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At the outset of the Thatcher/Reagan era, the employment and labor law systems across six Anglo- American countries could be divided into three pairings: the Wagner Act model of the United States and Canada; the Voluntarist system of collective bargaining and strong unions in the United Kingdom and Ireland; and the highly centralized, legalistic Award systems of Australia and New Zealand. The authors argue that there has been growing convergence in two major areas: First, of labor law toward a private ordering of employment relations in which terms and conditions of work and employment are primarily determined at the level of the enterprise; and second, of individual employment rights, toward a basket of minimum standards that can then be improved upon by the parties. The greatest similarity is found in Canada, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, and Australia. Ireland retains a greater degree of public ordering, while the United States diverges in favoring the interests of employers over those of employees and organized labor. The authors explore reasons for the convergence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the effect of the particular stage of wage settlement on the negotiated wage increase, using micro data on Canadian labor contracts between 1966 and 1975. The sample data base was divided into direct first-stage bargaining, mediation-conciliation, and work stoppage/arbitration, and structural wage equations were estimated for each set of data. The results indicate that as negotiations move from direct bargaining to work stoppage, labor market conditions, measured by a vacancy rate, become less important as an explanatory variable and price catch-up becomes more important. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article critically examines the Supreme Court of Canada's treatment of the contract of employment in its wrongful dismissal jurisprudence over the last 25 years, with the aim of challenging the view that only by exempting the contract of employment from the ordinary workings of contract doctrine or by resorting to public policy considerations can the common law of dismissal provide adequate protection for employees. The Court's jurisprudence reveals a commitment to what this paper calls the presumption of employer freedom, a view of the contract of employment which has its origins in the status-based master and servant relationship and which continues to permeate the common law of wrongful dismissal. This paper offers a more straightforwardly contract-based account of these same entitlements, grounding them not in policy but instead in the work-for-wages exchange at the core of the contract of employment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the North American Agreement on Labor Cooperation (NAALC) by the governments of Canada, Mexico, and the U.S. The NAALC is aimed at improving working conditions and living standards, encourage cooperation, and promote compliance with each labor laws of each state for the mutual benefit of all parties. It is noted that the agreement was designed to promote labor principles.

This paper argues that the deepening and widening of existing worker rights in work environment issues is a necessary condition to promote much needed reform in present day industry, and to reduce the frequency and severity rate of accidents and incidence of industrial disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Incomes policies invariably arouse considerable opposition. It is claimed that they are costly to administer, that, by tinkering with relative prices, they riddle the economy with inefficiencies and that they politicise economic life. It is also argued that where controls do have an impact on wage rates and prices, a point which is by no means universally conceded, agents are driven to (costly) behaviour designed to neutralise effective wage and price ceilings, e.g. wage drift and quality changes. In this paper, the impact of Canada's recent programme of wage controls on wage contract duration was examined. A number of recent papers have suggested that, in addition to contracting costs, inflation uncertainty is an important determinant of contract lengths in the labour market. Using a very large number of individual agreements, it was found that controls are associated with a statistically significant decline in the duration of wage contracts signed in both the private and public sectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Models a union and firm choosing between long labor contracts, in which wages are predetermined, and short contracts, in which wages are flexible. Union's and firm's preferences for short and long contracts, respectively; Model predicting that workers are prepared to enter long contracts if they are compensated with a higher real wage; Testing of the prediction using a sample of Canadian collective agreements.

Discusses the effect of labor contracts to a firm's cost function in Canada. Precommitment device to gain a strategic advantage against other firms; Impact of firms competing in prices; Impact o firms competing in quantities.

Examines the view that wage rigidity in long-term labor contracts matters for the behavior of employment. Search for systematic employment patterns in the first year of long-term contracts; Evidence that in many industries employment over-adjusts to shocks that occur during the contract; Examination of wage dynamics.

Abstract--The emerging literature on the determinants of wage change in contracts containing cost-of-living adjustments is reviewed. Models currently in use are shown to belong to the same class. Strong arguments can be adduced in support of an alternative class of models. It is shown that both classes are nested within a more general framework which contains the models of wage adjustment used to analyse COLA and non COLA contracts in both Canada and the United States Empirical evidence, drawn from a sample of Canadian wage agreements, favours the new class of models. Canadian and U.S. results arc compared. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports an analysis of the effect of changes in legislated minimum wages on negotiated wage increases, using micro data on Canadian labor contracts between 1966 and 1975. The analysis departs from previous studies in that it divides the sample data base into high- and low-wage sectors. The results indicate that union negotiated wage settlements reflect at least partially legislated minimum wage changes over the past contract period. However, this minimum wage effect is restricted to the low-wage sector. In addition, the sectoral results suggest that the relative wage structure should tend to narrow in the long run. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents news concerning law as of April 1982. Impact of Canadian antitrust laws on corporate mergers between Canadian and United States corporations; Elements needed to exercise claims against an intentional interference with a labor contract.