Home Research Projects The Vulnerable Worker Background

Research Projects

The Vulnerable Worker

Background

Initial round of research

The Law Commission began its work on the vulnerable worker by contributing funding to a study completed by the Canadian Policy Research Networks (CPRN) entitled "What's a Good Job: The Importance of Employment Relationships". The study looks at how relationships in the workplace are fundamental to worker well-being. The Report is available on the CPRN website at www.cprn.org

The Commission then focused its attention on the ways that the law impacts on the well-being of two specific categories of workers: self-employed workers and workers in the sex and skin trades. The research project on self-employed workers, funded by the Law Commission and undertaken by a multi-disciplinary trio of scholars at York University, looks at how the legal concept of employment creates or exacerbates conditions of vulnerability for significant numbers of self-employed workers. It provides a wealth of empirical data as well as legal and historical analyses regarding the employment relationship and self-employment in particular.

• The Legal Concept of Employment: Marginalizing Workers - Judy Fudge, Eric Tucker and Leah F. Vosko

The research project on work in the sex and skin trades was funded by the Law Commission and the Status of Women and completed by scholars at the University of Ottawa in collaboration with an organization run by and for sex workers. It examines the ways that the law impacts on work in those industries. The Report provides some very interesting findings about work in the sex and skin trades and makes recommendations based on those findings.

• Erotic Service / Erotic Dance Establishments: Two Types of Marginalized Labour - Colette Parent, Christine Bruckert and Pascale Robitaille

In addition, the Law Commission has provided funding for a study by the Quebec Human Rights Commission looking at the ways that globalization and the information age have created a new set of work-related health risks particularly with respect to psychological health. The study will provide a methodology for understanding the link between certain kinds of work conditions and the resulting health risks and consequences. The project will also examine how these issues are being handled by various administrative agencies. The final report will be posted on the website when it is available.

Virtual Scholars in Residence

The Law Commission of Canada was pleased to appoint two Virtual Scholars in Residence, Dr.'s Michael Smith and Leah Vosko. The Virtual Scholar in Residence is a joint initiative of the Commission and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. The purpose of the program is to promote multi-disciplinary research on issues surrounding law. The Virtual Scholar in Residence program provides funding for an individual to work with the Commission for an eight-month period to advance the Commission's research agenda. Professors Smith and Vosko will be contributing their considerable knowledge and expertise to the Law Commission's project on the vulnerable worker.

Roundtable on Vulnerable Workers

On June 17, 2003, in partnership with the Canadian Policy Research Networks (CPRN), the Law Commission held a very successful roundtable discussion on vulnerable workers in the Canadian labour market. Participants included senior federal and provincial government officials, as well as academics and front-line workers in the area.

The goals of the Roundtable included the following:

• to raise the profile of issues regarding vulnerable or marginalized workers and to help focus the debate on how to respond to these issues;
  
  
• to stimulate change in public policies and in workplace practices; and
  
  
• to begin to identify clear and specific policy options that would improve the inclusion of vulnerable workers in work that provides adequate income and basic employment rights.

The Roundtable was also intended to contribute to the development of the Law Commission's discussion paper on the vulnerable worker and to the launch of a series of papers by CPRN on various aspects of vulnerability in the labour market.

Two papers were presented and discussed at the Roundtable. They are as follows:

• "Vulnerability at Work: Legal and Policy Issues in the New Economy" prepared for the Law Commission by Dr. Kerry Rittich, Faculty of Law, University of Toronto
  
  
• "Defining Vulnerability in the Labour Market" by Ron Saunders, Director of the Work Network, Canadian Policy Research Networks.