ALLIANCE ON CONTINGENT EMPLOYMENT

LABOUR LAWS, LEGISLATION, AND POLICY

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This stream of research focuses on the relationship between precarious employment and labour legislation, laws, regulations and policies and the qualitative dimensions of precarious employment. Research questions include:

1. To what extent are employment and labour legislation, laws, regulation and policies broadly premised on a norm of a standard employment relationship? What are the features of that norm, not only in terms of the characteristics of employment, but also the characteristics of the worker, sector and occupation?
2. How, and to what extent, are workers in precarious employment covered under prevailing employment and labour legislation, laws, regulations and policies? Is there a lack of fit between employment and labour law and policy and precarious work? If so, how does this disjuncture affect the work lives and work/family balance of workers?
3. Is there a convergence in the legal regulation of standard employment and workers in precarious employment either in form or practice? Is standard employment polarizing and deteriorating to the extent that there is little to distinguish standard work from precarious work?
4. What is the relationship between the existence of legal regulation for workers in precarious employment and its effectiveness? How are legal norms affected or influenced by legal procedures for enforcement? What is the relationship between enforcement mechanisms and enforcement practices?
5. What are the prospects and policy options for re-regulating the employment relationship so that employment and labour laws, regulations and polices reflect more accurately the reality of today's labour market where the standard employment relationship is declining and non-standard forms of employment are spreading?
6. Is it possible to develop a set of principles for developing and evaluating new policies for regulating the plurality of employment relationships in ways that foster flexibility, security, equity and social cohesion?
7. How can employment and labour laws and policy balance the needs of employers for flexibility in a globally competitive market and the needs of workers for income stability and a healthy work environment?

A central aim of this stream is to develop policy models for re-regulating the employment relationship and new modes of collective representation. There is a growing body of literature addressing these questions at the provincial and international, but little of this research has yet to be harnessed to a region specific set of case studies. This stream is filling this gap through a range of case studies in Canada and Quebec.