1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910813544503321

Autore

Thomas Mark P (Mark Preston), <1969->

Titolo

Regulating flexibility : the political economy of employment standards / / Mark P. Thomas

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Montreal ; ; Ithaca : , : McGill-Queens University Press, , 2009

©2009

ISBN

1-282-86720-2

9786612867200

0-7735-7676-2

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (viii, 248 pages)

Disciplina

344.7101

Soggetti

Labor laws and legislation - Social aspects - Canada

Labor laws and legislation - Canada

Manpower policy - Canada

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

"Labour flexibility" and the political economy of employment standards -- The origins of flexible employment standards -- Recessions, reforms, and labour market transformation, 1970s-1990s -- Back to the sixty-hour work week : flexible employment standards for the "new economy" -- Working for better standards? Labour market regulation in a global economy.

Sommario/riassunto

In a contemporary labour market that includes growing levels of precarious employment, the regulation of minimum employment standards is intricately connected to conditions of economic security. With a focus on the role of neoliberal labour market policies in promoting "flexible" employment standards legislation - particularly in the areas of minimum wages and working time - Mark Thomas argues that shifts toward "flexible" legislation have played a central role in producing patterns of labour market inequality. Using an analytic framework that situates employment standards within the context of the broader social relations that shape processes of labour market regulation, Thomas constructs a case study of employment standards legislation in Ontario from 1884 to 2004. Drawing from political



economy scholarship, and using a qualitative research methodology, he analyses class, race, and gender dimensions of legislative developments, highlighting the ways in which shifts towards "flexible" employment standards have exacerbated longstanding racialized and gendered inequities. Regulating Flexibility argues that in order to counter current trends towards increased insecurity, employment standards should not be treated as a secondary form of labour protection but as a cornerstone in a progressive project of labour market re-regulation.