Global Labour Speaker Series: Panel presents new research on employment standards enforcement

A panel of researchers will examine employment standards as part of the next instalment of the Global Labour Speaker Series presented by the Global Labour Research Centre at York University. The panel will take place May 14, from 11am to 1pm in S701 Ross Building.

Employment standards set the minimum terms and conditions in areas such as wages, working time, vacations and leaves, and termination and severance of employment. In Ontario, where only 28 per cent of workplaces have unions, over six million workers rely on employment standards as the only source of workplace protection. Yet available research shows that employment standards violations are widespread, while enforcement mechanisms remain relatively weak.

The research presented by this panel comes from a long-term multidisciplinary study of employment standards enforcement that explores the dimensions and shape of employment standards violations, current enforcement practices and alternative approaches that might better meet the need to ensure that precarious workers are able to enjoy basic labour market protections. For more on that research, visit http://closeesgap.ca/.

Presenting at the panel are John Grundy, postdoctoral scholar in the School of Occupational Therapy, Western University; Alan Hall, professor of sociology, Memorial University; Andrea Noack, professor of sociology, Ryerson University; Elliot Siemiatycki, postdoctoral fellow, Gender and Work, York University; Mark Thomas, professor of sociology and the co-director of the Global Labour Research Centre, York University; Osgoode Hall Law School Professor Eric Tucker and York University political science Professor Leah Vosko, Canada Research Chair in the Political Economy of Gender and Work.

This panel is free and open to the public.