ALF V1

Plans announced by the provincial government today to keep Albertans working longer are being viewed with concern by the labour movement.

“If Employment and Immigration Minister Thomas Lukaszuk is talking about providing supports and incentives to people who voluntarily choose to work longer, that’s one thing,” says Gil McGowan, president of the Alberta Federation of Labour (AFL), which represents 140,000 workers. “But if he’s talking about forcing people to work past retirement age against their choice, then he’s going to have a war on his hands. Working Albertans won’t take kindly to having their retirement dreams undermined or taken away.”

McGowan criticized the consultation process that led to today’s announcement, saying it was another example of the government listening to employers, but doing little to seek the opinions of workers.

“It appears there were  months of consultations with employers who want to keep their employees working longer, but little consultation with those who will be most affected – the workers themselves,” he says.

“Workers deserve to be able to look forward to retirement security at the end of their careers. The labour shortage must not be used as an excuse to allow employers to weaken retirement and pension policies so that people are forced to keep working by diminishing financial circumstances.”

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Contact:          Gil McGowan, president, Alberta Federation of Labour @ 780-218-9888

Terry Inigo-Jones, AFL Communications Officer, 780-910-1137

There are widespread violations of employment standards for working children and adolescents in Alberta, according to a study by the Alberta Federation of Labour (AFL) and Athabasca University.

"Tens of thousands of adolescent Albertans, aged 12 to 14, are employed and 21 per cent of them work in illegal jobs," said Gil McGowan, president of AFL, which represents 140,000 workers. "The story for child workers, aged 9 to 11, is even worse, with 78 per cent doing work prohibited by the government."

Underage workers need more than a few targeted inspections, said McGowan.

“Alberta's complaints-driven employment standards system does not work for families in this province," she said, adding Alberta's Dickensian decision to allow children as young as 12 to work in restaurants has exacerbated the problem.

"There is no incentive for employers to ensure children and adolescents are working in safe and legal situations or that they are being paid appropriately. Violations of employment standards laws simply result in a cease-and-desist order or an order to pay wages owed."

The study by Bob Barnetson, an assistant professor of labour relations at the Centre for Work and Community Studies at Athabasca University in Edmonton, involved a survey of 1,200 Alberta homes as well as followup interviews with parents and children or adolescents who participate in the workforce.

The interview data raised further concerns about potentially widespread violations of hours of work, minimum wage, call-in pay, minimum age, legal deductions and restaurant industry regulations, said the study “Effectiveness of complaint-driven regulation of child labour in Alberta” in Just Labour.

“This degree of non-compliance suggests that complaint-driven enforcement may not be an effective way to regulate child labour. The inability of potential complainants to recognize violations and their unwillingness to trigger enforcement appear to be key issues.”

Key study findings include:

• In 2009, 6.3 per cent of children had jobs — 8,200 children aged nine to 11. A total of 78 per cent of the jobs done by children were illegal, such as newspaper delivery or janitorial services. The remaining 22 per cent had jobs such as babysitting and yard work.

• 26,000 adolescent workers (12 to 14) were employed. More than 21 per cent worked in prohibited occupations (such as janitorial services, sports teams or working on a golf course). By contrast, 28.6 per cent of jobs appear to be legal types of employment (such as newspaper delivery, retail sales, restaurants or agriculture). The remaining 50 per cent of jobs were babysitting and yard work.

The effect of improbable enforcement may be exacerbated by the financial incentive employers have to not comply as well as the lack of meaningful consequence for violations, said the study.

“It may be possible to increase compliance with child labour laws by supplementing complaint-driven enforcement with significant numbers of random inspections.”

The AFL called on Alberta's Employment Minister Thomas Lukaszuk to immediately reverse the decision to allow children as young as 12 to work in restaurants and commit to a continuing program of random proactive employment standards inspections for employers who are known to employ underage workers. The minister also needs to make immediate changes to employment standards enforcement mechanisms and ensure prosecution of employers that break the law, said McGowan.

A copy of this study can be found at Just Labour.

HR Reporter, Thurs Apr 28 2011

Post Author: AllGov. Bio: AllGov.com provides up-to-date news about more than 300 branches of the U.S. government, most of which operate under the radar of the media, even when they have annual budgets of billions of dollars. AllGov tells you what each agency says it does, what it really does, and who is making a profit from the agency. It also gives a history of the agency, illuminates controversies relating to the agency and shares critiques and suggested reforms from both the left and the right. The Meet Your Government section provides profiles of hundreds of department and agency heads, as well as ambassadors to and from the United States.
 
govinthelab.org, Sun Apr 24 2011

The Alberta Federation of Labour claims tens of thousands of working Alberta children are having their rights violated.

Of an estimated 26,000 children aged 12 to 14 with jobs, 21 per cent were working in prohibited industries, according to a study conducted by Athabasca University. For the estimated 8,200 nine-to 12-year-olds in the workforce, 78 per cent were working illegally.

AFL president Gil McGowan said the results confirm fears of underageworker abuse dating back to 2005 when Alberta changed employment standards to allow children as young as 12 to work in restaurants. He said the issue goes unreported. "The problem with the employment standards system as it currently exists is it's a complaintdriven system," he said. "Experience tells us children simply won't lodge complaints because they don't know their rights or don't have the confidence to stand up to employers."

The study, published in the journal Just Labour, randomly surveyed 1,200 homes across the province in 2008 and 2009. Researchers interviewed 20 children, who were found to be working illegally, about their employment conditions. It found most of the children under 12 working illegally were employed delivering newspapers and performing janitorial services. Those 12-14 were primarily employed by sports teams or golf courses or as janitors.

In Alberta, adolescents between 12 and 14 are only permitted to work certain food-service jobs, delivering items such as newspapers and small items, or as retail and office clerks. They can't be asked to work longer than two hours on a school day, or eight hours on weekends and holidays, and cannot work after 9 p.m. or before 6 a.m.

Minister of Employment and Immigration Thomas Lukaszuk said his office had received no such complaints, and questioned why the AFL hadn't reported these instances of abuse against child workers after encountering them.

Edmonton Journal, Apr 22 2011
By Conal Pierse

Widespread violations of child-labour rules revealed in study

• Tens of thousands of adolescent Albertans are in the workforce – 21 per cent of them in illegal jobs, according to an Alberta Federation of Labour study. It found there were widespread violations of employment standards for adolescents and children in the province.  For more information...

Government performance on oil sands shameful

• The Auditor General's report revealed the Progressive Conservative government has failed to institute a way of tracking its revenue from oil-sands operations, meaning it might have foregone billions of dollars in revenue. Meanwhile, Premier Stelmach and others in the government continue to act as pitch men for a pipeline company that wants to ship raw bitumen – and good jobs – out of the province.  For more on AG press release ... and for Keystone XL release ...

Federal Conservatives accused of hypocrisy in dealing with immigrants

• The Conservative Party of Canada reaches out to immigrants Canadians with one hand, but crafts policies that punish them with the other. It has cut targets for real immigration, while increasing the number of Temporary Foreign Workers (TFWs), who have little protection from abusive employers and recruitment agencies. New rules introduced this month will make it almost impossible for TFWs to even consider becoming citizens. For more information ...

Albertans warned to brace for Tea Party policies

• The infamous billionaire Koch brothers from Kansas – who have spent tens of millions of dollars funding climate-change deniers and the extreme right-wing Tea Party in the U.S. – have hired a lobbyist to push the Alberta government on taxation, economic development and energy and resource issues. Meanwhile, the AFL revealed that a provincial cabinet minister had links to an organization calling for restrictions to collective-bargaining rights in Alberta. For AFL press release ... and for the Edmonton Journal news item ...

Urgent Action

Gate Gourmet locks out workers in Edmonton - About 60 workers at Gate Gourmet's facility at Edmonton International Airport have been locked out after rejecting a final offer from the company that included a three-year wage freeze. The employees, represented by UFCW 401, had been seeking only moderate increases that would barely allow them to keep up with the rising cost of living. Show your support by joining them on the picket line at Airport Road. For more ...

Events

• April 28 - International Day of Mourning
• April 28 - May 1 – AFL Convention
• May 1 – May Day
• May 9-13 – CLC Convention
• May 17 - International Day Against Homophobia
• May 21 - International Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development

Did you know ...

• 8,200 Alberta children aged nine to 11 have jobs.
• 78 per cent of the jobs done by children are clearly illegal, including newspaper delivery and janitorial services.
• 26,000 adolescents, aged 12-14, work in Alberta.
• More than 21 per cent of working adolescents are employed in prohibited occupations, including janitorial services, sports teams and working on golf courses.
• 50 per cent of the jobs done by adolescents fall into the grey area of babysitting and yard work.
•  The AFL study reveals that violations of child-labour laws included working too many hours, being paid less than minimum wage and working in prohibited jobs or performing prohibited tasks.
• The study also showed that parents did not fully understand their children's rights and had difficulty monitoring workplace conditions. For more ...

On Tuesday 12 April 2011, the Swazi authorities responded with brutal repression and hundreds of arrests to peaceful protest actions from workers and pro-democracy activists. The offices of the Swaziland Federation of Trade Unions (SFTU) were raided, and the General Secretary of the Swaziland Federation of Labour (SFL) was arrested, among many others. The violence used by the authorities was hugely disproportionate, and the Swazi government has threatened not to allow trade union activities anymore in the future. The protests, which were announced correctly and well in advance, and conducted in a peaceful way to support legitimate demands for more democratic rights for Swaziland’s impoverished citizens, were suppressed by heavily armed police and military, which occupied the city of Manzini as well as other important centres with ostentatious display of power. In doing so, they used teargas against protestors, arrested hundreds of people, among which at least twenty two trade union leaders, and there are even reports that live ammunition was fired. Repression was particularly vigourous in the city of Manzini, where paramilitary police in full riot gear, including shields and rifles, marched through the streets. In the course of the morning, hundreds of people were arrested, and four trade union activists were still missing on 15 April. Furthermore, security forces started arresting everyone wearing a political party T-shirt or cap. Students at the Swaziland Kwaluseni Campus were confined to the campus, which amounts to arrest.

Simultaneaously, the offices of the Swaziland Federation of Trade Unions, the Swazi National Association of Teachers and the National Public Services and Allied Workers Union were raided by heavily armed security forces. The police started to use rubber bullets to disperse the crowds. It started preventing all buses from going to the meeting points and started to arrest all the people on them, reportedly even without checking whether they were going to take part in the demonstrations or not. A number of buses was even driven to far away forests or the mountainous region on the border with South Africa, and the activists who were on them were left in remote places without transportation. The authorities at one point even sent in the Red Berets, a special Swazi Army branch. In and around four protest centres, including the bus rank in Manzini and the Swazi National Association of Teachers Centre, there were numerous skirmishes, with security forces dispersing the crowds, who subsequently regrouped, time and again. The army eventually declared a curfew in Manzini, ordering the people to empty the city’s streets after 9 pm.The International Trade Union Confederatoin firmly protested to the Swazi government and invites you to do the same.

Act Now!, Apr 21 2011

The debate over TransCanada Corp.'s Keystone XL oil pipeline has forced Americans to confront their complicity in the development of Canada's oilsands. Northeastern Alberta would still be moose pasture, after all, if not for the world's biggest oil consumer on our doorstep. With the release of a favourable environmental impact statement on April 15, the U.S. State Department moved a step closer to approving Keystone XL. But the administration has lurched from one side to the other on the issue before, and the only certainty is that the final outcome will reflect wide-ranging political priorities, not narrow regulatory ones.

The proposed 2,673-kilometre line from Hardisty, Alta., to coastal Texas not only lays bare the causal relationship between American demand and what many consider an environmental catastrophe in Canada. It also faces the challenge of any greenfield infrastructure project in this day and age, convincing stakeholders (in this case, all the way down the Great Plains states) to let it pass. While 39 Republican members of Congress signed a letter supporting the project, the governor and two senators from Nebraska, and landowner groups are opposed. The Environmental Protection Agency, meanwhile, asked State to review its environmental impact assessment.

"It's fascinating that this pipeline has become a symbol for so many issues," says Steven Paget, energy infrastructure analyst with FirstEnergy Capital in Calgary. For its supporters, it's a symbol of energy security. For its detractors, it's a symbol of unwillingness to combat climate change or heed the risks of a spill like those Enbridge experienced in the Midwest last summer.

Since the State Department began its review of Keystone XL in 2008, it has prolonged discussion and repeatedly put off a decision, prompting a frustrated Alberta energy minister, Ron Liepert to wish out loud that President Barack Obama would "sign the bloody order." There remains, of course, the possibility he won't. "The political signal that would send would be pretty significant," allows Brenda Kenny, president and CEO of the Canadian Energy Pipeline Association. But it won't, as Keystone's environmentalist opponents hope, curtail future oilsands development; bitumen exports to the U.S. have already soared without the pipeline expansion. What it will do is hamper the efficiency of North America's oil markets.

As the civil war in Libya illustrated recently, there is no one price for a barrel of oil, with the price varying depending on grade and location. Brent, the ocean-going tanker standard, shot up to US$116 on fears of supply disruptions, even as West Texas Intermediate (WTI), the North American benchmark, had not yet crossed the $100 threshold. The storage hub for WTI delivery is Cushing, Okla., currently the end of the line for the Keystone system, which in part explains the discounted prices there. North America's traditional pipeline configurations run west-east, bringing Albertan crude to refineries in Ontario, Quebec and the U.S. Midwest. However a much larger market, representing nearly half of North American refining capacity, lies on the Gulf Coast of Texas and Louisiana, built up to handle crude from Texas and offshore, as well as imports from Mexico and Venezuela. Imports from the latter two countries are in decline, leaving the Gulf Coast refineries thirsty for new feedstock. Moreover, many of them are designed to process heavy grades from Venezuela. It doesn't take much tweaking for them to handle bitumen from the oilsands, making it unnecessary for oil producers to build multi-billion-dollar upgraders in Canada.

Until 2006, however, you couldn't get there from here. That year Enbridge Inc. reversed the flow on an old line it had acquired to bring oil from the Midwest to Cushing — a roundabout solution, but it worked, immediately shrinking the price gap between "Edmonton par" and WTI from more than US$10 a barrel to mere pennies. Since then, other such patches have been added, increasing the flow of bitumen to the Gulf. The Keystone Gulf Coast Expansion, or Keystone XL, would bolster that network with the first north-south line direct from Alberta to Texas, its 500,000-barrel-per-day capacity transporting a quarter of Canada's current oil exports to the U.S. Rivals Kinder Morgan and Enbridge have similar proposals in the works, along with interim solutions such as piping bitumen all the way to the East Coast for transport by tanker to Texas.

While doing little to hinder oilsands development, a rejection would prolong price distortions in oil markets. "Keystone solves a lot of American problems, especially by connecting Cushing to the Gulf Coast," where the same barrel sells for about $10 more, Paget says. A "no" from the State Department would cause pipeline companies to redirect capital to fixing those inefficiencies in piecemeal ways. Without crossing an international boundary, these band-aids would be regulated by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, not State, with less risk of their becoming politicized.

The reason the Alberta Federation of Labour would like to see Keystone crumble is the hope of retaining upgrader jobs. "Good jobs are leaking out of the province right now," AFL president Gil McGowan says. "But that leak will turn into a gusher if the Keystone XL pipeline is approved." Whether a halt to Keystone would create jobs in Canada is debatable, though. The economic reasons for refining bitumen in the U.S. were compelling even before you could ship it to Texas, as evidenced by the Midwestern refineries converted to handle the ultra-heavy crude. Jobs are already on the move in response to price differentials, and the oil, one way or another, will follow.

Canadian Business Online, Apr 21 2011

A new study suggests thousands of children in Alberta are working illegally.The Athabasca University study estimates 8,200 kids from the ages of nine to 11 are doing prohibited work, including doing janitorial jobs.The report says about 26,000 children from the ages of 12 to 14 are on the job illegally.The Alberta Federation of Labour is calling on the provincial government to crack down on employment standards violations that involve young people.AFL president Gil McGowan says the province should not allow children as young as 12 to work in restaurants and should do more random inspections of work sites.Earlier this year, Employment Minister Thomas Lukaszuk announced his department will step up inspections of job sites that employ young workers.

Metro Canada Calgary, Apr 21 2011

Edmonton – There are widespread violations of employment standards for working children and adolescents in Alberta, according to a study by the province’s largest labour group.

“Tens of thousands of adolescent Albertans, aged 12 to 14, are employed and 21 per cent of them work in illegal jobs,” says Gil McGowan, president of the Alberta Federation of Labour, which represents 140,000 workers. “The story for child workers, aged 9 to 11, is even worse, with 78 per cent doing work prohibited by the government.”

The study’s release comes in the wake of the Minister of Employment and Immigration saying he would soon be announcing targeted inspections of workplaces that employ young workers.

“This study shows that underage workers need more than a few targeted inspections. Alberta's complaints-driven Employment Standards system does not work for families in this province,” says McGowan. The AFL president added that Alberta's Dickensian decision to allow children as young as 12 to work in restaurants has exacerbated the problem.

“There is no incentive for employers to ensure children and adolescents are working in safe and legal situations, or that they are being paid appropriately. Violations of employment standards laws simply result in a cease-and-desist order, or an order to pay wages owed.”

The Athabasca University study involved a survey of 1,200 Alberta homes as well as follow-up interviews with parents and children/adolescents who participate in the workforce.

Key study findings include:

• In 2009, 6.3 per cent of children had jobs - 8,200 children aged nine to 11. A total of 78 per cent of the jobs done by children were clearly illegal, such as newspaper delivery, janitorial services. The remaining 22 per cent had jobs such as babysitting and yard work.
• 26,000 adolescent workers (12 to 14) were employed. More than 21 per cent worked in prohibited occupations (janitorial services, sports teams, working on a golf course). By contrast, 28.6 per cent of jobs appear to be legal types of employment (newspaper delivery, retail sales, restaurants, agriculture). The remaining 50 per cent of jobs were babysitting and yard work.

“We are calling on Employment Minister Lukaszuk to do three things. First, he should immediately reverse the decision to allow children as young as 12 to work in restaurants. Second, the minister should immediately commit to a continuing program of random proactive employment standards inspections for employers who are known to employ underage workers. Third, the minister needs to make immediate changes to Employment Standards enforcement mechanisms, and ensure prosecution of employers who break the law,” says McGowan.

Employment rate surveys were conducted under contract by the University of Alberta Population Research Laboratory in 2008 and 2009. Random sampling of 1,200 homes resulted in statistically generalizable results with an estimated sampling error of 2.8 per cent at the 95-per-cent confidence level.

Interviews were conducted with children, adolescents and parents in the spring and summer of 2009. Initial subjects were recruited through newspaper advertisement and handbills and snowball sampling was subsequently used. Interview results are not statistically generalizable but are analytically generalizable.

The peer-reviewed Athabasca University study was conducted by Dr. Bob Barnetson, Associate Professor of Labour Relations and published in the peer-reviewed academic journal Just Labour.

A copy of this study can be found at http://www.justlabour.yorku.ca/volume16/pdfs/03_barnetson_press.pdf

For "Alberta's Child Labour Laws: The Need to Change"

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Contacts:             Gil McGowan, President, Alberta Federation of Labour, 780.218.9888

 Dr. Bob Barnetson, Associate Professor of Labour Relations, Athabasca University, 1-866-418-7198   

Alberta's Child Labour Laws: The Need for Change

Alberta's child labour laws are set out in the Employment Standards Code. This law makes it illegal to employ children under 12. It strictly limits when and what adolescents (age 12-14) can do.