Chapter 9
Charter of rights and freedoms is part of canada's constitution and guarantees broad equality rights to any person in canada, citizen or premanent resident or newcomer: applies to gov, checking the powers of gov over individual. Doesn't work on private activities between individuals |
Includes the Canada Human Rights Act where they protect people who are employed by federal government, FN gov, or private companies that are regulated by feds from discrimination and harassment |
The Employment Equity Act which is a result of the 1984 Abella report that requires a proactive approach to equity in the workplace |
Promotes equality in employment: women, native people, disabled, visible minorities. only regulates the federal government, employers, and federal contractors |
Notions of equality evolve over time - a long term process of removing discriminatory barriers. Disadvantage and inequality arise and built into the structure culture and everyday practices in the workplace |
Outcome of the recognition that the human rights system places the burden on individuals who experience discrimination to bring forward cases that drive change |
Limits to the model of employment equity: |
BC has a human rights code that prohibits discirmination in hiring or harass and requires equal pay; though based on human rights model instead of proactive |
Report suggests that employment equity is a transformative process through changing culture and structure of workplace to create fairness for all and remove bias in favour of white males |
new grounds of discirmination has involved social and political struggles for recognition. Passes C-16 adds gender identity or express to amend Canadian rights act and criminal code |
Equity at work: women in Canada: Nichols examines position and experiences of canadian women workers. usually gender and racial discriminiation. Employers exploit gender differences to reduce class solidarity |
Argues that women's work in canada has been impacted by a variety of processes at a range of level or scales such as globalization, neoliberalism, precarious employment, unpaid/paid labour divide |
Concept in crowding: women and other marginalized workers are limited to low status jobs to protect privileges |
|
|
Chapter 10
4 dimensions of precarious work: 1. certainty of continuing work 2. control over the labour process 3. worker protection 4. levels of income |
disabled were vulnerable to precarious employment includes: part-time job, multiple job holding, own-account self employment, temporary contract and temp agency. less benefits, limited no job security. |
disability as a protected ground from discrimination. recognized as a social phenomenon |
1984 employment equity act amended to increase employer accountability but impacts have been weakened by inadequate enforcement, limited voluntary uptake of best practices, reduced social spending |
abella report recommendations for a robust system with clear accountabilities for employers did not materialize. |
Resistance on two sides: charges of reverse discrimination, elimination opportunities for non-identified groups. 2. charges that recommendations was not enough, fell short of commitment. |
BC case study: In the early 2000s, BC was the only province to have enacted “not only employment equity policy but a legislative directive applicable to the provincial government sector”, The Public Service Act Directive on Employment Equity (1994), passed under an NDP government -- similar (although not as comprehensive) as Ontario legislation passed in Ontario by the NDP and then repealed by the Conservative government |
Bakan & Kobayashi argue that instead of a backlash based on arguments against a “quote system” as in Ontario, the BC Directive was simply undermined from within |
At the same time, Disability Assistance rates (Persons With Disabilities) were cut and not increased for more than a decade – BC PWD rates for single persons is roughly $16,300. The poverty rate for Canada is approximately $26,000 for a single person. |
|
|
Chapter 11
discrimination: action or a decision that treats a person or a group badly for reasons such as age race disability |
Harassment: any action conduct or comment, including sexual nature that can be reasonablty expected to cause offence,humiliation, injury, etc. |
since janurary 2021, employers in a federally regulated industry/workplace must develop a workplace harassment policy and violence prevention policy |
in provincial level: every jurisdiction has its own human rights legislation and employment standard |
key components are similar but slight changes |
BC is the only province in canada that only operates using a tribunal only model |
BC does not have human rights legislation that explicitly prohibit sexual harassment based on enumerated grounds. |
they dont serve to prevent harassment. cannot protect those who are unwilling to report incident |
Findings of the LGBTQ study: |
Community: respondents not fully connected to other LGBTQ people, not feeling comfortable/safe |
Work: overrepresented in feminized jobs and sectors, underrepresented in industrial occupations. Likely low income than the average |
Mental Health: 72.6% experienced mental health issues related to work |
Unions and employers: unionized workers more comfortable seeking assistance. still likely to turn to their employer instead |
sexual harassment and racism |
sexual harassment and racism at work are two of most commonly reported and recognized forms that harassment takes |
harassment can be seen as a grey area due to it subtle or overt: flirting, staring, etc. |
|
|
Chapter 12
Temporariness in the Canadian labour market |
Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker Program is one manifestation of this relationship as Preibisch and Encalada Grez argue, an intersectional analysis highlights how categories of gender, race, ethnicity and citizenship are used by the state to create a vulnerable agricultural workforce |
temporary migration schemes for workers have been growing in 2008, the number of temp visas issued exceed the number of people arriving with a right to remain in Canada (landed status) for the first time ever: target developing countries who are racialized in canada |
Women from the global South are the exception in highly masculinized programs that encourage circular migration between countries like Mexico and Jamaica, and Canada – despite women’s longstanding participation in agricultural labour |
Masculinized bias reflects patriarchal culture of farming in Canada, which intersects with the coding of the “family farm” as white |
Women are a smaller part of the global agriculture workforce, and are concentrated in temporary, seasonal, and casual positions and in unpaid household and farm labour women’s precarious status is justified by their responsibility for social reproduction |
Preisbisch and Encalada Grez argue that agricultural work is socially created as low paid, dangerous, and poorly regulated; racialized men from low income countries are constructed as a natural fit for this work, but not for Canadian citizenship |
only social justice movements can help equity goals advance |
Idle no more: |
grassroots movement led by indigenous people, to oppose further dispossition and attempted assimilation of Indigenous peoples |
|
