:

Youth unemployment crisis on the table at Davos

2012-01-30T13:39:00.000-05:00

This past weekend, world leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland confronted the issue that just won't go away: youth unemployment. Troubling statistics abound with the youth unemployment rate having hit 46.6% in Greece, 30.7% in Portugal, 23% in the United States and nearly 50% in Spain. Youth unemployment is a serious problem and as the International Labour Organization outlined in a report last week is a problem with deep long-term socio-economic, political and cultural consequences; however, the bulk of the action in response to this problem seems to be lip service rather than concrete policy responses.

Commentators at Davos, speaking on a panel entitled "Averting a Lost Generation", traced the problem of youth unemployment to a variety of factors, such as slack demand for workers on a global and national scale was advanced as the overarching problem, the lack of pro-employment policies from governments, education and training programs that aren't responsive to the changing needs of the global economy, cultural issues which can see segments of domestic populations shut out of labour markets due to discrimination and the lack of communication between stakeholders in society (i.e. private enterprise, public sector institutions, academia).

So what are the policy fixes that need to implemented to address youth unemployment? The panel at Davos considered a range of fascinating policy responses, including the deployment of positive discrimination (i.e. employment equity) forcing companies to hiring youth people, the need for companies to actually train young people in the skills necessary for work and whether regulatory interventions into the labour market like minimum wage and mandatory retirement impact on youth unemployment, and how the dignity of work is valued and measured as a social good.

For more on the youth unemployment crisis, check out my recent article on the ILO's ideas on the necessary public policy responses or what's happening domestically in Canada in relation to youth joblessness or what problems exist structurally in Ontario's labour market. I've also come across a number of interesting articles discussing what has been on the table at Davos, see: here, here and here. Finally, check out the video from the Davos panel on youth unemployment below, see:

Disruption, change and the future of legal education: an interview with Jordan Furlong

2012-01-27T10:10:00.000-05:00

I'm excited to share with you an interview with Jordan Furlong. He's a lawyer, legal futurist and a partner with the global consulting firm Edge International; furthermore, he runs the Law21 blog, which covers the changing nature of the legal services industry domestically and internationally. Over the years I've always found Jordan's analysis to be cutting edge, poignant extremely interesting. My interview with Jordan covers a number of areas in relation to the state of the labour market for young lawyers, the possible changes to the articling process in Ontario and the future of the legal profession. The interview appears below.

A.L: You've argued that the current model of legal education in North America is unsustainable. With the growing disconnect between what is being taught in law schools and the realities of the profession something clearly has to give. In your opinion what has to change within the academy?

J.F: Honestly, I'm not sure the legal academy as currently structured can reasonably be expected to summon or withstand the change required. The law school model is too longstanding, too entrenched and too inertia-prone. These are highly centralized, ritualistic and self-reproducing institutions; they can only be what they are, and it's not realistic to suppose they can become something very different. To be a relevant factor in the future legal marketplace, law schools would need to turn over much of their faculty, reform much of their curriculum, and reconsider the necessity of much of their physical infrastructure, including libraries and classrooms. When you get to talking about that degree of change, you come to conclude that what you need isn't a renovation, but a new greenfield build. There will still be a place in future, I should add, for a traditional sort of law school; there just won't be nearly as many of them as there are now.

A.L: In the United States there has been a sustained attack on the current model of legal education with a series of high-profile articles in the New York Times, U.S. Senators questioning the motivations of the American Bar Associations and the rise of the "scamblogger". Do any of the core criticisms leveled at American legal education hold true in Canada?

J.F: Canada has roughly one-tenth the number of law schools as the U.S., tuition even at the most expensive schools here hasn't approached what's charged by their American equivalents, and the job market for new lawyers here hasn't collapsed the way it has in the U.S. So I don't think we'll see the same firestorm of criticism here for at least a few more years yet. But the fundamental underlying complaint about US schools does have resonance here: that law schools are not especially concerned with the law practice careers their graduates pursue. There is still, to a pretty astonishing degree, a belief among many law professors that schools are academic institutions first and foremost, which frankly is difficult to reconcile with the tuition they charge. That is not a sustainable belief in a changing legal market, and schools that fail to recognize and act on that are going to run into trouble sooner than later.

A.L: What's your assessment of the labour market in Ontario (and Canada) for recent law school graduates and recent calls to the bar? What issues are driving the articling crisis?

J.F: For the next year or so anyway, that market should remain relatively robust - the economic crisis has had a relatively glancing impact on Canada so far and I'm not aware of any Canadian law firms in remotely serious financial straits. I'm far less sanguine about our economic prospects throughout the balance of this decade, however, and with any kind of serious downturn will come equally serious pressures on lawyers and law firms.

I'm not convinced there's an "articling crisis," at least in the way most people have been discussing it. Even with the growing number of students unable to find articles, the placement rate in Ontario is something like 88%. Contrast that with the U.S., where full-time first-year lawyer employment is hovering around 65% and might actually be lower. As I've written before, some (but by no means all) law grads who fail to find articles do so on merit. Full articling employment, it will become increasingly clear, was an accident of history and generational currents; articling, for as long as it remains with us, will probably average about a 75-85% placement rate. In pure market terms, that's not bad; but since articling is a prerequisite to practice, it's also obviously unacceptable. That's the real crisis facing articling in future: it cannot continue to be a sine qua non for passing the bar if not everyone can get a position. Unless the law society can somehow find a way to guarantee full articling employment -- and I can't think of any way in which they could do that - articling will have to lose its mandatory status sooner or later, which will call into question its entire purpose.

A.L: The Law Society of Upper Canada launched the Articling Task Force last year; they're currently consulting the profession about a number of possible changes to the articling process. This isn't the first time in recent memory that the Law Society has undertaken an examination of the articling process with previous efforts not bringing about much in the way of change. What's your assessment of whether the Articling Task Force will recommend significant changes to the articling process?

J.F: I can't really speak to what the Task Force is considering and I wouldn't want to speculate about its conclusions ahead of time. I will say that this task force faces challenges that its predecessors did not: those committees were often only considering "what if" and "wouldn't it be better if we could" types of reform discussions. This task force is facing challenges that are not theoretical or aspirational, but practical and visceral. The market for legal talent is changing; expectations about the training and competence of lawyers are changing; the underlying economics of law practices are changing. Articling lies directly in the path of all these oncoming storms.

A.L: The consultation report has put forward five different options for the articling process; these options are: status-quo; status-quo with quality assurance; replacing the pre-licensing transition requirement with a post-licensing transition requirement; a choice of a practical legal training course or articling; or, only a practical legal training course. Which option(s) do you think best balances out the needs of the profession, students and the public interest?

J.F: Well, the status quo isn't working very well right now and will work even less well in future. Beyond that, it's difficult to say. None of the other options is terrible, but none is perfect either, which means that whatever route is chosen will have its merits and will face its criticisms. You have to look at it from the law society's point of view, which is that its mandate is to govern the profession in the public interest: that's its priority, and the interests of students and law firms will necessarily be secondary. I think that if our primary interest in the lawyer admission process is to maximize the effectiveness of initial professional development (IPD, if you like, in contrast to ongoing CPD throughout a lawyer's career), then the eventual solution needs to be systematic, accessible, fairly administered and transparently evaluated. That sure isn't articling, but it could be a practical legal training course.

In my perfect world, we'd have "teaching law firms," like teaching hospitals where interns treat low-income patients under the supervision of experienced doctors and in affiliation with a respected university. The legal profession equivalent would be a law firm operated not to turn a huge profit, but to stay in business as senior law students and young lawyers serve low-income clients with a range of legal issues under the supervision of experienced practitioners, again in conjunction with a respected university. That would help solve a wide range of problems in our profession, from new lawyer training to access to justice, and I'd love to see a university without a law school (or even with one) launch a program like that. Maybe an enterprising group of lawyers, academics, and private-sector financiers could get together over the next few years and start planning that sort of innovation.

A.L: The legal profession is an industry in upheaval. In ten years the profession won't look the same. What advice do you have for young lawyers starting out?

J.F: If you don't have some knowledge of and experience with running a business - cash flow, accounting, marketing, customer service, etc. - try your best to acquire some. That sure doesn't mean summering in a big firm, but it could mean assisting a sole practitioner or small firm, to get a first-hand sense of the demands of enterprise. Every lawyer in future will effectively be a solo and will be responsible for the financial success of their own practices; best to get a head start on that learning curve now.

The generation now entering the profession was raised to believe they should follow their passion and do what they love. My advice is slightly at variance with that: do something you're good at, and not only will you be more likely to succeed career-wise, chances are you'll come to love it anyway. This is going to be a challenging decade, and few of us will have the relative luxury of pursuing passions that don't necessarily have the ability to pay the bills. Hop aboard whatever train is heading in the right direction and hang on; you can find the right seat for yourself down the line.

Nobody - not law professors, not lawyers, not clients - has any idea what the legal profession of the future is going to look like. All we know is that it very likely will not much resemble the one these people spent their careers in. Be as open to change as you can manage, and take advantage of all the tools - from advanced technology to mobile platforms to social media - that the modern profession gives you. But remember as well that there are some standbys that are 100% reliable in the new legal marketplace: caring about your clients and putting their interests first; carrying yourself with professional decorum and according others dignity and respect; leaving the profession better than how you found it. Beyond that: work hard, stay cheerful, and enjoy the ride.

ILO states global youth jobs crisis isn't improving

2012-01-26T14:45:00.000-05:00

The International Labour Organization recently released its annual Global Employment Trends report, it's a great snapshot of the state of labour markets around the globe. There are a lot of references to the plight of unemployed young people and the findings are profoundly disturbing. The report is quite blunt, stating that "A continuation of current trends risks further undermining the already dim prospects and aspirations of the world's youth, sowing the seeds for continued social unrest and further weakening global economic prospects."

This post is going to cover off the main points in Chapter 2 and Chapter 3 (which contains a regional labour market synopsis) of ILO report about the situation relating to the global youth labour market. Then we'll examine Chapter 4 which contains the public policy responses that the ILO suggests to address the continuing global jobs crisis.

There's not much by way of a silver lining in the report. 75 million young people remain out of work globally, which translates into an unemployment rate of 12.7% (a jump from 11.7% in 2007). The hardest hit regions for youth unemployment are in developing and emerging economies. That being said, in the wake of the recession the largest declines in youth employment occurred in the advanced industrialized economics with the unemployment rate jumping from 12.5% to 17.9% over this period; particularly, youth in the European Union were perhaps hardest hit. Another troubling indicator is that youth now comprise 23.5% of the world's working poor with many young people who are working get by on part-time positions and temporary contracts (this would seem to confirm Guy Standing's thesis about the development of a global precariat class).

With recent events such as Occupy Wall Street, the Arab Spring and the British riots it's unsurprising the ILO suggests that the continuing deterioration of the youth labour market will drive distrust of the current political and economic order - which is code for social stability. Beyond these concerns there is an underlying theme in the report that suggests that high youth unemployment is extremely damaging to long-term prospects for labour market and economic growth; furthermore, there also the issue of economic scarring arising from long-term unemployment that can have corrosive effects of the span of a life-course.

The ILO lays out a number of public policy responses that could be deployed to address the jobs crisis in the final chapter of the report. Overall the ILO supports continuing stimulus spending to bolster job creation as there has been a poor economic recovery in advanced industrialized economies that can be partially traced back to initial stimulus measures in the immediate wake of the 2008 crash that targeted the financial sector rather than the real economy.

The ILO suggest four main policy responses: global policy coordination to use monetary policy responses in a coordinated fashion to prevent further deterioration of global economic conditions; repair and regulation of the financial system, the ILO argues that reforms increasing safety margins in domestic and stricter rules on the flow of global capital are necessary; additional stimulus that targets the real economy is needed to address faltering employment creation and the ensuing weak income growth; and, finally the report warns about the dangers from austerity measures in the face of looming demographic pressures posed by an aging population.

That's all. For some additional context about the situation facing young people in Canada, take a look at my recent post about the youth labour market prospects in Canada for 2012 or my recent interview with Tom Zizys about Ontario's labour market. Below I've posted a video where Ekkehard Ernst, Chief of the ILO's Employment Trends Unit, discusses the implications arising from the report, see:

Is Canada's real youth unemployment rate topping 20%?

2012-01-23T16:02:00.000-05:00

It's clear that the youth labour market in Canada has been deteriorating for a number of years. The actual dimensions of the this problematic trend are rarely discussed in the media, politicians or the people who control the levers of public policy. Last week Andrew Jackson, the chief economist of the Canadian Labour Congress, penned a short commentary about the youth unemployment rate in Canada.

Using alternative measures of the unemployment rate from Statistics Canada (which are better indicators as they also consider labour force dropouts and workers forced to work part-time instead of full-time), Mr. Jackson traces the incredible damage that the recession wrought on the youth labour market in Canada. He states 'the "real" for young workers compared to 2007 has been stunning: up 4.3 percentage points from 15.4% to 19.7% (from 16.2% to 21.0% for young men, and from 14.4% to 18.2% for young women.) The "real" youth rate has slipped only a touch from the high of 20.3% in 2009.'

A host of indicators (employment rate, labour market participation rate and employment rate) show a sustained decline in the job prospects for young people in Canadian society, yet the only public policy response we've been hearing is silence. Young people are being forced to obtain higher credentials (with opportunity, financial and debt servicing costs) simply to maintain a tenuous foothold in the labour market. The strategic decision to focus on post-secondary education at the expense of labour market development is turning into dangerous public policy blunder.

What we're seeing in the youth labour market (which I've argued is the 15-34 age demographic) is a steep rise in precarious employment (i.e. internships, contract and temp work), economic scarring from the most recent recession, failure to launch syndrome via delayed adulthood and putting off the achievement of significant life milestones. These trends are going to have significant impacts vis-a-vis demographics, economic growth and labour markets going forward, but we've seen little official acknowledgment that these trends even exist - let alone innovative policy fixes that might address labour market insecurity, economic instability in the middle-class or the inequitable taxation of young people via tuition fees.

These problems aren't going away and as I've previously indicated I suspect that they will grow worse over the short to medium term. For some additional perspective on youth labour market issues take a look at some interviews I've recently done, see: here, here and here.

Hello privacy! Ontario Tort law gets a sorely needed update

2012-01-19T12:33:00.002-05:00

Employees in Ontario don't have much in the way of privacy rights, although one can argue that there's an implied duty of good faith in employment contracts under which privacy falls. While there are a smattering of statutes that cover privacy in certain situations (i.e. healthcare, dissemination of personal information), these laws haven't created a free standing right to privacy for employees in Ontario and there remains a large gap. This situation is problematic as young people are taking to the Internet in greater numbers and posting vast amounts of personal information online (often with horrible results).

Enter Jones v. Tsige, a decision released yesterday by Ontario's Court of Appeal which overturned a 2011 Superior Court decision penned by Justice Kevin Whitaker. The Court of Appeal created a tort of intrusion upon seclusion. This is a case where one Bank of Montreal employee, Winnie Tsige, accessed the financial information of another bank employee, Sandra Jones, 174 times over the span of four years. Ms. Tsige was in a relationship with Ms. Jones ex-husband and for unknown reasons wanted to snoop on financial information.

This decision is a badly needed development as legislatures across Canada have been hesitant to address privacy rights in a meaningful way that brings them in line with the realities of the information age. Often Courts are unfairly described as being activist, but this decision shows how the judges often have to bridge the gap between legislative stagnation and the realities of daily life. While this decision is great to have, much more needs to be done to address the privacy deficit in Ontario in areas such as social media, pre-employment Google searches and the intersection of human rights and privacy.

For additional analysis of this decision, see: Doorey's Law Blog has an article about the most recent decision and commentary on the lower Court's reasoning; Lisa Stam posted an article on her blog; and, David Fraser has written a great post over at the Canadian Privacy Law Blog. I would expect additional and more comprehensive commentary to appear shortly as people have time to digest the decision. I'll be posting additional information on my Twitter page so follow me and keep up with this developing issue.

Update: some great analysis on the case is starting to appear. Michael Power, one of Ontario's leading privacy experts, has posted a great analysis on his website; uber-blawger Omar Ha-Redeye has written an article about the case for Slaw; and, not to be outdone, David Doorey has written a blog post covering off the workplace law implications arising from the OCA decision in Jones v. Tsige.

Ontario's labour market, public policy and globalization: an interview with Tom Zizys

2012-01-16T08:30:00.000-05:00

Today I'm thrilled to be sharing an interview with Tom Zizys. Tom is a noted labour market expert, former civil servant and a current Metcalf Fellow at the Metcalf Foundation. He holds a lot of the answers into what's holding back the transformation and development of Ontario's economy and workforce. We had a wide-ranging discussion that covered the long-term seismic shifts that have occurred with the economy, the structural flaws within the labour market, the social location of young people within workforce and what sort of policy responses might be necessary to fix the economy. Tom has conducted research into a range of labour market issues. You can find a couple choice reads from Tom here and here; furthermore, he was recently part of a great panel discussion on The Agenda discussing Ontario's labour market pains. The interview appears below in its entirety; enjoy and please share it with your friends, family and co-workers.

A.L.: Starting in the 1980s Ontario’s economy start to experience some seismic shifts. Could you describe what sorts of changes have occurred? What trends are we seeing here?

T.Z.: What Ontario experienced is similar to what most advanced economies experienced in the 1980s and beyond. A number of factors came together that facilitated increased globalization and thus greater competition. Prominent among these factors were the IT revolution and sharply reduced communications and transportation costs. Changes in financial regulations greatly enhanced the mobility of capital, and increasingly companies measured their performance not on long term growth but rather their quarterly results, that is, their stock prices. This severely shortened the time horizons for corporate decision-makers. The political climate also changed, government and its rules and regulations were seen as a problem, and various public benefits and protections were scaled back. And as the global economy opened up, new competitors emerged and cheaper labour flooded the world’s labour market. All these factors transformed our labour market.

A.L.: There are some fundamental flaws in Ontario’s labour market with growing polarization through the development of a two-tiered labour market, a hollowing out of the middle-class, the ascendancy of income inequality, the growth of precarious employment and the existence of a skills mismatch. You’ve previously argued that Ontario’s labour market is dysfunctional; how did we arrive at such a haphazard and fragmented system?

T.Z.: With all these shifts in the global economy, the over-riding concern of employers was to stay competitive, and the easiest way to do so was by reducing costs (as opposed to the more difficult but more rewarding strategy over the long term of improving productivity), with the major expenditure being staffing costs. So, in a short period of time, the notion of life-time employment was done away with, the idea that a person would typically be hired for life, or would work for two or three employers at most throughout their lifetime. If there was no lifetime employment, there was less incentive to invest in a worker, who may not be around tomorrow. This reduced the practice of grooming employees for higher level positions, having them advance up career ladders. Instead, people were hired from the outside, based on their credentials, on an as-needed basis. Entry-level jobs no longer were the starting point of a career, they became dead-end positions, and employers could make them casual jobs, or contract them out, or hire temps, all for the purpose of reducing costs. This coincided with a hollowing-out of the middle-level positions, whose functions were split into high-end jobs and low-end jobs, resulting in a two-tiered labour market.

A.L.: There are numerous deficiencies and contradictions in Ontario’s labour market at present; the current system handsomely rewards an elite few, while the rest of workforce faces stagnant or declining wages. What are the long-term implications for social stability, economic prosperity and social justice?

T.Z.: As growing polarization is being experienced across most developed countries, the issue is attracting more attention and study. The most illuminating research has been done by Richard Wilkinson, who examines industrialized countries by their rate of income polarization and compares the incidence of a host of social problems. His findings are that advanced economies that have higher rates of income polarization also have higher rates of mental illness, violence, imprisonment, teenage births, obesity, drug abuse and poor educational performance of school children, among other problems.

The prosperity we experienced in the 1950s and 1960s was in part related to strong consumer demand, a consequence of having an affluent middle class. Increased polarization of income reduces the purchasing ability of a larger part of the population, which weakens our economy. And if a large portion of the population does not benefit from the way the current economy operates, they will have no incentive to support policies that uphold or advance the present economic set-up.

A.L.: The recession damaged the economic prospects of young Canadians. From economic scarring to delayed adulthood to precarious employment there will be profound impact going forward. At the same time, youth are facing crippling debt from student loans, a dismal job market and a difficult transition from school into the workforce. What do you think the long-term implications of recession will be on young people?

T.Z.: There is definitely cause for concern. Even pre-recession, there is a reason why the labour market outcomes of youth and newcomers were often singled out in the media – being the ones entering the labour market, they have been most affected by the change in the hiring and career advancement paradigm (older workers in manufacturing, on the other hand, have been greatly affected by structural changes in our economy).

With the recession, first hiring slows down and then stops, so again, those entering the labour market are most affected. Then the layoffs start, and typically those first in are more likely to be let go, so again, youth and newcomers – their unemployment numbers rose disproportionately during the recession. Then, as employers start hiring again, with so many unemployed to choose from, there is a tendency for those with more experience to be hired more quickly – again, youth are at a disadvantage. Those youth who come out of school just as a recession hits may find it especially hard to get work in their field. After a year or two in a tight labour market, even when employers start hiring again, those youth are competing for work with more experienced individuals who had been laid off, as well as more recent graduates who do not have to explain a one or two year gap in their resume. That’s the kind of scarring that creates a cohort of youth who end up having to play catch-up in the labour market for years after the recession.

A.L.: The growth of internships as a form of employment in Canada is a great example of the structural problems young people face within the labour market. Unpaid internships are quickly replacing entry-level jobs, generally flout workplace laws and are a form of precarious employment. How has the growth in the use of internships by employers detrimentally impacted on the career paths of young people?

T.Z.: In principle, the concept of an internship is a good idea, the notion that one can gain some work experience and learn on-the-job as a step toward recognition as an accomplished worker in the field. Many professions formally rely on a highly structured process for this stage of career development: the medical profession (where I believe the internship model was first developed), through articling in law, as well as apprenticeships in a wide range of trades.

What is troublesome is, firstly, the practice of unpaid internship, and secondly, the concern that for many the internship experience actually does not involve any real skills development for the intern. These two concepts are related: one might accept the implicit contract where an individual acquires some marketable skill by working for free, but if no skill development is taking place, and in fact if the intern is doing work for an employer that actually is of value to the employer, then it seems to me that the question to ask is: we have minimum wage laws, don’t we? If there is no learning that takes place, then how is that supposed to advance a person’s career? If the point is you have to offer free labour to improve your chances to get a job down the road, then that sounds to me like someone is being taken advantage of.

A.L.: While it’s clear that deep structural problems exist within Ontario’s labour market there hasn’t been a coordinated policy response. Why aren’t the various stakeholders (government, employer, post-secondary institutions) working together? What public policy solutions would you suggest to fix Ontario’s labour market?

T.Z.: I think the main reason for the lack of a coordinated policy response has been that we have not fully accepted how the changes in our labour market have changed what kind of labour market programs we need. So long as people could step onto a career escalator, that is, get an entry-level job and work their way up in the firm, then the right policy response to unemployment was helping the unemployed overcome any barriers preventing them from getting a job. This is a supply-side response.

Nowadays, we need to anticipate what employers need in real time, which includes not only qualified workers but linking training with actual jobs. This is what workforce development, as opposed to employment services, needs to be about. Most current policies and programs, and the institutions delivering them, are fixated on a supply-side approach. To change this, we need a very deliberate acknowledgment that our policies have to adapt. To make that happen means bringing together those stakeholders who recognize that the current policies and programs are not serving the unemployed and are not serving employers. I think there is enough disillusionment in the system for a broad-based coalition to emerge which could advocate for a workforce development system in this province.

Obama takes a step towards addressing the precarious nature of internships

2012-01-14T13:59:00.000-05:00

Washington's most famous intern.

Most people would agree that Washington, D.C. is awash in corporate money, but a little known fact about inside the beltway is that the town runs off of the unpaid labour of interns. As this is the time of year when a lot of internship positions start being recruited for I was happy to see that the Obama administration might be starting to take the plight of interns seriously.

Recently, the Federal Internship Improvement Act was introduced into Congress; the bill contains a number of a measures, including consistent monitoring mechanisms, adoption of best practices in relation to managing interns and expanding the number of interns that get transferred into full-time positions. This is a positive development as it's a concrete policy response to a type of employment that's has been growing in prominence over the past thirty years in the U.K, the U.S. and Canada.

The issue of internships has been getting a lot of attention as of late with the class action lawsuit against Fox Searchlight Pictures and the publication of Ross Perlin's Intern Nation (which contains a fabulous chapter about the unpaid internship scam in D.C.). What we haven't seen though is any sort of policy or enforcement response from Canadian jurisdictions to misclassification of employees as interns and rampant violations of employment standards. Perhaps this move by the Obama administration will spur some action in Canada, but I won't hold my breath. For more of my articles on internships in Canada, take a look: here, here, here and here; also, NPR has a great article and radio documentary up about unpaid internships, check in out here.

Precarity, protest and possibility: an interview with Manny Ness

2012-01-12T00:39:00.000-05:00

Immanuel Ness is a labour activist, college professor and noted author. He's speaking this Friday (January 13, 2012) at an event called: Strategizing the Resistance - A Conversation with Manny Ness; it's free and begins at 6:00 pm at the Steelworkers Hall at 25 Cecil Street. The event is being put on by the Greater Toronto Workers' Assembly as an introduction to their winter strategy session. These events are highly recommended as both will give invaluable insights into the state of radical labour organizing in Toronto and beyond.

I recently had the chance to ask Manny Ness some questions about his most recent academic work and the current state of resistance to neoliberalism. His answers provide an illuminating portrait of the global struggle for change amid uncertain times and a critical assessment of the state of organized labour in North America. Many of the themes that get discussed are poignant given the realities of Canadian political culture in 2012 and the contradictions that are quickly bubbling to the surface in our economy. The interview appears below, see:

Manny Ness

A.L.: Over the past three decades we've seen the formation of a global precariat; your body of work focuses on labour issues and migrant workers. What's behind the exponential growth in the use of migrant workers in the advanced economies in North America and Europe?

M.N: The expansion of migration to the Global North and within the Global South is an extension of the current phase of global capitalism. Since 1975 to 1980, imposing neoliberal economic order in the Global South through removing currency controls, doing away with tariffs, and stripping social safety systems has more and more increased the size of the global precariat. In the contemporary era of capitalist globalization, neoliberal policies have been obligatory on countries seeking to inclusion in the world political economy.

The consequence of opting out from neoliberalism was exclusion from the global political economy and isolation, which was prevented by capitalist classes in every country. Even countries that steered clear of free market policies were ultimately forced to adopt them to take part in external trade. Only those states that had significant petroleum reserves like Venezuela could deviate from the dogma of neoliberal political economy—and then only at risk of potential political and military destabilization from the US and its allies. The socialist or even Keynesianism alternative of the post-war era was patently not an option.

The global precariat has expanded still further through the creation of the World Trade Organisation, NAFTA, and the enlargement of the European Union, which resulted in deepening poverty among hundreds of millions of workers and peasants throughout the world, creating permanent precarious and mobile labour forces, and reducing living standards and the quality of life for most people throughout the world.

The result of capital’s inexorable search for profit at any cost has been the creation of a global precariat and environmental disaster for many who have been forced to move from their places of origin as part of an international migrant labour force. Peasants have lost land through the commodification of farming and workers have lost jobs through the outsourcing of manufacturing to low-wage labour markets that produce goods in modern factories. Service and public sector jobs, the mainstays of middle-income workers, were not exempt from the effort to reduce wages and working conditions. The economic stability of workers in public sector enterprises were undermined through privatization and the comprehensive elimination of often essential services like health care, education, and public transportation.

The displacement of workers capacity to earn a living wage is forcing them to search for new jobs away from their hometowns and in many cases overseas. Given that that the WTO, World Bank and IMF and other multinational institutions view migrant labour as a resource, they argue that when workers earn wages abroad, they contribute to their economies in source countries through remittances. In many countries, foreign workers are the major source of GDP! This view is further impoverishing workers in home countries and also migrants who live in shantytowns, suffer from disease and poor health care, and do not have education. Today more than 200 million workers live outside their countries of origin and more live away from their hometowns, creating mass poverty, lack of job security, and high unemployment. It is important to note that the policies are not only undermining migrant labour , who form part of the working classes where they work, but also native-born workers, who must compete with low-wage labour, creating a generalized system of super-exploitation.

A.L.: Your new book, Guest Workers and Resistance to U.S. Corporate Despotism, addresses the use of guest workers by American corporations. Is the organized labour movement doing enough to address the plight of migrant workers in the United States? Are the traditional trade Unions well suited to respond to the needs of migrant workers or do new forms of workplace representation need to be explored?

M.N.: Yes, US corporations are employing guest workers most extensively than any other country, and the trend is also advancing in North America and Europe as a means to cut labour costs and eliminate unions. Traditional trade unions are absolutely incapable countering guest worker programs, nor staunching the decline of wages and working conditions among their members due to their status as representatives of the organised working class. Traditional labour unions have always sought to protect the industries where their dues-paying members work. As a result, the bar has been lowered from seeking to advance the interests of workers as a class through building a radical labour movement to organisations that represent the interests of their members as interest groups.

Politically electing liberal officials to office has been the mark of success for labour unions rather than advancing the class interests of workers in the political arena. But even then, trade unions have come to recognise power as having a union official appointed to government office or even having the opportunity to meet regularly with the president or prime minister. If that is the bar of success, labour is doomed to fail and liberal politicians will consider them reliable allies that do not require much in return. Thus, organised labour is responsible for lowering the bar and this translates into a generalized anaemic working class in North America.

The status of traditional unions has now diminished so dramatically from delegates for labour to the intermediaries of the working class to capital and the state. In this role, unions have diminished rank and file democracy, made a sham of the collective bargaining process, and failed to reverse the capitalist offensive destroying unions through lock outs, and outsourcing of jobs to lower-wage locations. In fact, the current crisis reveals that the majority of traditional labour unions more frequently reflect the economic and political interests of capital rather than the class interests of their members. Labour unions do not at all represent the interests of former members or prospective members. So it should be no surprise that labour unions have declined in influence—and this decline will accelerate unless labour unions recognize that they must go beyond interest representation to social movement unionism. There is no surprise Collective bargaining is less effective than ever in defending workers from wage cuts, intensification of labour and worse than ever. Labour unions are not interested in the notion of working class solidarity: an injury to one is an injury to all.

Indeed, as the economic crisis demonstrates, many unions prefer layoffs to engaging in serious and militant collective bargaining, including challenging corporate absolutism at the workplace and in the community. They are either disconnected from their rank and file or domineering over their members. In the former, they are not interested in union democracy and member participation and thus do not even have a comprehensive system of representation, as the SEIU does when they outsource representation and grievances to call centres. In the latter, they control their members through a top-down shop steward system — imposing their will on members and punishing all dissenters, as is the case with the United Auto Workers in the US.

Unions are only interested in organizing precarious workers to increase membership and often do not improve wages and conditions. So I consider the need for new forms of representation inevitable in the current period as conditions of the majority of workers grow difficult and precarious. It is probably that new forms of unions that do not engage in collective bargaining will emerge and grow alongside traditional unions that benefit only a few.

As for as migrant workers, organised labour in North America and Europe have returned to their nativist roots that they seemed to jettison a decade ago when they recognized that immigrants comprised a large and growing share of the labour markets in industries where they have the most success in organising. Yet at the same time, organised labour has failed to organise immigrant workers at a rate that they have projected. And when immigrants are organised, they are typically not directly involved in campaigns led by mega-unions like the SEIU that care more about membership and dues than tangibly improving the conditions of workers.

A.L.: In 2011 we saw numerous mass protests by young people (i.e. OWS, Spain's Indigent movement, the Arab Spring) on a range of issues. What is your sense of these protests and do you see new forms of resistance emerging from these movements?

M.N.: We must be careful to differentiate the political protests and the causes and forces that have propelled them as the objectives are different. But what we cannot fail to recognize is that the 2011 protests share a common fundamental cause: neoliberal capitalism has been applied throughout Europe, the Arab world, and North America, East Asia, South Asia, and beyond. In fact, throughout Europe workers are challenging state cutbacks and economic austerity that disproportionately hurts workers through factory and public occupations and mass insurrections and uprisings.

In North America, 2011 was marked by unprecedented protest by working class youth through the Occupy movement. In China, mass worker strikes and unrest and opposition to the privatisation of state-owned companies has forced the state managers to engage in Keynesian stimulus policies. In India, workers have occupied Suzuki-Murati works, the nation’s leading auto manufacturer while rural workers continue to organise against the expropriation of land. The year 2011 represents a worldwide mass echo of Argentina 2001-02 when the working class forced the government into exiting the world financial system rather than continue to play by its unfair rules that only contributed to greater crisis.

The protests have also been directed at traditional parties, which like unions, have embraced neoliberal capitalism and do not demonstrate a tangible difference in their policies. The struggles have had a tangible effect in decelerating the extension of neoliberalism to every fragment of society. While traditional political parties have not embraced these movements, they have sought to co-opt them for their own benefit. But in the absence of a political alternative in the political arena, we can consider the Occupy movements a major victory for working people who are discontented with electoral politics. As a consequence the insurgencies and protests of 2011 reflect the frustration of the working class that has no representation. After years of banging our heads against the wall, Occupy opened a fissure by exiting the traditional system and finding a voice beyond the traditional system.

Occupy uncovered the reality that the majority of workers are excluded from direct union representation —whether due to government policies prohibiting working class organisations or union indifference. Moreover Occupy challenges neoliberal policies that have destroyed communities and prevented meaningful democracy that is necessary for survival. The betrayal and treachery of the state, capital, and traditional unions of the 99 per cent in all countries was finally met with a comprehensive challenge that will only intensify. Occupy was the panic alarm for the upper classes who had to resort to government officials to demolish the public assemblies and encampments through brute force and still could not crush the spirit of the movement and its unquestionable return.

A.L.: Young people in advanced economies are facing dim economic prospects in the wake of the recession and for the most part there has been a lack of ameliorative public policy responses from governments. Are we seeing the strategic abandonment of youth as governments implement austerity agendas at the expense of any notion of intergenerational equity?

M.N.: Without question, young people have been most left most exposed to the economic crisis. They recognise that in all likelihood they will not have the opportunity to succeed or fail in the new economy. The attack against youth has been catastrophic. Children have suffered disproportionately from banks foreclosing on their parents’ homes, unemployment among working-class youths and young adults are significantly higher than adults. Hopes for the future have been dashed by the erosion of access to higher education as tuitions have climbed sharply and beyond their reach. What is tragic is that young people must give up experiencing what should be their most gratifying part of life just to survive.

Yes, youth have been abandoned, but this neglect does not seem a strategic decision but because of the fact that governments take them for granted as dispassionate, apolitical, and apathetic to the world as they seek to find meaning and purpose. Do government officials deliberately assault youth because they are young? I don’t think so. But government and corporate leaders recognize that they can seize on the vulnerabilities of young people without consequence. Achieving intergenerational equity has often been used as a means to cut programs for the elderly. Yet I think the attack on pensions and social security is also an attack against the young who are thinking about survival more than retirement. Governments are just as willing to go after the elderly—and when they do—the young will suffer equally?

Young people are in fact not self-absorbed and don’t want to see their parents and grandparents mired in poverty either. If the elderly are poor without government benefits, who will sacrifice a portion of their lives who care for them? Who will have to contribute their income to support them? Yes, the government is pitting generation against generation, but the end result is that most people’s economic position is determined by their class background and young people suffer poverty as part of families and communities.

Universities and the unpaid internship scam

2012-01-11T08:49:00.001-05:00

This is just a short post about a critical part of a paper on the legal status of interns I'm currently reworking for publication. Previously, I've written about how universities are a key actor in perpetuating the exploitative and precarious nature of unpaid internships. The dynamics of the interplay between students, universities and employers are beginning to become clearer as more attention is paid to this issue. Unpaid internships are becoming an increasingly critical part of the youth labour market amid a deteriorating hiring outlook and given the difficulty that students are having transitioning from school into the workforce.

In December, Internsheep posted a response from York University to an inquiry about why York's Career Centre was advertising illegal internships. York's (non)response essentially passed the buck back to Ontario's Ministry of Labour and the Canadian Association of Career Education and Employers. This confirms that the practice at Canadian post-secondary institutions of pushing students into situations where they are forced to provide unpaid labour to employers.

Going stateside, the Village Voice has published an excellent article exploring the linkages between unpaid internships and universities. Last year when it appeared the U.S. Department of Labor might actually start enforcing the provisions relating to internships under the Fair Labor Standards Act, a group of thirteen university presidents wrote a letter asking the government not to enforce the law. In the United States, unpaid internships are a major source of revenue for universities which make students pay tuitions while they're providing unpaid labour to employers - pretty insidious.

That's all, I have to get to my job. If you want to read more about unpaid internships, see: here, here and here.

Precarity, public policy and the youth labour market in Canada

2012-01-06T20:10:00.000-05:00

But, no one will.

Statistics Canada has released the unemployment figures for December 2011 and there's some interesting trends relating to young workers. Employment among youth, aged 15 to 24, declined for the third straight month (see, December: -17,000; November: -18,000; October: -14,600). This is further evidence of the continuing deterioration of the youth labour market which hasn't recovered the jobs lost during the last recession.

Miles Corak, an economist at the University of Ottawa, wrote a great article examining the hidden trends behind the latest figures. He states "Canadians in their prime working years (the 25 to 54 year olds) have just barely rounded the corner, but most importantly the situation for the young has not improved at all. A quarter of a million 15 to 24 year olds lost their jobs between September 2008 and August 2009, but by the end of 2011 only about 15,000 were recovered."

Although I haven't looked at the data, I'm sure higher unemployment rates exist for workers in the 25 to 29 and 30 to 34 demographics as well. Statistics Canada, in my opinion, uses an outdated concept of youth (ie. 15 to 24) that doesn't accurately reflect realities like higher life expectancy rates, increased time in post-secondary education (i.e. credentialism) and generally the concept of delayed adulthood.

The unemployment figures from the fall point to the existence of dangerous aftershocks from the last recession such as economic scarring, lower career earnings, precarious employment and long-term joblessness. There hasn't been any form of public policy response to address the massive job losses that young people have experienced; incredibly, Human Resources Minister Diane Finley even blamed young Canadians for having "chosen never to get a job".

Aside from welfare and student loans there aren't many government income programs that young people can readily access to provide financial assistance in the face of dismal private and public sector hiring. Young people generally can't access EI due to restrictions on qualifying and aren't eligible for other programs like CPP, OAS and pensions, all of which are use age or decades spent working as qualifying mechanisms.

What we're seeing is a "failure to launch" of epic proportions as young Canadians now live in the parental home longer (or return to it), delay starting relationships and can't take the jump into full adulthood due to financial barriers. One can't blame them either, as it's difficult to build a life working endless contract gigs, unpaid internships or dead-end minimum wage jobs.

We need innovative public policy solutions at the federal and provincial levels that address the dysfunctional nature of Canada's labour market and the long ignored contradictions that are inherent in it. That's not happening at present and we're seeing the fruits of sustained neglect around labour market policy as young people get left behind by the economy.

Previously, I've argued that what's occurring is a strategic abandonment of young people within Canadian society; in the face of clear evidence that youth are suffering and amid a lack of response from government my thesis of strategic abandonment is gaining credence. It seems that boomer politicians and economists intend on balancing the books on the backs of youth through austerity measures and at the expense of any notion of intergenerational equity.

That's all for now. Next week we'll delve into the policy responses that are needed to address the structural labour market problems that young people face.

Income inequality, youth and political inaction: a recipe for disaster?

2012-01-05T07:39:00.000-05:00

Economic inequality has been in the news over the past few days as the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) has released their annual report highlighting the massive disparities between executive compensation and the wages of regular workers. Income inequality is a persistent problem in Canada and one that is growing at a rapid rate.

In the wake of globalization and financial capitalism Canadian society has developed an economic system predicated on excessive compensation for an elite few and stagnating or declining wages for the vast majority of workers. Consider that in the period between 1980 and 2005 the median earnings for workers in Canada rose by just $53.00 annually. The developments of the past thirty years bode poorly for long-term social stability, economic prosperity and sustainable growth.

The events of the last year have shown that the fault-lines are being drawn amid little political action to address the underlying issues driving income inequality. Be it the Occupy movement, the English riots or the Arab Spring - young people around the world are demanding change to an economic system that has abandoned them and left them toiling in uncertainty, precarity and hopelessness.

I've culled some resources to give additional perspective on income inequality in Canada and possible public policy responses which could be implement given enough political will or pressure. David Doorey has written numerous posts outlining regulatory changes that could address inequality, see: here, here and here. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development released a comprehensive report on income inequality in advanced economies in December, it can be found here. The CCPA has an ongoing initiative called "Growing Gap" that traces developments related to income inequality in Canada, check it out here. Finally, Linda McQuaig and Neil Brooks published a book last year entitled "The Trouble with Billionaires" which traces how the perverse concentration of economic power is bad for everyone; below I've attached an interview with Ms. McQuaig where she discusses the book.

What does 2012 hold for the youth labour market in Canada?

2012-01-03T21:55:00.000-05:00

With the new year in full swing it's time to assess whether the job prospects of young people are set to improve. This post is going to examine the current economic realities, analyze what's behind the trends and explore what might be in store for the youth labour market in 2012.

Early indications for 2012 aren't particularly encouraging with TD Economics and Scotia Capital predicting GDP growth rates between 1.7% and 1.9%, these are sharply lower than Minister of Finance Jim Flaherty's prediction of 2.2% contained in the fall economic update. The pressure on the Canadian economy is being driven by continuing economic uncertainty in Europe arising from the sovereign debt crisis and a weak American recovery in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. These pressures will continue to put a damper on private sector hiring and when combined with government austerity programs, which will reduce public sector hiring, the youth labour market doesn't appear to be in for a rebound this year.

The economy isn't entirely to blame for the current situation though. Deeper structural factors are driving youth unemployment in Canada, such as the absence of mandatory retirement, older workers wanting to beef up their portfolios in the wake of the recession, the severe shortage of entry level positions, the impact from globalization and the growth of precarious employment characterized by contract positions and internships. These trends related to the labour market, economics and demographics aren't good news for young people in the short term as they point to continuing depressed job market; however, if you jump forward a few years to 2015 the labour market will begin to improve as boomers begin to exit the workforce in greater numbers.

The current situation should be assessed for what it is: a serious threat to the long term economic prospects of the current generation. There's a lost generation being developed in Canada as life's milestones get pushed further back, economic scarring occurs and the impact from years of precarious employment takes hold. Although this situation could be addressed through a variety of policy or regulatory responses, none have been forthcoming over the past four years.

The youth labour market continues to deteriorate with young people left to fend for themselves amid a poor economy and with a the social safety net that's predicated on assisting those who once had full employment (i.e. EI, Second Career) or older persons who receive income supplements (i.e. CPP, OAS). There's a complete absence of intergenerational equity within Canadian society at present as young people are taxed through high tuition fees and interest on student loans or face exploitation in the labour market via unpaid internships, dead-end service industry jobs or revolving-door contract positions. This is patently unfair situation with the baby boomers gaining enormous wealth at the expense of the generations coming after it.

So that's my assessment of the prospects for the youth labour market in 2012. For some additional analysis, check out my interview with Sylvain Schetagne of the Canadian Labour Congress or this interview with Guy Standing.

2011 Clawbies and New Website

2012-01-02T13:49:00.000-05:00

A couple developments to report. First, I'm extremely pleased to announce that Youth and Work won the 2011 Clawbies in the Best Practitioner Blogs category. A big thanks goes out to everyone that nominated me and to the judges for their hard work. A couple of the other winners who have a workplace law need be highlighted. Lisa Stam won in the same category for Employment & Human Rights in Canada, as well David Doorey won in the Best Law Professor category for Doorey's Workplace Law Blog. Both of these blogs are well-written and provide great analysis on emerging issues in labour, employment and human rights law. Second, the blog has migrated to a stand alone website, www.youthandwork.ca, so point your browsers there; that being said, the old URL will continue to direct you the new website so there's no need to update bookmarks.

Happy holidays, Clawbies nominations and 2012

2011-12-22T13:37:00.000-05:00

2011 is rapidly coming to a close and The Youth and Work blog is going to be taking a short break for the holidays. We will be returning in 2012 and time permitting I may write a year in review post. Below are my nominations for the 2011 Clawbies. I read all these blogs on a regular basis as they track interesting developments in Canadian workplace law and provide practical information for readers.

Doorey's Workplace Law Blog: David Doorey writes the one of the best workplace law blogs in Canada. He combines his experience as a lawyer and law professor to provide cutting edge analysis on emerging issues in the areas of employment, labour and human rights law. Beyond the content, the blog also contains spirited debate from his readers and extensive legal resources. It's a must read for anyone with an interest in workplace law, labour market policy and critical analysis.

Québec Labour Law Blog: Gabriel Granatstein, a lawyer with Norton Rose's Montreal office, writes an excellent blog about the legal developments coming out of Québec. This province has a vibrant culture of industrial pluralism and has avoided a lot of the stagnation that characterizes labour law in other provinces. The content ranges includes practical advice, discussions about legal developments and updates on new case law. It's an engaging read and highly recommended.

All About Information: This is one of Hicks Morley's in-house blogs that covers the intersection of workplace law and privacy. It contains a lot of practical information that's useful reading if you deal with privacy issues on a regular basis. I like the blog because it tackles a niche area in a fairly thorough manner that's easily accessible.

Those are my nominations. In closing, what would the holidays be without music and seeing as I'm a huge music nerd I thought a bit of Cancon would be in order. Below is a recent clip of Toronto's Fucked Up singing Jingle Bells (I was at the concert); they're coming off a banner year and if you still need a present for someone special their recent David Comes To Live album is highly recommended. Enjoy.

Why can't we all get along: social media, privacy and labour law

2011-12-16T08:00:00.000-05:00

Students at GDHS aren't happy.

Here's an interesting story that appeared yesterday and continues this week's theme of social media blunders in the workplace. The story revolves around Georgetown District High School and the forced transfer of two teachers to other schools.

Following a series of unknown events, Eleanor Wallace, a beloved music teacher and head of the arts program, was transferred to Robert Bateman Secondary School and Lee Banks, a music teacher, went to White Oaks Secondary School. These transfers were clearly disciplinary in nature. Typically this type of discipline would only occur when there has been a serious transgression of the employer's policies combined with the existence of just cause.

This story is interesting because what happened after students discovered Ms. Wallace's removal. Students started a rather effective social media campaign demanding the return of Ms. Wallace. The campaign, which only started on Monday, has been characterized by mass emails, posters being produced, Facebook pages, articles in the Toronto Star and outreach to regional media.

The campaign has witty posters.

These transfers sit at the intersection of labour relations, privacy law and social media. Students can criticize the actions of the Halton District School Board, but the board can't publicly defend the actions it took as it would violate the terms of the collective agreement with the OSSTF and the internal privacy policy. This situation presents a dilemma for the board as it has to bear the barbs directed at it and can't get ahead of the growing online criticism. This public relations problem was apparent last night when Superintendent Nick Varricchio tepidly replied "The issue you are inquiring about is a personnel matter and therefore we will not discuss it with members of the media. Personnel matters are private as they are between the employee and the employer. We will not respond or provide any information regarding this matter."

The problem being is that now these private matters are anything but. In an earlier era a labour relations issue such as this could have been easily addressed, but in the era of social media public opinion on a seemingly minor issue can rapidly coalesce and cause a major public relations disaster. Organizations need to do their best to anticipate problems before they arise and have effective procedures in place to tactically respond to criticism. Social media isn't going away and organizations need to learn to adapt to this new normal. For my earlier posts about social media blunders see here and here.

A couple Youth and Work Blog updates

2011-12-15T16:20:00.001-05:00

A couple updates for the readers of the blog. First, I'm happy to report that Doorey's Workplace Law Blog has nominated the Youth and Work Blog for a 2011 Canadian Law Blog Award (aka the Clawbies); furthermore, last month my blog was nominated for a Canadian Blog Award in the Best Law Blog category. A big thank you goes out to David for the nomination and to my readers for the incredible interest they've shown on youth labour market issues.

Second, I've rolled out a "Links" section of the website. This is the start of a longer term move to address information asymmetries and the lack of workplace law resources aimed at young people. The next project will be the development of a section on internships in Ontario; this is aimed at giving young people information about this growing segment of the youth labour market. If anyone has suggestions about additional resources that should be included on the website, please send me an email and we'll chat.

Another day, another blunder: social media, blogging and reputational optics

2011-12-14T21:15:00.000-05:00

Zach loves red ties.

My last blog post discussed the the dangers that social media can pose to organizations when millennials mess up. Today a homegrown example appeared, with the media discovering a bizarre blog entry by written by Max Naylor attacking Zach Paikin over internal differences within the youth wing of the Liberal Party of Canada. This situation serves as a cautionary tale about the dangers that social media presents to reputations of organizations and individuals. The actions of a renegade individual can take centre stage if an organization lacks the appropriate safeguards and social media policies governing conduct.

So does Max.

What started as a disagreement over politics between friends morphed into a very damaging national story. Mothers have gotten involved, disparaging tweets have been exchanged and anyone remotely connected to the story has been left with egg on their face. The conduct has not only been damaging to the fractured political party they claim membership in, but also to their individual reputations. This sort of behaviour shouldn't be tolerated in any organization, be it political, corporate or charitable as it shuts down communication and represents a public relations disaster.

Young people should realize that what they write online will probably be permanent and might impact on future opportunities. Public attacks can seem like a good way to score some cheap political points, but in the long-run what good will come from having embarrassing information sitting a Google search away from potential employers, mates or business contacts? It pays to keep a clean profile, avoid online bickering and keep the language of comments akin to that of Disney films. Anything less might leave a disturbing trail that will be difficult to clean up and hard to explain away as a product of youthful indiscretion. Simply, the polity doesn't care about internal machinations of the junior Machiavelli league and will only be alienated through the public airing of dirty laundry.

Hide your phones, hide your booze!

2011-12-12T08:00:00.000-05:00

Social media is one of the most fascinating emerging areas in workplace law. There's an incredible range of scenarios to mine and last week was no exception. Congressman Rick Larsen (D-WA) fired three staffers in Washington, D.C. office after they unleashed a torrent of drunken Twitter posts. This episode will go down as a cautionary tale for millennials in the workplace, which as a generation clearly doesn't have a grasp on how dangerous social media can be for their careers.

Last Thurdsay after the NW Daily Marker wrote an article on the tweets, the political careers of these young employees came to an abrupt end. The content of the tweets wasn't particularly offensive, but it did cover a range of sophomoric subjects. Seth Burroughs apparently didn't like his boss too much, tweeting: "I really like DC, but could have used another day away. The silver lining is that I don't have to see my idiot boss." Ben Byers and Elizabeth Robblee followed close behind in the stupidity race with tweets about drinking Jack Daniels in the office, failing sobriety tests and walks of shame.

I'm a big fan of Twitter. Social media is an incredibly transformative tool for organizations and individuals, but it's a pandora's box of sorts. A single errant tweet or Facebook post has the power to do incredible reputational damage in the absence of appropriate controls. The danger generally lies with in the actions of a single employee; left to their own devices individuals can make inappropriate choices on social media, leaving the wider organization to bear the brunt of the damage.

Organizations can reduce the probability of social media disasters by engaging in proactive planning and risk management, consider the following tips: employee training in social media can be useful in exposing the possibilities and pitfalls. Developing proper protocols and policies on social media usage is useful. Designating a senior employee with communications or public relations experience as the social media lead is good strategy to harness the power of social media. Don't get left behind, social media isn't going away and ignoring it can have a negative impact on your bottom line.

Is slashing the number of law students the solution to Ontario's articling crisis?

2011-12-10T12:52:00.001-05:00

The complaints office for jobless articling students.

The Law Society of Upper Canada has been examining the articling crisis in Ontario. Earlier this year it established the Articling Task Force to trace the dimensions of the crisis and advance solutions. It recently released a consultation report and opened a period of public consultation. This post is going to survey the dimensions of the articling crisis, explore whether the increase in enrollment is the cause of the articling crisis and then offer some ideas about how the situation can be addressed.

Articling in a Nutshell

Some of my readers might be confused at this point, so let me explain what articling is. It's essentially a period of apprenticeship that all law students have to complete to become lawyers. After law school students must work for ten months under the supervision of a practicing lawyer, complete a professional skills and responsibility course and pass two comprehensive exams about law covering a range of topics. The articling process is overseen by the Law Society as part of its mandate.

Articling is a difficult process, but a fair one that exposes law students to the realities of legal practice; however, it should be noted that the quality of the articling experiences varies considerably and I've heard horror stories ranging from sexual harassment (common) to not paying minimum wage (uncommon) to lawyers literally beating students (rare).

I've reviewed the report and it's well-researched. The Articling Task Force has asked a series of probing questions that will no doubt garner a significant amount of discussion and response. The report suggests a spectrum of solutions, from keeping the status quo all the way to abolishing the articling requirement completely. It's encouraging to see a greater range of options being explored, but I remain unconvinced that the critical mass exists to make the changes that are needed.

The dimensions of the articling crisis are complicated, but not overly complex. In a nutshell: the legal profession is getting older and becoming highly urbanized; amid a moribund economy there's little opportunity for growth; the legal industry is facing stiff competition internationally from globalization, consolidation amongst large corporate firms and outsourcing; legal education has become increasingly commodified amid funding cuts adopted under a neoliberal public policy; and, finally, at the core of the articling crisis there's a demand problem with too many students competing for too few entry-level legal jobs.

Is the articling crisis a result of a cash grab by universities?

The 99% want a tuition refund.

A couple issues from the report jumped out at me in relation to the exponential increase in the number of students seeking articling jobs. First, there is the growth of internationally trained students enrolling in the articling process, this issue has two dimensions: Canadian students going abroad to obtain legal education and immigrants to Canada seeking recognition of their foreign credentials. This is an area that the legal profession has limited control over as it can't erect extensive barriers to entering legal practice, although there anecdotal evidence that these groups face increased difficulty entering the profession.

Second, the enrolment rates at most of Ontario's law school have posted small increases from 2001 to 2011 (increases in actual numbers and percentages are: Windsor, 26, 8.2%; Osgoode, 6, 2.1%; Western, 23, 13.9%; Toronto, 34, 15.4%; Queen's, 2, 1.2%; Ottawa, 98, 33.2%). The University of Ottawa's Faculty of Law is the exception, posting the largest increase over the the last decade with the number of students shooting up to 295 in 2011 from 197 in 2001. Regardless of the unique structure of the faculty with separate civil and common programs, this problematic increase falls far outside of the growth rates seen at Ontario's other law schools.

It's no secret that law students have greater value than most types of students under the funding formula used by the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities to set university operating grants. In the wake of fee deregulation the suggestion has been made that tuition from law students is used to financially prop up university operations. If this is actually what's occurring at the University of Ottawa and other law schools then quite a bit of effort is being expended by the legal profession to address a problem that's really the chronic underfunding of post-secondary education rather than one arising out of the labour market.

Should the Government of Ontario adopt an interventionist approach?

There's an "easy" regulatory fix to the articling crisis that wasn't contained in the report for unknown reasons. Placing hard caps on enrollment isn't a new idea as both education and medical faculties in Ontario currently have enrollment caps in place. Given the limited short-term growth prospects for the legal profession it might be time to decrease the number of spots available at Ontario's law schools as the supply currently outstrips demand.

Here are some arguments for enacting enrolment caps. It would rapidly reduce the number of students competing for articling positions. It would alleviate the need for more radical reforms of current articling process. It would address the unfair tuition fee deregulation that has law students financially supporting other university operations. It could be structured in a reflexive way that allows for enrolment growth to be linked to economic and population indicators. Finally, considering the tension between the government and the law society

Criticisms of enacting enrolment caps cover a number of disparate arguments. A cap would impinge on the self-regulatory nature of the legal profession (albeit in an indirect manner) and it would interfere with the internal operations of law schools. A cap is a interventionist public policy response into the labour market that might be viewed as a form of economic planning, although governments generally shy away from this sort of public policy. Reducing the pool of law students could have implications for access to justice and the diversity of the profession. Finally, with many foreign institutions offering legal education, students may simply leave Canada for law schools in Australia, the United States and England.

Despite these criticisms, decreasing enrolment at Ontario's law schools represents sound public policy if enacted as part of a wider strategy that includes responses from the law schools, government and the law society. No one stakeholder has a lock on the solutions required to address the articling crisis in a comprehensive sustainable manner. It's clear that law students are getting a raw deal from the law schools, law society and the government - this has to end.

What's worrying is the fact that the government, law schools and law society are working at cross-purposes, consider: the new law school at Lakehead University; a lack of current labour market information that might dissuade students from attending law school; law schools increasing enrolment amid a poor labour market; the limited regulatory oversight from the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities over the enrolment policies of Ontario's law schools; the law society's short-sighted previous attempts to address the crisis; and, the minimal support given to students who haven't found a job.

It's clear that something has to give and hopefully the law society and other stakeholders will actually enact the measures that are necessary. I'll continue to report on the developments in relation to the articling crisis and if you have any comments please leave one or send me an email.

Further Reading on the Articling Crisis

I've culled a number of resources tracing the dimensions of the articling crisis. Osgoode Hall's Dean, Lorne Sossin, wrote an excellent article earlier this fall. The Law Times has run a series of articles, see: here and here. The Globe and Mail recently ran an article about the issue. Canadian Lawyer has a run a couple feature length articles, see: here, here and here. I've previously written about the articling crisis, check out this article where I ask if law students are being sold a bill of goods and this interview with two candidates from the recent Benchers Election.

Youth and Work Gets Nominated for a Canadian Blog Award

2011-12-08T12:06:00.001-05:00

The Youth and Work Blog has been nominated for a Canadian Blog Award! We're in the running in the Best Law Blog category. You can vote here and please share the link with your friends so we have a competitive chance of winning. Thanks so much for your support and keep visiting the blog for continuing coverage about youth labour market in Canada.

Journalism, illegal internships and precarity: a primer

2011-12-05T18:16:00.001-05:00

Perhaps the worst offender in the unpaid internship scam is journalism. This industry is addicted to exploiting young people through unpaid internships and rarely does any critical commentary appear on this practice. In the past year a number of great articles about this practice have appeared: Bethany Horne wrote a heartfelt critique about unpaid internships in the media, the Ryerson Review of Journalism analyzed how much interns are worth, Maclean's covered the growing backlash against unpaid internships and The Star's Public Editor wrote a great article about the practice.

The rise of internships is part of a wider trend in the labour market over the last thirty years that has shifted the cost of training new employees from the employers onto taxpayers, families and students. This parallels the trend of downloading of the cost of maintaining the post-secondary education sector onto students and their families amid an era of unprecedented credentialism where possessing a Bachelors degree most likely won't land you a interview. Both of these developments are examples of the strategic abandonment of youth people by governments vis-a-vis the public policy adopted during the era of neoliberalism.

Guy Standing, in his new book, The Precariat, makes a poignant observation, "Internships are a threat to youth...Even if a payment is made, the interns are doing cheap dead-end labour, exerting downward pressure on the wages and opportunities of others who might otherwise be employed. An internship may give positional advantage to a few young people, but it is more like buying a lottery ticket, in this case involving a private subsidy, usually paid by the intern's family."

What's occurring is that the price of entry into a career in journalism is shooting up as debt-ridden students are required to engage in vast amount of unpaid work to even reach the stage where their competitive for paid positions. This severely limits the number of diverse perspectives in the profession by making it more difficult for students from historically marginalized communities to gain a foothold.

The widespread use of unpaid interns in the media mirrors the rise of precarious employment in wider society. Internships can be placed on the spectrum of precarious employment, with little chance of a permanent job, benefits, training or even pay. This precarity inserts a tremendous amount of stress into the lives of young people entering the workforce and students finishing their education. Also, there's a link between the depressed labour market and the exponential increase in the mental health issues facing Canadian youth.

What irks me about this particular situation with the media industry is the use of unpaid internships by organizations that either espouse progressive politics or cater to youth demographics - as unpaid internships inherently cast young workers as a disposable commodity who just don't matter. Be it This Magazine, Rabble.ca, BlogTO, Spacing or The Grid, these are organizations that have no excuse for violating the provisions governing the use of trainees under sub-section 1(2) of the Employment Standards Act, 2000.

Beyond the breaking of the law and lacking the ability to critically assess their own human resources practices, this situation also highlights the general inability of the Canadian media, particularly progressive voices, to provide coverage, commentary and critical analysis about the vast changes that are occurring within labour markets. Citizens need to understand what's occurring, yet that's not happening. Consider this: if a extraterrestrial arrived in Canada and started digesting our media, they would be left with the impression that unionized employees are responsible for every social ill imaginable. That's bizarre, but so is the practice of not paying young employees, perhaps it's time that CEOs of media conglomerates start working free for four month stints - that would make a good headline.

For my previous articles about internships, see: here, here and here.

Is the sexual harassment of interns a hidden problem?

2011-11-26T01:07:00.001-05:00

The Chicago Tribune ran a excellent article this week about how interns rarely report sexual harassment. This article highlights a significant problem that young people can face early in their careers in that there's a power dynamic that plays in favour of the harasser. There's been a fair amount of research done showing that interns are in a poor position to challenge harassment, see this Harvard Women's Law Journal article, this policy memorandum from the Economic Policy Institute and Ross Perlin's Intern Nation. This problem is being driven by poorly constructed laws, lax enforcement of employment standards and a lack of knowledge on the part of young people about their workplace rights.

Internships in Ontario (and in most jurisdictions in Canada) are covered under human rights laws that generally cover the range of employment, volunteer and service relationships that people can enter into. If a intern is sexually harassed they can file a complaint with the relevant tribunal and seek damages for the impugned behaviour. No one should put up with being harassed as it can wreck havoc psychologically, emotionally and physically. If you find yourself in such a position tell a parent, professor, supervisor or friend as people need support in these sorts of situations. Young people don't need any additional stress in the workplace beyond what they normally face. For my previous discussions about this legalities surrounding internships in Canada see: here, here and here.

Strategic Abandonment, Youth and the Precariat: a Interview with Guy Standing

2011-11-22T10:31:00.000-05:00

Recently, I had the chance to interview Guy Standing, a former director at the ILO and current professor of economic security at the University of Bath. He's a global authority on precarious work and the impact from neoliberal policies on labour markets. Earlier this year Professor Standing published The Precariat: the New Dangerous Class which traces the emergence of the global precariat and what needs to be done to address the needs of this group. This is a very timely interview given the deep contradictions that are becoming apparent with capitalism and the development of widespread opposition by young people to economic and social injustice through phenomena like Occupy Wall Street in North America, the indignados in Spain and the London riots. The substance of the interview focuses on the deterioration of the economic prospects of young people and how youth form the vanguard of the precariat. The interview appears below:

Q: You've argued that the precariat is a class indevelopment. Can you briefly explain the emergence of the precariat?

A: It is a class-in-the-making, not yet aclass-for-itself. What this means, in brief, is that it consists of a growingnumber of people, in millions, who are experiencing a similar set ofexperiences – insecurity, providing what is called flexible, precarious labourwithout any secure rights or having a sense of occupational identity – withoutyet realising a common sense of collective interest in overcoming theinsecurity around a common vision of what sort of Good Society they would wantto see replacing the current circumstances.

Q: During the era of neoliberalism there has been acommodification of education, a retrenchment of the social welfare state and ageneral absence of effective ameliorative strategies that enhance the positionof young people in labour markets. Overall, has there been a strategicabandonment of young people on the part of governments as a result ofneoliberal policy?

A: There has been ageneral abandonment of the need for social and economic security for ordinarypeople. The vast majority of us, as human beings, want and need basic security.Without it, we are at risk of impoverishment, and as a result we can easilylose our sense of empathy with other people. The commodification of educationin those circumstances has given young people a false message. The view hasbeen that if young people improve their “human capital”, they will gain higherincomes and have access to a fantastic career. But this is a false prospectus,if the market system is merely generating a small number of big winnersalongside a growing number of jobs for the precariat. All the human capitalagenda is doing is mass producing graduates with pieces of paper called degreesor diplomas, at horrifying cost in terms of payments made and debts incurred.There is an education bubble about to break. It will make the sub-prime housingbubble seem just one of several to hit our economies. Student debt in theUnited States has multiplied sevenfold in the past decade and is likely to continueto rise. Abandonment? You can say so.

Q: One of poignant arguments you've made is thatthe development of the precariat is associated with a lack of social memory, noreciprocity and no shadow of the future. What do you feel are the impactsstemming from the rise of the precariatized mind on the psychology of thecurrent generation of young people?

A: The precariatisedmind – and precariousness in general – creates fear and loss of hope. Youth wholose hope may easily lose interest in the political process, which would bewrong. We need to struggle for a much better type of society. Disengagementmight be understandable, but it is the worst scenario. We must forge a new formof political engagement. This is one of the main messages the book tries toprovide. Youth has always led society with its imagination and energy. If wewant a better ecology, less inequality and a revival of the commons, youth mustrevive a conscious commitment to social and political action.

Q: There appears to be a compelling narrativebetween labour market flexibility (e.g. wage system, functional and numerical),intergenerational equity and the deteriorating prospects for young people. Areyoung people facing a poverty trap in advanced economies?

A: They face a huge poverty trap, combined with whatthe book calls a precarity trap. Young people on the edge of the labour marketface what is in effect much, much higher marginal tax rates than people in thesalariat or the elite would regard as tolerable. Youth should take the troubleto learn why that is happening and how it is happening.

Q: Over the past ten months there has been a lot ofsocial unrest from youth (e.g. the Arab Spring, Occupy Wall Street,anti-austerity riots in Greece, the London riots). Do you see a long-termmovement emerging from these events that could bring about new redistributivestrategies?

A: Yes and no. It is up to us all, young and old. Theevents of this year have been wonderful and they have been promising. They havebeen the actions of primitive rebels, which means they have brought togethermany people who see what they are against. But there is not yet a common visionof what is needed. That is the next stage. Those participating in the eventsthis year must develop a coherent, feasible strategy and engage politically toput it into practice.

Q: What sort of redistributive strategies do youpropose for addressing the social and economic inequities that presentlyexist?

A: As I argue in the book, andas our network BIEN has been arguing, the first policy we should struggle tounderstand and to achieve is a basic income. We need to ensure that everybodyin society has basic economic security as a human right. I urge your readers tolook up the BIEN website and to join us as lifetime members. You will find thatwe are beginning to have real success in some unlikely places in the world. Weneed to make sure that translates into success inside the United States as well.It would not be a panacea. However, it must be an integral part of aredistributive strategy, as long as it was combined with other institutionalchanges and a revival of collective action. To be young is to have no baggage.In other words, it is the time of life to reject despair and cynicism. Join us.The journey is part of the fun. And being on it lifts the spirit and thechin.

Ryerson's Eyeopener tackles unpaid internships

2011-11-17T19:48:00.001-05:00

The Eyeopener, Ryerson's student newspaper, published an excellent article on internships this week as part of an ongoing series about students in the labour market; previously the paper has covered retail work, the hospitality industry and unsafe student jobs at Ryerson University. I'm quoted extensively in the article on internships and provide insight into the legal, demographic and intergenerational equity aspects surrounding this issue. I've been quite active about speaking out on internships as I think they are a concrete example of the problems that exist in the labour market for young people. I don't see the debate fading anytime soon in the face of government inaction on workplace law reform, a poor youth labour market and little enforcement of employment standards. For my previous articles on the topic of internships in Canada see: here, here and here.

Is Rob Ford the epitome of the malaise in Canada's political class?

2011-11-14T16:29:00.001-05:00

Just a quick follow-up to my post last week on youth culture and the malaise in Canada's political class. Today Rob Ford, the Mayor of Toronto, came out swinging against Occupy Toronto barking that "We are going to be asking them to leave the park and take it from there." This underscores the point that I made about how there's been little discussion with Canada's political class about the prevailing social conditions that are driving the Occupy movement. Ford's comments are similar to those of Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney and Federal Minister of Finance Jim Flaherty who both acknowledged the protests as constructive; however, neither addressed the underlying factors behind the protests such as: surging income inequality, the anti-worker policies adopted over the last three decades as a result of neoliberalism or the rusting of the workplace laws that has left most workers in Canada without viable form of protection from employers.

This lack of discourse on these profound problems is problematic and borders on demagoguery. Without a national debate about the implications of constructing a society predicated on haves and have-nots and how to stem this alarming development the country is going to be in for a rough ride as the very fabric of society to frays to an even larger degree. What's needed is action on addressing the changes that are occurring to Canada's economy, how public policy can be utilized to secure a sustainable future and the government's role in providing for the next generation of citizens. These are fundamental issues that go to the heart of the Canadian State; it's time that politicians drop the showboating and begin responding to the actual needs of the population.

Gabor Lukacs and the University of Manitoba reach settlement

2011-11-13T09:30:00.000-05:00

Dr. Gabor Lukacs*

The Gabor Lukacs affair has ended with a confidential settlement between Dr. Lukacs and the University of Manitoba. A joint statement released on November 10, 2011 announced "The University has rescinded all disciplinary actions against Professor Lukacs (including reprimand, suspension and denial of increment). All outstanding legal proceedings between the parties are terminated. The parties have also agreed that it is to their mutual benefit to end the employment relationship." Having negotiated these sorts of agreements before they often come with large monetary payments for the party leaving their employment.

It would have been fascinating to see the final arbitration award given the intersection of the privacy, human rights and labour law present in this case; I'm of the opinion that this case would have broke new ground in labour law. The vast majority of workplace law disputes end in a settlement agreement long before a final determination is reached and it shows how differences of opinion can quickly spin out of control. I covered this case as I felt that it stood as a cautionary tale of what young workers experience in today's workplaces. Dr. Lukacs was lucky that beyond his own wiles he had the backing of a strong Union that had the resources to contest the disciplinary measures that were imposed. Most young people don't enjoy the same level of protection in the workplace and without having independent financial resources many aren't able to hire legal counsel to challenge their employer in the Courts.

For my previous thoughts on this case check out my article in the CBA's Labour and Employment Perspective and previous blog posts here, here and here.

(*Photo of Dr. Gabor Lukacs credited to Leif Larsen.)

Youth culture and the malaise in Canada's political class

2011-11-11T13:33:00.005-05:00

It's not?

Youth culture in Canada is a vastly under-explored and as of late there has been a lot happening in this area. Some of the developments, such as the Occupy Canada movement and resurgence in youth involvement in politics, have been quite positive, while other incidents such as the Vancouver riots have been quite negative. This post is going to explore some of the underlying issues and contextualize them in wider trends occurring in society.

Underscoring all the recent developments is a deteriorating economic situation in advanced economies; this situation is being driven by the policies arising out of and predicated on a neoliberal orthodoxy which has been the dominant political ideology in advanced economies over the last four decades, this includes: the rise of financial capitalism, globalization, liberalization of trade policy, technological change, deregulation of workplace law and retrenchment of the social welfare state.

These policies have had a tremendous impact on the structure of Canadian society driving and creating problematic trends such as income inequality, structural unemployment, the hollowing out of the middle class, deindustrialization, precarious employment, a decline in class solidarity and anti-worker sentiment driving public policy. There's been a deep impact on youth as well with issues like underemployment, precarious jobs, high debt loads from student loans and a difficult transition from school into workforce characterizing the experience of young people entering the labour market.

Police in Montreal attacked McGill students on Thursday.

As of late the response from young people in Canada is one of outrage with recent memory seeing protests across the country on issues as varied as tuition fees to income inequality to attempts at voter nullification. The overwhelming response from the government has been one of repression through the deployment of police and utilizing the legal system to abrogate and silence dissent. From riot police attacking students at McGill this past week to the secret suspension of Charter rights at the G20 summit in Toronto to the illegal forced removal of Occupy encampments; behind the violent draconian response there's a worrying lack of dialogue from politicians about the underlying grievances raised by young people.

The questions that young people pose raise concerns about the deep contradictions that underpin our economic and social order in Canada; furthermore, the answers to these questions, predicated on a system rooted in social and economic justice, provide an incisive and compelling alternative to the accounts that pass for journalism in the mainstream. These questions highlight the ongoing failure of Canada's political class to address issues of social and economic justice in any meaningful way. The primacy of financial capitalism and corporate dominance of politics has simply gone unexamined, nor has progressive public policy that could address the underlying inequities.

It's unreasonable that initiatives that could stem income inequality, political corruption, structural unemployment and poverty aren't in the discourse of the political class; what's desperately needed in Canada is changes to tax policy, workplace law reforms and reinvigoration of social welfare programs - these sorts ameliorative initiatives could possibly stem the damage that's occurred in neoliberal era and offer hope for the young generation that's inheriting a political and economic system that's utterly devoid of substance other than a gravy of train of hate filled invective that targets the weakest groups in society for austerity measures, criminalization and marginalization.

Personally, I don't want to live in a country which has a political culture predicated simply on the division between haves and have-nots; I've seen places like that and the damage which lasts generations isn't easy to recover from.

What's the Ontario Government doing about the over-supply of teachers?

2011-11-09T11:03:00.000-05:00

University Affairs, Canada's main trade magazine on the post-secondary education sector, recently published an insightful article about the over-supply of teachers in Ontario's labour market. It covers a lot of points that I've addressed before about how the government let this situation fester and left students holding the bag for this remarkable failure in labour market planning. Remember that direct government interventions into labour market planning are relatively rare these days, with education and medicine faculties being perpetual targets given the close linkages to the public sector spending that occurs these areas. Ontario's Liberals promised to double the length and cost of a B.Ed. degree if they were re-elected, but it remains to be seen what will come of this policy balloon. For more thoughts on the situation facing young teachers, see: here and here.

Waiting for the other shoe to drop.

2011-11-05T01:37:00.000-04:00

Today's job numbers were disheartening with a surprising 72,000 full-time jobs being lost in October and the unemployment rate jumping to 7.3%; the heaviest job losses occurred in the manufacturing and construction sectors, while there continued to be gains in the service sector. These numbers would seem to reflect the uncertainty in the global economy with the continuing economic crisis that seems to lurch from one crisis to the next. Canada is being buffeted by headwinds that domestic political and corporate leaders have little control over. Let's explore some of the trends that are reflected in these numbers and the lack of response.

The heaviest job losses occurred in the manufacturing and construction sectors; the construction sector in Canada is cyclical, while the manufacture sector is in the midst of a long-term decline. The losses are mainly centred in Ontario and the Atlantic provinces, while the Western provinces generally registered a significant pick-up in jobs. Beyond this youth unemployment is on the rise with no relief in sight. There are a numbers of trends at play here, such as: the decline of the standard employment relationship as many of the job losses were full-time positions; the deindustrialization of the heartland as Ontario sheds manufacturing jobs; increased precarity as employers choose to hire part-time employees and the service sector continued to recruit into low-wage, low skill jobs.

These losses highlight the increasing precarious situation that exist in the labour trends and also lay bare the disturbing trend of politicians to engage in demagoguery rather than advance sustainable solutions that address the structural problems in Canada's labour markets. Prime Minister Stephen Harper blamed the losses on the European crisis, while Minister of Economic Development Brad Duguid blames the Japanese tsunami. Certainly these issues play a role in these disturbing numbers, but neither of these explanations address the deeper trends afoot in society or acknowledge that Canada risks entering another recession. Rising inequality, the impact from technology, stagnating wages, globalization a hollowing out of the middle-class, and a tepid civil society have left Canadians battered after four decades of economic growth that delivered little in the ways of gains for the average Canadian. There aren't easy fixes to any of these issues, yet even discussing them seems to be Kryptonite to politicians fixated on partisanship above all else.

What's lost in the media, the commentaries and conversations about the economic crisis is the profound impact that the economic crisis has had on the very fabric of our existence. From the daily stress to the assault on the family to the uncertainty surrounding employment, a great many people's lives are up in the air. Neoliberalism brought us to the brink of collapse and then decided to charge us for its failings, citizens are paying the price for the criminal capers of an elite few. This episode has changed the way we think, communicate and interact with each other; what's troubling is that these vast changes within have gone largely unquestioned until recently. It would seem that the sheen surrounding the dogma of financial capitalism is waning as people wait for the other shoe to drop.

Amid inaction over joblessness, young people take their grievances to the streets

2011-10-04T15:30:00.000-04:00

This post is going to link the lip service that politicians have given to youth unemployment in the Ontario's provincial election to the larger developments occurring with the #occupywallst movement. Having watched the recent leaders debate it's apparent that none of Ontario's political parties are prepared to engage in a honest discussion about the rising specter of youth unemployment in the province and the structural factors behind its rise. Given the uncertainty with the economy it would have been refreshing to hear our political leaders leaders acknowledge the reality that young people are facing with the difficult choices that are emerging in relation to demographics, the labour market and the erosion of the ability of societal institutions to effect meaningful social change. It's clear that youth in Ontario are becoming a precariat, which is a segment of the population simply trying to survive amid an increasingly precarious existence, having been buffeted by the unprecedented impacts arising from technological change, financialization, globalization and neoliberalism.

Absent from the the platforms of the political parties are any form of a comprehensive youth jobs strategy, rather a piecemeal approach to policy has been adopted that doesn't holistically address the situation currently facing young people in the province. The precarious existence that youth face has been characterized by Federal Ministers mocking unemployed youth, dimming job prospects, an exponential rise in tuition, an evaporation of government programs assisting in the transition from school to work and a labour market that's been deregulated with the standard employment relationship of yesteryear disappearing fast. Youth are up against structural economic issues that are rooted in neoliberal policies that stretch back to the 1970s; neither a thirty percent cut to tuitions fees nor will an expansion of apprenticeship programs remedy the underlying trends that have mortgaged the wealth of future generations for the benefit of an infinitesimal fraction of society.

This is a generation in limbo and one that is beginning to utilize the social media tools arising from technological change to ferment dissent against the elites from the political and corporate spheres who have remained unresponsive to calls for meaningful social change. The protests now reaching the shores of North America may bring about an emergence of a new political movement that might be able to confront the deep malaise that has infected the West. It's difficult to assess what the nascent #occupywallst (or #occupytoronto) movement will mean for politics in Ontario; however, it appears that the millennial generation is starting to flex its political muscles. This development is welcome considering the shrill attitude that has characterized politics as of late on both sides of the border and given the millennial generation's increasing abandonment of traditional political parties in favour of a more direct form of democracy. Whatever the outcome of these protests are I'm sure that I'll have more to say on these topics sooner rather than later.

Former Black Swan interns declare war on unpaid internships

2011-09-29T13:01:00.001-04:00

A black mark against Black Swan?

The war on unpaid internships is heating up. Two unpaid interns who worked on last years' blockbuster noir-ballet flick Black Swan recently filed a lawsuit in Manhattan's Federal Court against Fox Searchlight Pictures alleging breaches of the Fair Labor Standards Act related to minimum wage and overtime. The Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division has developed a six-fold test to ascertain the legality of internship schemes; the test itself is rooted in the 1947 United States Supreme Court decision in Walling v. Portland Terminal Co. Essentially, the test boils down to whether the internship is a bona fide training program that mainly benefits the intern and doesn't immediately benefit the employer.

This lawsuit is an excellent development as it shines a light on the exploitative and problematic nature of unpaid internships. This type of employment has skyrocketed over the last thirty years in Canada, the United States and England. Now we're in the unfortunate situation where young people are often forced to take on unpaid internships as a means to gaining work experience in a difficult economy. The vast majority of these unpaid internship contravene the applicable workplace laws, but due to a systemic lack of enforcement of employment standards very few cases every come to light. Eric Glatt, one of the plaintiffs, recently reminisced "When I started looking for opportunities in the industry, I saw that most people accept an ugly trade-off. If you want to get your foot in the door on a studio picture, you have to suck in up and do an unpaid internship."

Adam Klein, the plaintiffs' lawyer, was quoted in the New York Times opining that: "Unpaid interns are usually too scared to speak out and to bring such a lawsuit because they are frightened it will hurt their chances of finding future jobs in their industry." This reasoning underscores the absence of access to justice that impact on workers who are precariously employed in jobs falling outside of the standard employment relationship. While precarity has been a constant theme in employment throughout history it has recently returned to prominence as governments refuse to update workplace laws to respond to the changing realities in the new economy. This rusting of workplace laws is having a significant impact on the employment prospects of the millennial generation as employers now feel they possess a carte blanc to exploit, violate employment standards and not pay young people for their labour.

Lawsuits against misclassification of employees are on the rise as employees resort to the Courts to address employment standards violations. Employers have to understand that they run a significant risks if they are violating the law, both in terms of being subjected to legal actions and the larger reputational risk that could significantly damage public relations. It will be fascinating to see how this case progresses and it may well serve as a clarion call to other unpaid interns to confront their employers about the exploitative nature of their employment. For some of my previous articles on the unpaid internship phenomena see: here, here and here.