Weekly Work Report  ~ Weekly Work Report Archive ~ Library Home Page

---

For the Week of September 8, 2003

MEDIA UNIONS WILL COMPETE TO REPRESENT EMPLOYEES AT CANADIAN BROADCASTING CORPORATION: Following a decision by the Canadian Industrial Relations Board on August 27, CBC employees outside Quebec will have the opportunity to vote in November to choose either the Canadian Media Guild (CMG) or the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union (CEP) to represent them. Bringing an end to nearly four years of proceedings, the CIRB ruled in August that the existing bargaining structure for approximately 5,300 employees is unworkable. CIRB Decisions are available on the CIRB website; a related decision in February is online now and the August 27 decision should be available shortly. See the response of the two unions on their websites: CEP and CMG.

THE IMPORTANCE OF HEALTHY WORK ENVIRONMENTS: A recent study of Canadian workers analyzes the extent to which they perceive their work environment as a healthy environment and relates this to job satisfaction, commitment, absenteeism and intent to quit. The 10 page report , titled Correlates of Employees’ Perception of a Healthy Work Environment, was written by Graham Lowe, Grant Schellenberg, and Harry Shannon. It can be downloaded at the Canadian Policy Research Network website.

SALARY INCREASES FORECAST FOR 2004: Hewitt Associates is forecasting average salary increases in Canada of 3.3 percent for 2004. Salaries are expected to increase by 3.7 per cent in Calgary, 3.4 percent in Toronto, and 2.9 per cent in Vancouver and Montreal. Of the 345 companies surveyed, 81% reported using variable pay plans, an increase from 76% in 2002. A summary of the survey can be found on the Globe and Mail’s website, or see the Hewitt press release.

The Hay Group released results from their survey of salary increase intentions on September 9, with similar findings. Average salary increases of 3.0% are forecast, with the following geographic differences reported: a high of 3.5% in Alberta to a low of 2.7% in Quebec. Among cities, Vancouver increases are forecast at 2.9%, Toronto at 3.1% and Montreal at 2.8%. See the Hay Group press release for more details.

NEW SOURCE OF INFORMATION FOR CANADIAN EMPLOYERS HIRING FOREIGN WORKERS: In August, Human Resources Development Canada (HRDC) launched a new website to provide information and forms needed by employers when hiring foreign workers and skilled workers in Canada. It includes special categories for specific industries and occupations such as film and entertainment, agriculture, information technology, academics and live-in caregivers. The site also includes information about hiring foreign workers in Quebec.

BUSINESS ATTITUDES IN ONTARIO AND U.S. COMPARED: On September 4 the Institute for Competitiveness & Prosperity released a survey of business attitudes of the general public, business communities, and business leaders in Ontario and some U.S. states. The report, Striking similarities: Attitudes and Ontario’s prosperity gap reveals that respondents in the two countries hold many similar attitudes: for example, admiration of the small business person and entrepreneurs exceeds that for senior executives in large corporations . Both groups agreed on the factors that are important for competitiveness – excellent customer service, attracting the best staff and keeping costs as low as possible. Ontarians are more likely than the American respondents to agree that immigration has a positive economic impact and are more willing to celebrate the success of local businesses. See the full report at http://www.competeprosper.ca/public/public_papers.html.

MONTHLY PREMIUMS ROSE 13.9% FOR EMPLOYER-SPONSORED HEALTH INSURANCE IN THE U.S.: The newly released 2003 Annual Employer Health Benefits Survey reports on trends in employer health plans in the United States, based on a survey of over 2000 employers of all sizes. Information is provided about coverage, costs, enrollment patterns, health plan choice, recent increases in insurance premiums, current cost-sharing requirements for employees, and employers’ attitudes and opinions about controlling rising health care costs. See the Henry J Kaiser Family Foundation website at http://www.kff.org/content/2003/20030909a/ for links to an 8 page executive summary or to the full report, and to an archive of earlier reports back to 1998. This annual survey has been conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Health Research and Educational Trust since 1999; from 1991-98 it was conducted by KPMG Peat Marwick.

ONTARIO’S MINIMUM WAGE: The Ontario Needs a Raise Coalition has announced a news conference on September 10th with economists Doug Peters, Arthur Donner, and Jim Stanford of the CAW as speakers. The news conference and a series of community events throughout the province are part of the Living Wage - Living Income campaign of the Ontario Social Justice Coalition and are intended to raise the issue of the minimum wage level in the Ontario provincial election. The current Ontario minimum wage is $6.85 (see the Ontario Ministry of Labour fact sheet). See the press release about the news conference or the Ontario Coalition for Social Justice website.

GLOBAL COMPETITION UNDER FREE TRADE: A report released on September 8 by Statistics Canada presents evidence that tariff reductions under free trade exposed firms to increased global competition, which drove out less efficient firms. Go to the Statistics Canada website at http://www.statcan.ca/english/IPS/Data/11F0027MIE2003014.htm to download a free PDF version of the Economic Analysis Working Paper #14, The effect of tariff reductions on firm size and firm turnover in Canadian manufacturing.

UNEMPLOYMENT RATE AT 8.0% IN AUGUST: On September 5 Statistics Canada released its monthly Labour Force Survey for August, revealing that the unemployment rate had increased by .2% to 8%. This is the highest rate since December 2001, and is largely attributed to a loss of 22,000 full time jobs. In Ontario, jobs were gained in manufacturing, but not enough to offset large losses in professional, scientific and technical services employment. The Ontario-U.S. power outage on August 14 is not thought to have had an impact on the statistics. See more details of the official statistics at Statistics Canada, or read commentaries and reaction by Matthew Ingram Is Jobless Recovery a good thing? ; Jobs melt away in Canada in August by CIBC; or No Job creation so far this year by Andrew Jackson of the Canadian Labour Congress.

The U.S. employment statistics, also released on September 5, reported the unemployment rate essentially unchangedat 6.1% in August according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.