Closing the Enforcement Gap: Improving Employment Standards Protections for People in Precarious Jobs

Leah Faith Vosko

Published by University of Toronto Press 2020

Closing the Enforcement Gap

Improving Employment Standards Protections for People in Precarious Jobs

Leah Faith Vosko

In the series Studies in Comparative Political Economy and Public Policy

https://doi.org/10.3138/9781487534042

Overview
Contents

About this book

The sole source of protection for many workers in precarious jobs, this book reveals gaps in the enforcement of employment standards in Ontario, Canada, and offers a bold vision for change drawing on innovative initiatives emerging elsewhere.

Author / Editor information

Vosko Leah Faith :

Leah F. Vosko is a professor of Political Science and Canada Research Chair in the Political Economy of Gender & Work at York University.

Reviews

Gerhard Bosch, Institut Arbeit und Qualifikation, Universität Duisburg-Essen, Fakultät für Gesellschaftswissenschaften:

"The great merit of this book is that it charted it detail enforcement gaps of considerable depths in Ontario. The fragmentation of companies with extended supply chains and an increasing share of precarious workers have created create an environment where violations of basic workplace laws are everyday occurrences. The authors conclude that enforcement strategies are obviously not keeping up with these workplace changes. Fortunately the reader is not left with this bleak picture. Innovative enforcement strategies in other countries, which are analyzed　in detail, give hope that there is nothing inevitable about leaving so many employees so poorly protected."　　　　　

"A must to read for everyone who wants to understand why violations of basic workplace laws are everyday occurrences and want to understand how vulnerable employees can be better protected"

Janice Fine, School of Management and Labor Relations, Rutgers University:

"For those who want to understand what happens in the implementation phase, after labor laws are passed, and the limitations of our current systems of labor standards enforcement, this is an incredibly important book by one of the foremost experts in our field and her talented team. It is exhaustively researched and nuanced but never loses the forest for the trees. Important questions about agency practices are wrestled to the ground and theory is elegantly integrated throughout."

Sara Charlesworth, School of Management, RMIT University:

"This is an exemplar case study in mixed methods research. It shows the value of a thorough integration of rigorous quantitative analysis with rich interview data, complemented by archival, policy, and regulatory analysis. An important scaffolding of this book, often missing in studies of enforcement, is the attention paid to structural barriers to adequate enforcement - in particular, feminization, racialization, and migration and citizenship status. The analysis draws attention to the ways in which these barriers intersect -- exemplifying the benefits of using critical and feminist political economy conceptual framings."

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Graphs, Tables, and Figures Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Authorship Publicly Available Download PDF	xiii
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	xvii
Abbreviations Publicly Available Download PDF	xix
1 Mapping the Enforcement Gap: Historical and Contemporary Dynamics Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Part One: Charting the Employment Standards Enforcement Gap in Ontario
2 Responsibilization, Reprisal, and (Non-)Remediation: Interrogating the Role of an Individualized Complaints System Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	59
3 Administering Complaints: Dilemmas of Accountability Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	78
4 Recovering Employees’ Wages? Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	97
5 The Contradictory Role of Workplace Inspections Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	124
6 The Deterrence Gap: Towards an Explanation Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	147
7 Strengthening Participatory Approaches to Enforcement Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	177
Part Two: Views from Elsewhere: Contextualizing the Employment Standards Enforcement Gap in Ontario
8 Unpaid Britain: Challenges of Enforcement and Wage Recovery Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	201
9 Out of the Shadows and into the Spotlight: The Sweeping Evolution of Employment Standards Enforcement in Australia Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	221
10 Enforcing Employment Standards in Quebec: One Step Forward, Two Steps Backward? Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	242
11 Improving Workplace Conditions through Strategic Enforcement: The U.S. Experience Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	260
12 Improving Employment Standards Enforcement for People in Precarious Jobs Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	279
Supplementary Information on Quantitative and Qualitative Methods: Ontario Component Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	293
Glossary Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	329
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	351
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	375
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	415

Language: English
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
Audience: College/higher education;Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 472
Illustrations
- Illustrations: 21
- Other: 21 figures
Keywords: employment standards; Ontario; labour; employment equity; labour history; unions; work safety; worker protection; workplace safety; temporary work; work conditions; dangerous work

eBook

Published: February 24, 2020
ISBN: 9781487534042