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Impact of Sector Councils: A Canadian Institution

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Abstract

Sector Councils in Canada are a form of non-union representation that have been described as “unique in the world” and they represent approximately half of the workforce in Canada. Their impact on 44 workplace and human resource practices of firms is estimated from a worker-firm matched data set, the Workplace and Employee Survey, for the years 1999–2006. Surprisingly, Sector Councils were significantly associated with positive outcomes for only 4 of the 44 outcome measures and with negative outcomes for 28 of the outcome measures, while 12 of the relationships were statistically insignificant. Possible explanations for this surprising result are provided.

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Correspondence to Morley Gunderson.

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Morley Gunderson holds the CIBC Chair in Youth Employment at the University of Toronto and is a Professor at the Centre for Industrial Relations and Human Resources, the Department of Economics and the School of Public Policy and Governance. He is also a Research Associate of the Institute for Policy Analysis, the Centre for International Studies, and the Institute for Human Development, Life Course and Aging, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.

[IR-SectorCouncilWES1108]

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Gunderson, M. Impact of Sector Councils: A Canadian Institution. J Labor Res 32, 414–426 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12122-011-9119-4

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