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This book examines how the law has limitations to the extent that it can combat repression, isolation, and inequality. The main point the book explores is that isolation and inequality cannot be solved by driving up wages and having better working conditions. The true divide between management and workers is the inability of management to see the workers as people, and not just numbers. "The Swiss novelist Max Frisch remarked at the time, 'We imported workers and got men instead.'" This encapsulates the dilemma of management - how to distance one's self enough from workers to command respect yet not too distant as to be seen as inhumane. How can isolation and inequality within the workplace be overcome?
Regulation and Inequality at Work shows how workers can have an increased voice by using tools outside of the typical legal ones. Without state protection, the rights can be viewed as less stringent. Working outside the system allows for greater malleability and flexibility to be able to cater to individual workers in individual workplaces. Workers' rights are about better working conditions, hourly wages, and benefits, but are also about being treated in a more civilized manner where one's humanity is recognized. Only through all of these parts working together will a true version of workers' rights emerge-one where workers are not viewed as mere tools but within and of the system itself. It shows the latest state of knowledge on the topic and will be of interest both to students at an advanced level, academics and reflective practitioners in the fields of business and company law, labour law, and employment law.
List of contents
Overview of the book
Chapter One - Historical background
North America
The divergent paths of corporate law and labour law
Brief historical background of the corporation
Winnipeg General Strike
Workers in Developing Countries: Is An Obligation Implied or Imposed?
The Specter of the Specter of Marx
Workers' Plight
1800s
1900s
2000s
Nike
Arm's Length exploitation
On the factory floor
Neoliberalism and Ontario laws in the 1990s
Canadian legislation - the Ontario government under Harris
Bill 7 (1995)
Bill 31 (1998)
Bill 139 (2000)
Bibliography for Chapter One
Chapter Two - Current Structure of Labour and Employment Law
Canada
Right to Strike
Framework of Fairness Agreement
Recognition Strikes
The Framework of Fairness Agreement
Criticism of the FFA
Works Councils and the German Model
The German Model
Factory Occupations
U.S.A.
Precarious work
Independent Workers?
Employees, Workers, or something else entirely?
Everyone's a critic - yet no one is in charge
Let me talk to your manager - wait, you don't have one?
No manager. Who trained you?
Who is immune?
Wavering Work
Gigging the Economy: What's Old is New Again
Platfor
About the author
Vanisha H. Sukdeo is a Course Instructor of Law at Osgoode Hall Law School, York University, Canada.
Summary
The book shows how workers can have an increased voice by using tools outside of typical law. Without state protection, rights can be less stringent. Working outside the system allows for malleability, catering to individual workers and ensuring better working conditions and benefits, but additionally, civilized treatment which recognizes humani
