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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]

Canadian employees working under indefinite-term employment contracts are presumptively entitled to "reasonable notice" of dismissal. Employees dismissed without just cause or reasonable notice can sue for "severance pay in lieu of reasonable notice." The damages payable (which can range up to 24 months' wages) reflect the compensation the employee would have earned during the reasonable notice period. Although there is no statutory or common law formula for determining reasonable notice, various factors, such as the employee's position, tenure, and age, and extant labour market conditions, are relevant considerations. The present study addresses the issue of whether women face gender-based discrimination (or gain any advantage) in the determination of their reasonable notice entitlement. This study examines the impact of gender on negotiated outcomes in wrongful dismissal claims, and the results indicate that women suffer a marked disadvantage in negotiated severance pay settlements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We use data from indexed and nonindexed Canadian wage agreements to study the intracontract profile of nominal and real wages. Allowing for endogenous switching between the two indexation categories, we conclude that the number of nominal wage revisions depends on contract duration, expected inflation, and the cost of adjusting wages. Our results have implications for the menu cost, overlapping contracts, dynamic monopoly union, and efficient bargain literatures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I present a model in which I show that labor contracts with wages indexed to prices have longer optimal contract lengths and therefore are more likely to adopt performance-related pay. There is empirical support for these predictions in Canadian collective-bargaining agreements. Contract durations are longer in indexed contracts. Performance-related pay is more than twice as likely to be adopted and present in indexed contracts and more likely to be adopted in contracts with longer durations. [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]

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]

The article reports on the possibility that general strike would be launched by medical residents in Quebec, following differences in working hours and pay contracts. Other issues raised by medical residents include a demand of government for more shifts and longer hours at night, a 17 percentage increase in wages, and maternity and educational leaves. The statement of Health Minister Gaetan Barrette about these issues are offered.