The Regulatory Exclusion of Agricultural Workers in Alberta

The opportunity structure facing waged agricultural workers seeking basic statutory employment rights in the Canadian province of Alberta is hostile, reflecting the intertwined political and economic interests of farmers, the provincial government, and agribusiness. This article outlines the contours of the political opportunities and constraints facing labour groups and agricultural workers seeking legislative change. Analysis suggests there is little opportunity at present to alter this legislative exclusion

Children Working Alone in Alberta: How Child Labour and Working Alone Regulations Interact

The Canadian province of Alberta does not effectively enforce its child labour laws. This non-enforcement interacts with the working-alone regulations in Alberta’s Occupational Health and Safety Act to deny workers under age 15 meaningful solo work protection. As a result, children and adolescents are exposed to the hazards adults face while working alone as well as hazards unique to children and adolescents working alone. This suggests that failing to enforce child labour laws has both obvious and subtle effects. The subtle effects are difficult to identify and remediate, in part because of the initial regulatory failure is politically difficult to acknowledge

Regulation of Child and Adolescent Employment in Alberta

As part of a broader assessment of how well the Government of Alberta’s labour programming contributes to fair and, to a lesser degree, safe workplaces, this study examines how effectively the government enforces the Employment Standards Code provisions regulating child and adolescent employment. Enforcement strategies appear to emphasize softer forms of regulation and thereby create little disincentive for violations. Preliminary research into the employment levels of children (age 9-11) suggests over 11,000 children are employed, some perhaps illegally, and that further inquiry into their employment experiences is warranted

No Right to be Safe: Justifying the Exclusion of Alberta Farm Workers from Health and Safety Legislations

Alberta remains the only Canadian province to exclude agricultural workers from the ambit of its occupational health and safety laws. Consequently, farm workers have no right to know about workplace safety hazards and no right to refuse unsafe work, thereby increasing their risk of a workplace injury. This study uses qualitative content analysis to identify three narratives used by government members of the legislative assembly between 2000 and 2010 to justify the continued exclusion of agricultural workers from basic health and safety rights. These narratives are: (1) education is better than regulation, (2) farms cannot be regulated, and (3) farmers don’t want and can’t afford regulation. Analysis of these narratives reveals them to be largely invalid, raising the question of why government members rely upon these narratives. The electoral rewards associated with maintaining this exclusion may comprise part of the explanation

The Validity of Alberta Safety Statistics

This study examines the validity of injury statistics used to monitor workplace safety in the Canadian province of Alberta. These indicators were found to significantly under-report the rate of injury and to be vulnerable to gaming by both employers and the workers’ compensation board. These threats to the validity of the measures should limit the inferences drawn from the measures. Injury-based statistics were also found to be inadequate proxies for the broader construct of workplace safety. The political feasibility of alternative measures is also discussed

Incidence of Work and Workplace Injury Among Alberta Teens

Utilizing a convenience sample of nearly 2000 respondents drawn from administrative data, this study finds 43.7 percent of adolescents (aged 12-14) and 61.5 percent of young persons (aged 15-17) in the Canadian province of Alberta reported employment in 2011/12. Of those employed, 49.7 percent of adolescents and 59.0 percent of young persons reported at least one work-related injury in the previous year. This study also identifies widespread non-reporting of workplace injuries and seemingly ineffective hazard identification and safety training. These results add to the growing evidence that the regulation of teenage employment in Alberta fails to adequately protect these workers from injury

Effectiveness of Complaint-Driven Regulation of Child Labour in Alberta

This study further develops our understanding of the employment experiences of children (ages 9-11) and adolescents (ages 12-14) in the Canadian province of Alberta, with particular attention to illegal employment and the effectiveness of complaint-based regulation. Survey data demonstrates there is a significant degree of illegal employment among children and adolescents. Interview data suggests that complaint-driven regulation of child labour is ineffective because parents, children and adolescents cannot identify violations and do not take action to trigger state enforcement

Part-time and Limited-term Faculty in Alberta's Colleges

This paper argues that the number of part-time and limited-term faculty in Alberta's (Canada) public colleges and technical institutes and their substantially different employment conditions indicate the existence of a dual labour market at five institutions. Further analysis demonstrates that women disproportionately receive part-time and limited-term appointments.Cet article démontre que le nombre de professeurs à temps partiel et à contrat dans les collèges publiques et les institutions techniques en Alberta (Canada), de même que leurs conditions d'embauche qui diffèrent grandement, soutiennent l'existence d'un double marché du travail dans cinq institutions. Des analyses plus approfondies démontrent que les femmes reçoivent, de façon disproportionnée, des désignations d'emploi à temps partiel et à durée limitée

Resource Allocation and Public Policy in Alberta's Postsecondary System

Resource allocation in Alberta's postsecondary system has changed substantially since 1994. The changes evident are designed to advance a policy agenda that includes reapportioning financial responsibility for higher education, increasing the vocational outcomes of postsecondary education and increasing the transfer of knowledge and technology to the private sector. This paper outlines how resource allocation has been restructured to advance this agenda and points to some implications of this approach.Depuis 1994, la politique de financement des institutions d'enseignement au niveau postsecondaire en Alberta a été grandement modifiée. Ces modifications permettent d'établir, en priorité, un échéancier clair sur une nouvelle redistribution des allocations des ressources, particulièrement au soutien à l'enseignement supérieur, à l'accroissement de l'accessibilité des finissants au marché du travail et à l'augmentation du transfert des connaissances et de la technologie vers le secteur privé. Cet ouvrage souligne particulièrement comment les modifications à la politique de financement servent l'agenda prévu et certaines des conséquences de son application

Resistance is Futile: On the Under-Representation of Unions in Science Fiction

This article surveys science fiction (SF) since 1980, and queries the conspicuous under-representation of recognizable images of unions in popular SF, which includes, in contrast, numerous images and narratives of corporate business. According to theories of unionism, science fiction studies and Mark Fisher’s theory of “capitalist realism,” the co-authors theorize this pattern of under-representation, and, in the process, identify and analyze a very small but diverse body of SF works from this period that do include images of unions, in ways that range from the symptomatic to the radically suggestive