Attendance management programs are a new phenomenon among Canadian municipalities. As a result, much of what is known about creating an effective attendance management program at the municipal level comes from arbitral jurisprudence. Arbitral jurisprudence provides human resources practitioners with an excellent skeletal framework for creating an enforceable attendance management program; however, few operational details related to creating an effective one. These case studies utilize research interviews conducted with the senior administrators responsible for attendance management in several municipalities. The results of this study indicate that a core set of best practices for attendance management are emerging in municipalities, and that attendance management may not be the black hole it once was.
Archives for May 2006
The State of the Union Movement in Canada: The Challenges We Face and the Innovations We Must Undertake
The Don Wood Lecture in Industrial Relations was established by friends of W. Donald Wood to honour his outstanding contribution to Canadian industrial relations. Dr Wood was Director of the Industrial Relations Centre from 1960 to 1985, and the first Director of the School of Industrial Relations, established in 1983. The lecture brings to Queen’s University distinguished individuals who have made an important contribution to industrial relations in Canada or other countries.
Buzz Hargrove, National President of the National Automobile, Aerospace, Transportation and General Workers Union of Canada (CAW-TCA Canada), reviews the challenging situation in which the Canadian labour movement finds itself today, tallies strengths and weaknesses, and calls for the union movement to be more innovative in addressing those challenges and weaknesses.
Disability-based Discrimination: Managers’ Prejudices against Workers with Psychiatric Disabilities
This study investigates managers’ perceptions toward employees with varying medical conditions during a request for workplace accommodation. Workplace accommodation is likely to be viewed as unwarranted by co-workers and supervisors when it comes to individuals with psychiatric illnesses, and companies feel that it was easier to accommodate people with physical disabilities versus those with mental and emotional problems. The discussion paper explores this dynamic.
