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This article concerns a case study in labor history which represents an interesting example of union action in a workers' community characterized by intersections between ethnic and class belonging. The focus of the article is on labor conflicts in Toronto's construction industry between 1968 and 1973. In that period, the Torontonian residential sector represented a sort of ethnic niche dominated by Italian immigrants, who populated this industry both as workers and as contractors. At the same time, important economic, technological, and organizational innovations formed part of this niche. In particular, it refers to the new Toronto real estate boom and to the introduction of new building techniques such as the drywall technique, or concrete forming, as well as business innovations such as the flying form or the creation of teamwork. This article tells the story of successful unionization in a peculiar industry dominated by continuous formal and informal bargaining. Moreover, the powerful presence of the phenomenon of mafiosi and widespread racism made the context still more difficult. In this situation, despite the ambiguities, the final result was the unionization of thousands of workers and the successful signing of collective contracts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses a benefit index based on collective agreements in each Canadian province to understand the effects employee contracts have on absenteeism of full-time nurses. In particular, I estimate the impact of this benefit index on the number of hours nurses take off in a reference week. Month and year dummy variables, as well as nurses' individual and work-related characteristics, are included in both ordinary least squares and two-part model regressions. My main finding implies full-time nurses in the most generous collective agreement show a nineteen percent increase in the number of hours taken off work in comparison to the least generous collective agreement. This study illustrates how the generosity of benefits in collective agreements varies the rate of absenteeism and highlights that employees and employers still have gains to be made from readjusting employee contracts. [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]

This paper emerges from a narrative inquiry focused on academics' perceptions of marginalization and belonging in Canadian universities. Through multiple conversational interviews over a 4-year period, the 15 participants described the ways they came to learn that the academy is not the benevolent place they had at one time imagined. Participants once believed their employment contracts were reciprocal agreements of loyalty with their institutions. We heard echoes of Paul Simon's song, 'There Must be Fifty Ways to Leave Your Lover' as the participants shared stories of their efforts to disengage from their contractual agreements when they no longer felt desired or appreciated by their institutions. Their stories reflect a gradual recognition that academic troth is premised on the ruling relations of the academy and that self-preservation sometimes demands disengagement. We emphasize the ways that disengagement leads to both personal and communal loss. [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]

This article examines the legacy of the 1909 House of Lords decision in Addis in both Canada and the UK by closely analysing a key case from each jurisdiction: Wallace v United Grain Growers and Johnson v Unisys. It underlines the continuing strong tendency to treat wrongful dismissal solely as breach of the notice term and considers the remedial consequences of that stance. [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.

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.