Lost in Transition: The Regulation of Unpaid Labour during the School-to-Labour Market Transition in Ontario (original) (raw)
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This article looks towards the future of the intern economy by focusing on its past. What led to recent debates about the intern economy? How did it become legally possible for interns to work for free? Using the United States as my case study, I draw parallels between the current intern economy and its closest historical antecedent, the apprenticeship system. By providing a brief overview of the history of work-based learning and the unpaid internship’s legal underpinnings, this article ultimately frames current lawsuits and debates as a correction to today’s insufficiently scrutinized youth labour regime not unlike the apprenticeship systems of the past. In the attempt to facilitate youth transitions from school to work, yet maintain minimum wage standards, government intervention and—more imminently likely—legal decisions will, I anticipate, eventually transform the intern economy much like the Fitzgerald Act of 1937 drastically formalized apprenticeships in the United States.
Most Canadian provinces offer high-school apprenticeships to facilitate students' transitions to skilled work and address employers' concerns about labour shortages. Using interview data with graduates from highschool apprenticeships in Alberta and Ontario, we analyse the impact participation in these programmes has had on their educational and occupational pathways. Findings show the importance of opportunity structures on the employment and education trajectories of young apprentices. High demands for skilled workers in Alberta, associated with the province's exploration of large oil sands deposits, are contrasted with a contracting labour market in Ontario, which is more dependent on employment in the service and manufacturing sectors. Findings show that economic conditions and the availability of post-secondary alternatives affect young people's decisions to enter and persist in apprenticeships. We also argue, however, that tighter regulatory frameworks are required to protect young people in apprenticeships from exploitative practices.
The Challenge of Youth Employment in the Perspective of School-to-work Transition
2011
In a comparative perspective, access to the labour market on the part of young people is a complex issue, and for some time now it has attracted the interest of labour market specialists. 1 In an awareness of this complexity, that is reflected in the relative lack of convincing proposals, even of an experimental nature, on the part of the academic community, and labour law scholars in particular, the analysis put forward in the present paper focuses on certain aspects of youth employment that are only apparently contradictory, not to say paradoxical. 2 These aspects are still in need of in-depth examination, at least in an international context and in the global workplace perspective, reflecting not only the various levels of economic and social development, 3 but also the
Mass Exploitation Hidden in Plain Sight: Unpaid Internships and the Culture of Uncompensated Work
SSRN Electronic Journal
University. In addition to publishing scholarship on the legal aspects of internships, the author has actively supported advocacy efforts to extend legal protections to unpaid interns, including being a party to amicus briefs for the plaintiffs in the Glatt v. Fox Searchlight Pictures litigation discussed below and serving as a subject matter expert for the media. The portion of the essay title in quotes borrows a line from ROSS PERLIN, INTERN NATION: HOW TO EARN NOTHING AND LEARN LITTLE IN THE BRAVE NEW ECONOMY xiv (updated ed. 2012), with the author's blessing. The relevant passage is quoted at greater length in the text below. 1.
Canadian Immigrant Youth and the Education-Employment Nexus
The Canadian Journal of Family and Youth, 2020
Canada's population of immigrant youth between the ages of 15 and 35 is approaching 3 million and growing rapidly. Youth are critical to Canada's goal of recruiting immigrants to expand the economy, but there is insufficient information about their school and work experiences and inadequate support to ensure their successful integration into the workforce. This literature review investigates the connection between education and work for Canadian immigrant youth. It documents obstacles in the form of underfunded settlement services, lack of diversity in the school curriculum, inadequate English-language instruction at all levels of schooling, racially and ethnically biased streaming of students into the lowest educational track in high school, rejection of foreign school transcripts and work credentials, employers' prejudice and discrimination, and workplace exploitation. The number and magnitude of these systemic impediments create significant obstacles for immigrant youth. A major cause of these issues is insufficient funding for immigrant services under neoliberal economic policies. The outcomes for immigrant youth include failure to finish secondary and postsecondary education, a long-term cycle of employment in low-skill, low-wage jobs, and socioeconomic hardship such as poverty and homelessness. The authors call for greater attention to this critical population and make nine recommendations that would contribute to solutions in each major issue area impacting the education of Canadian immigrant youth and their entry into the workforce.