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Multinationals’ Compliance with Employment Law: An Empirical Assessment Using Administrative Data from Ontario, 2004 to 2015

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  • Dionne Pohler
  • Chris Riddell

Abstract

This study contributes new evidence to the literature on multinational corporation (MNC) behavior by exploring three related questions: 1) Do MNCs comply with local employment laws in a developed country? 2) To the extent that compliance varies across MNCs, what factors are important in shaping compliance? 3) Is there a “foreignness†effect for MNCs operating in developed countries, and does this effect vary according to country-of-origin and/or union status? To investigate these questions, the authors compiled unique firm-level administrative data on MNC compliance with regulatory and quasi-regulatory employment practices during mass layoffs in Ontario, Canada. Adopting a research design that uses the behavior of Canadian MNCs as the comparison group, their key findings suggest that unions are a very robust predictor of compliance across all foreign MNCs and systematic country-of-origin effects on MNC compliance are present only in non-unionized workplaces.

Suggested Citation

  • Dionne Pohler & Chris Riddell, 2019. "Multinationals’ Compliance with Employment Law: An Empirical Assessment Using Administrative Data from Ontario, 2004 to 2015," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 72(3), pages 606-635, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:ilrrev:v:72:y:2019:i:3:p:606-635
    DOI: 10.1177/0019793918788837
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