G12 - Roundtable Closing the Employment Standards Enforcement Gap: Generating Fairness at Work for People in Precarious Jobs
Date: Jun 3 | Time: 02:00pm to 03:30pm | Location:
Chair/Président/Présidente : Leah Vosko (York University)
Closing the Employment Standards Enforcement Gap: Generating Fairness at Work for People in Precarious Jobs:
Leah Vosko (York Universty)
Andrea M. Noack (Ryerson University)
Rebecca Casey (Acadia University)
Eric Tucker (York University)
Kiran Mirchandani (Ontario Institute for Studies in Education)
Abstract: This roundtable features presentations from contributors to Closing the Enforcement Gap: Improving Employment Standards Protections for People in Precarious Jobs (forthcoming 2020, University of Toronto Press). In a context of changing employment relations characterized by the increasing prevalence of low wage jobs, declining union representation, and the social and spatial reorganization of work through contracting-out, franchising, and extended supply chains, employment standards are left as the primary source of regulatory protection for workers in precarious jobs. Drawing together findings from a research partnership funded by SSHRC, Closing the Enforcement Gap offers a comprehensive analysis of the enforcement of employment standards in Ontario. Adopting mixed-methods, including interviews with workers, community advocates, and enforcement officials; extensive archival research; and analysis of a previously untapped source of administrative data collected by Ontario’s Ministry of Labour, the book reveals and traces the roots of a deepening ‘enforcement gap’ that pervades nearly all aspects of the regulatory regime, demonstrating that the province’s Employment Standards Act fails too many workers who rely on the floor of minimum conditions it was devised to provide. Arguably, there is nothing inevitable about the enforcement gap in Ontario; through contributions from leading scholars in the US, the UK and Australia, as well as Quebec, the book also surveys innovative enforcement models emerging in a variety of jurisdictions, and considers the role of various actors including policy makers, and community and labour organizations in strengthening employment standards enforcement as a means to promote fairness at work.