Description
Book SynopsisThe nature of employment is changing: low wage jobs are increasingly common, fewer workers belong to unions, and workplaces are being transformed through the growth of contracting-out, franchising, and extended supply chains. Closing the Enforcement Gap offers a comprehensive analysis of the enforcement of employment standards in Ontario.
Adopting mixed methods, this work includes qualitative research involving in-depth interviews with workers, community advocates, and enforcement officials; extensive archival research excavating decades of ministerial records; and analysis of a previously untapped source of administrative data collected by Ontario’s Ministry of Labour. The authors reveal and trace the roots of a deepening enforcement gap that pervades nearly all aspects of the regime, demonstrating that the province’s Employment Standards Act (ESA) fails too many workers who rely on the floor of minimum conditions it was devised to provide. Arguably, the
Trade Review
"This book makes a substantial and impressive contribution to knowledge on the politics and outcomes of labor regulation." -- Sean O’Brady, McMaster University * ILR Review *
Table of Contents
List of Graphs, Tables, and Figures Authorship Acknowledgements Abbreviations 1. Mapping the Enforcement Gap: Historical and Contemporary Dynamics Part One: Charting the Employment Standards Enforcement Gap in Ontario 2. Responsibilization, Reprisal and (Non)Remediation: Interrogating the role of an Individualized Complaints System 3. Administering Complaints: Dilemmas of Accountability 4. Recovering Employees' Wages? 5. The Contradictory Role of Workplace Inspections 6. The Deterrence Gap: Towards an Explanation 7. Strengthening Participatory Approaches to Enforcement Part Two: Views from Elsewhere: Contextualizing the Employment Standards Enforcement Gap in Ontario 8. Enforcement of Wage Recovery in Britain 9. Out of the Shadows and into the Spotlight: The Sweeping Evolution of Employment Standards Enforcement in Australia 10. Enforcing Employment Standards in Quebec: One Step Forward, Two Steps Backward? 11. Strategic Enforcement to Confront Wage Theft in the US: An Insider Account 12. Improving Protections for People in Precarious Jobs Notes Supplementary Information on Quantitative & Qualitative Methods: Ontario Component Appendix A: Quantitative Data A.1. Administrative Data A.2. National Surveys Appendix B: Qualitative Data B.1. Worker Interviews B.2. MOL Interviews B.3. Community Representative Interviews Appendix C: Archival Research Bibliography Secondary Sources Primary Sources Government Documents Statistics Archival Sources Index Glossary
