Please excuse any cross-postings. If you would like additional information on the following project please visit our website at http://www.cprn.org, or contact Dr. Graham Lowe, Director of the Work Network, CPRN and Professor of Sociology at the University of Alberta via [EMAIL PROTECTED] ************************************************************** Changing Employment Relationships: Implications for Workers, Employers and Public Policy A new research project by Canadian Policy Research Networks Two decades of breathtaking economic change in Canada have transformed labour markets and workplaces. Researchers have documented many of these new work and labour market trends: rising non-standard work, the widening gap between ‘good jobs’ and ‘bad jobs’, the reform of income support programs, the information technology revolution, and economic globalization. Yet, we still know little about the impact of economic change on the employment relationships that underlie these work structures. Embedded in employment relationships are the rights, obligations, expectations and values that enable the exchange of work effort for pay in the labour market. Fundamental change in these relationships has potentially huge implications: economic (e.g., pay); social (e.g., cooperation, power, trust, commitment); legal (e.g., collective agreements, employment legislation); and social insurance (e.g., CPP, EI, Worker’ Compensation). Signs that work relationships are being redefined can be found in debates about the end of the post-WWII ‘employment contract’, the widely perceived decline of job security, the impact of downsizing and contracting out on workers at all levels, the potential of technology to alter when and where work is done, and the implications of nonstandard work arrangements for how workers communicate and cooperate with each other. Consistent with CPRN’s commitment to furthering constructive public policy debates, this project will help workers, employers, governments, unions and other labour market stakeholders respond to the challenges posed by changing employment relationships. Employers’ concerns about changing employment relationships include the challenges these pose for skill development, recruitment and retention, loyalty and commitment, and staffing flexibility. Unions are grappling with how to adapt collective bargaining and organizing strategies to new employment relationships embodied in outsourcing, temporary and contract work, and teleworking. Workers and their families are concerned about economic security and job quality. In policy terms, the provision of public goods such as income support and education and training is based on assumptions about the kind of employment relations that characterize an individual’s work life. Four research and policy questions guide the project: 1. How have employment relationships changed since the mid-1970s and what factors account for these changes? 2. What are the consequences of changes in employment relationships for individual workers and for employers? 3. How do new employment relationships affect the ability of workers to obtain collective representation and how can collective bargaining be adapted to meet the changing needs of workers? 4. What are the public policy implications of changing employment relations? The project will have four components: 1. A Discussion Paper that will explore how employment relationships are changing and set out the analytic tools needed to understand these changes. 2. A Roundtable that will bring together 25-30 leading researchers, policy experts and representatives from a range of stakeholder groups in order to frame a comprehensive set of policy issues that will inform the project’s research. 3. Two integrated Empirical Studies (a national survey and a series of focus groups) designed to investigate the experiences, attitudes and responses of workers and employers regarding changes in employment relationships. 4. A short synthesis report (spring 2000) that communicates the findings to a wide audience. The project team comprises: Graham Lowe, Director, Work Network and Professor of Sociology at the University of Alberta; Judith Maxwell, President of CPRN; Kathryn McMullen, Network Leader with CPRN’s Work Network; Katie Davidman, Researcher with the Work Network; and Joe Peters, Researcher with the Work Network. For additional information including the full project proposal, please visit our website at http://www.cprn.org. or contact: Graham Lowe Tel: (403) 908-2163 Fax: (403) 432-1466 email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Kathryn McMullen Tel: (613) 567-7343 Fax: (613) 567-7640 email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
