The North American workplace law model is broken, characterized by declining collective bargaining density, high levels of non-compliance with employment regulation, and political deadlock. This paper explores whether 'decentred' or "new governance" regulatory theory offers useful insights into...

A reasonable starting point for improving the situation of vulnerable employees is improving compliance with the Employment Standards Act. This submission deals specifically with the question of how to do that through a set of relatively modest legal reforms. The proposed reforms would, firstly,...

“Transnational domestic labor regulation” (TDLR) is unilateral regulation introduced by a national government that is designed to influence labor practices in foreign jurisdictions. Many governments already use a variety of measures to try and influence foreign labor practices. TDLR has the...

The Supreme Court of Canada ruled in the recent Health Services decision that the Canadian Constitutional protection of "freedom of association" should be interpreted to provide "at least as much protection" of associational rights as provided by ILO Convention 87, as interpreted by the ILO's...

Employer captive audience meetings (CAMs) are a rare example in which people in a democratic society are forced to listen to opinions of others with which they may strongly disagree. Employees are not chained to a post, but they are nevertheless economically compelled to listen to their...

The living wage standard has emerged as a norm in global initiatives targeting supply chain labor practices. This is unexpected, because the living wage, if actually paid, could impose substantial new supply chain costs. There is also considerable disagreement on how to calculate a living wage...

Information disclosure is a common regulatory tool designed to influence business behavior. A belief is that transparency can provoke learning and also positive institutional change by empowering private watchdogs to monitor and pressure business leaders to alter harmful behavior. Beginning in...

In 2021, the Ontario government legislatively prohibited most non-competition clauses, the first Canadian government to take this step. The move was unexpected because the political party in power (the Progressive Conservative Party, or PCP) has not traditionally been a strong supporter of...

Climate change will dramatically affect labour markets, but labour law scholars have mostly ignored it. Environmental law scholars are concerned with climate change, but they lack expertise in the complexities of regulating the labour relationship. Neither legal field is equipped to deal...