#hr2014

As I sit in my office contemplating the good and bad of 2013 I couldn’t shake the feeling that many of the HR issues that came to light in 2013 will be, in my opinion, key issues in 2014 as well. In no particular order the following are HR issues that began or continued in 2013 and will continue to create significant impact in the workplace. Of course, none of these issues are independent of each other but for clarity purposes I will deal with each one separately

1. Unionism: There are four aspects to unionism that will be of great interest in 2014:

          1) How unions respond to the political attacks from the political Right. With an expected early spring Ontario election campaign, an attack from the Progressive Conservative party leader Tim Hudak will create serious debate as to how much of the unions’ gains of the past will be removed. This at a time when unions are losing the public relations war.

          2) There is evidence that the general public is buying the argument that Unions are too strong and that they have gained too many benefits, with pensions in particular under attack.

         3) What impact will the creation of UNIFOR have on how unions reinvent themselves and create an image of a positive force for workers.

         4) In the collective bargaining process how will the unions react to the fact that since the recession, wage increases have been very low and for some, 3 to 5 years of zero.

 2. Employment:  Since the recession in 2008 there are 3 aspects of employment that can’t seem to be resolved and will continue to make news in 2014. These are:

          1) The unemployment rate remains stubbornly high. Most new jobs are low paying and many of them are part-time. So far the Government response has been to reform EI, which has reduced the number of people eligible for benefits. Job creation initiatives are very hit and miss.

          2) The underemployment of many young people is also problematic; huge investment and debt is creating a huge burden on these young people. It is a situation that cries for resolution. Skilled immigrants are still mostly under-employed, although some new initiatives are promising.

         3) The use of the foreign worker program which is supposedly to fill jobs for which there are no qualified Canadians, is being abused as clearly demonstrated by the Royal Bank last year. Although there have been some procedural elements added to the program no significant changes have been made to it and we can expect more abuse.

3. Wage Gap: Starting with the “Occupy Movement” which brought to our attention the growing gap in compensation between the 1% and the rest of us. This topic continues to play out; recently the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives reported the top 100 wage earners. The range for total compensation is from a high of $49.1 million to a low of $3.85 million per year. The average being $7.96 million. Meanwhile all workers receiving compensation increases on average less than 1.5% and many haven’t received any increases from 3 to 5 years. The wage gap continues to increase.

          This begs the question, why an average compensation of close to $8 million per year to one individual is never mentioned as costing jobs, while our political leaders present an increase in the minimum wage as a job killer? Why does a CPP improvement cost create a non-competitive product/service while these wages do not? This inequity has been simmering for a few years; it is leaving people unsure of how to tackle this problem while our political leaders continue to have policies in place that favour large corporations as the job creators, even though there is strong evidence that it the medium and small businesses that are creating the majority of jobs. How this plays out will have a huge impact on compensation policy.

  Angelo Pesce