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21 Canadian Lab. & Emp. L.J. 361 (2018)
A Bridge Too Far: Using Internal Workplace Committees to Ensure Employment Standards Compliance and Plug the Representation Gap in the Wager Act Model

handle is hein.journals/canlemj21 and id is 369 raw text is: A Bridge Too Far? Using Internal Workplace Committees to Ensure Employment Standards Compliance and Plug the Representation Gap in the Wagner Act Model Rafael Gomez & Sean O'Connor* For more than eighty years, the Wagner Act model of employee rep- resentation, establishing the right of workers to organize independently and bargain collectively at an establishment level, has been an almost exclusive form of worker voice in North America. While much has been accomplished under the Wagner Act model, serious gaps remain, particularly as seen in the growing number of unrepresented workers, including those in non-standard jobs performing precarious work. This paper explains how enforcing employ- ment standards within an organization - as opposed to relying exclusively on an external labour inspection system - can better ensure compliance with employment standards legislation and provide a mechanism for employee rep- resentation. The authors argue that this can be done by increasing worker voice where little now exists, while at the same time providing employers with a forum in which to develop and implement meaningful and productive workplace innov- ations. The mechanism which the authors propose for achieving these objectives is to establish statutory Employment Standards Compliance Committees, to be modelled on existing Joint Health and Safety Committees. * Rafael Gomez is Professor of Employment Relations and Director of the Centre for Industrial Relations and Human Resources, University of Toronto. Sean O'Connor is a recent LLM graduate and a former Queen's Park chief-of-staff to the Minister of Labour and other elected cabinet officials. This paper was prepared for the 9th Western Law/Fasken Martineau Conference on Labour Law at Western University in London, Ontario on November 4, 2017. The paper is based in part on two unpublished research papers: Employee Voice and Representation in the New World of Work: Issues and Options for Ontario, written by Rafael Gomez for Ontario's Changing Workplaces Review, and Is it Time for European-Style Works Councils in North America, originally pre- pared by Sean O'Connor as a Master's research paper.

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