ALLIANCE ON CONTINGENT EMPLOYMENT

The objective of the Community University Research Alliance on contingent work (or ACE) is to examine the growth of precarious employment in order to foster new social, statistical, legal, political and economic analyses of this phenomenon grounded in workers' experiences of their work, and directed at improving their quality and conditions of work and health.

The research of the Alliance is divided into four interlocking streams. Each stream is designed to explore the intersections of race, class, gender and other social locations shaping the legal and social regulation of contingent work, and to take workers' experiences as its point of departure in defining research questions, devising methodological tools and disseminating findings.

Statistics: The Shape, Size, and and Location of Precarious Employment in Canada

This stream is examining the shape, size and location of the precarious workforce. There are gaps and inconsistencies in the ways that precarious employment is conceptualized and measured. ACE is identifying these gaps, and working with Statistics Canada to analyse and compile data, and clarify how many people labour in precarious forms of employment, such as part-time...

Work Organization and Health

This stream is examining the impact of precarious employment on workers' health. Workers in Canada are facing major changes in the organization of their work. At the same time, our knowledge of the ways in which work makes people healthy - or sick - is transforming. The physical demands of jobs and work environments are increasingly cited as important factors in predicting workplace-related injuries and illnesses. Researchers are realizing, moreover, that job design, the nature of social interactions in the workplace, and the structure of organizations shape workers' health. The multiple and varied models of work organization confronted by workers in precarious employment requires a new approach to occupational health and safety.

Labour Laws, Legislation, and Policy

Temporary workers, self employed workers, independent contractors, and part-time workers fall outside of a range of labour and social protections. This stream is preparing case studies of workers in precarious employment, including a book on solo self-employment, as well as examining jurisdictional...

Association Building

Precarious workers are often isolated because of where and how they work. Exciting new groups in Toronto, Montreal, and other parts of Canada and the U.S. are forming to support the precariously employed. This stream is studying those efforts in Toronto and Montreal, and compiling and analyse stories about new forms of organizing amongst workers resisting precarious employment.