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Political Science General

Closing the Enforcement Gap

Improving Employment Standards Protections for People in Precarious Jobs

by (author) Leah Faith Vosko

Publisher
University of Toronto Press
Initial publish date
Mar 2020
Category
General, General, General
  • Hardback

    ISBN
    9781487506391
    Publish Date
    Mar 2020
    List Price
    $122.00
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9781487524319
    Publish Date
    Mar 2020
    List Price
    $53.00
  • eBook

    ISBN
    9781487534059
    Publish Date
    Feb 2020
    List Price
    $53.00

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Description

The 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, there is nothing inevitable about the enforcement gap in Ontario or for that matter elsewhere. Through contributions from leading employment standards enforcement scholars in the US, the UK, and Australia, as well as Quebec, Closing the Enforcement Gap surveys innovative enforcement models that are emerging in a variety of jurisdictions and sets out a bold vision for strengthening employment standards enforcement.

 

Closing the Enforcement Gap Research Group

 

Leah F. Vosko
Guliz Akkaymak
Rebecca Casey
Shelley Condratto
John Grundy
Alan Hall
Alice Hoe
Kiran Mirchandani
Andrea M. Noack
Urvashi Soni-Sinha
Mercedes Steedman
Mark P. Thomas
Eric M. Tucker

 

 

International/Quebec ContributorsNick Clark
Dalia Gesualdi-Fecteau
Tess Hardy
John Howe
Guylaine Vallée
David Weil

 

About the author

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

Leah Faith Vosko's profile page

Awards

  • Winner, Best Book Prize in Work and Labour Studies The Canadian Association of Work and Labour Studies

Editorial Reviews

"This book makes a substantial and impressive contribution to knowledge on the politics and outcomes of labor regulation."

<em>ILR Review</em>