IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/ilrrev/v72y2019i4p871-896.html

When Collective Bargaining Leads to Inequality: Determinants of Two-Tier Provisions in Canadian Collective Agreements

Author

Listed:
  • Mélanie Laroche
  • Frédéric Lauzon Duguay
  • Patrice Jalette

Abstract

This study examines two-tier provisions—a form of labor segmentation in firms that is increasingly formalized in collective agreements. Drawing on a large population of Canadian collective agreements from the private sector, the authors show that the adoption of these provisions is related more to industrial relations context than to economic uncertainty. Also, depending on whether the two-tier provisions focus on compensation or on job security, their determinants operate dissimilarly. This study contributes to labor market segmentation theory by showing the circumstances under which collective bargaining can marginalize newly hired workers in the primary labor market, namely, weak union power, pressures from sectoral comparisons, employer use of concessionary tactics and, ironically, collective agreements featuring advantageous working conditions.

Suggested Citation

  • Mélanie Laroche & Frédéric Lauzon Duguay & Patrice Jalette, 2019. "When Collective Bargaining Leads to Inequality: Determinants of Two-Tier Provisions in Canadian Collective Agreements," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 72(4), pages 871-896, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:ilrrev:v:72:y:2019:i:4:p:871-896
    DOI: 10.1177/0019793918813363
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0019793918813363
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0019793918813363?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Christian Lévesque & Gregor Murray, 2005. "Union Involvement in Workplace Change: A Comparative Study of Local Unions in Canada and Mexico," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 43(3), pages 489-514, September.
    2. Gary Chaison, 2012. "The New Collective Bargaining," SpringerBriefs in Economics, Springer, edition 127, number 978-1-4614-4024-6, April.
    3. Steffen Lehndorff & Thomas Haipeter, 2011. "Negotiating Employment Security: Innovations and Derogations," Chapters, in: Susan Hayter (ed.), The Role of Collective Bargaining in the Global Economy, chapter 2, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    4. Gary Chaison, 2007. "Airline Negotiations and the New Concessionary Bargaining," Journal of Labor Research, Springer, vol. 28(4), pages 642-657, September.
    5. Murphy, Kevin J., 2000. "What effect does uncertainty have on the length of labor contracts?," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 7(2), pages 181-201, March.
    6. Hyman, Richard & Gumbrell-McCormick, Rebecca, 2017. "Resisting labour market insecurity: old and new actors, rivals or allies?," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 84658, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    7. Walker, J., 1987. "Two-Tier Wage Systems," Papers 51, Queen's at Kingston - Sch. of Indus. Relat. Research and Current Issues Series.
    8. Lane Kenworthy & Jonas Pontusson, 2005. "Rising Inequality and the Politics of Redistribution in Affluent Countries," LIS Working papers 400, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    9. Rees, Albert, 1993. "The Role of Fairness in Wage Determination," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 11(1), pages 243-252, January.
    10. Anthony Townsend & Dane Partridge, 1999. "Revisiting multi-tier wage structures: Equity, employment mobility, and tier effects," Journal of Labor Research, Springer, vol. 20(4), pages 605-619, December.
    11. Ms. Florence Jaumotte & Ms. Carolina Osorio-Buitron, 2015. "Inequality and Labor Market Institutions," IMF Staff Discussion Notes 2015/014, International Monetary Fund.
    12. Florence Jaumotte & Carolina Osorio Buitron, 2015. "Inequality and Labor Market Institutions," IMF Staff Discussion Notes 15/14, International Monetary Fund.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Kevin Pineda‐Hernández & François Rycx & Mélanie Volral, 2022. "How collective bargaining shapes poverty: New evidence for developed countries," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 60(4), pages 895-928, December.
    2. Ruth Barton & Élodie Béthoux & Camille Dupuy & Anna Ilsøe & Patrice Jalette & Mélanie Laroche & Steen Erik Navrbjerg & Trine Pernille Larsen, 2021. "Understanding the dynamics of inequity in collective bargaining: evidence from Australia, Canada, Denmark and France," Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research, , vol. 27(1), pages 113-128, February.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kyoji Fukao & Cristiano Perugini, 2021. "The Long‐Run Dynamics of the Labor Share in Japan," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 67(2), pages 445-480, June.
    2. Christopher Hartwell, 2022. "Institutions and trade‐related inequality," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 27(3), pages 3246-3264, July.
    3. Kevin Pineda‐Hernández & François Rycx & Mélanie Volral, 2022. "How collective bargaining shapes poverty: New evidence for developed countries," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 60(4), pages 895-928, December.
    4. Yılmaz Akyüz, 2018. "Inequality, financialisation and stagnation," The Economic and Labour Relations Review, , vol. 29(4), pages 428-445, December.
    5. repec:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/50jd34uldo9jioklc7b0dpu4ej is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Nicolas Zorn & Olivier Jacques, 2017. "Under the Rising Wave. How Disaggregated Revenue Sources Can Tell Another Story for Québec’s Top Income Share," Journal of Income Distribution, Ad libros publications inc., vol. 25(1), pages 1-25, March.
    7. Giovanni DOSI & Maria Enrica VIRGILLITO, 2019. "Whither the evolution of the contemporary social fabric? New technologies and old socio‐economic trends," International Labour Review, International Labour Organization, vol. 158(4), pages 593-625, December.
    8. Giovanni Dosi & Marcelo C. Pereira & Andrea Roventini & Maria Enrica Virgillito, 2016. "The Effects of Labour Market Reforms upon Unemployment and Income Inequalities: an Agent Based Model," LEM Papers Series 2016/27, Laboratory of Economics and Management (LEM), Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa, Italy.
    9. Salim Chahine & Adam Chahine, 2024. "COVID-19 Crisis and the Association Between Inequality and Economic Growth," Journal of Interdisciplinary Economics, , vol. 36(2), pages 246-261, July.
    10. Henry S Farber & Daniel Herbst & Ilyana Kuziemko & Suresh Naidu, 2021. "Unions and Inequality over the Twentieth Century: New Evidence from Survey Data," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 136(3), pages 1325-1385.
    11. Dirk Bezemer & Anna Samarina, 2019. "Debt shift, financial development and income inequality," DNB Working Papers 646, Netherlands Central Bank, Research Department.
    12. Islam, Md. Rabiul & Madsen, Jakob B. & Doucouliagos, Hristos, 2018. "Does inequality constrain the power to tax? Evidence from the OECD," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 1-17.
    13. Andrea Coveri & Mario Pianta, 2019. "The Structural Dynamics of Income Distribution:Technology, Wages and Profits," Working Papers 1901, University of Urbino Carlo Bo, Department of Economics, Society & Politics - Scientific Committee - L. Stefanini & G. Travaglini, revised 2019.
    14. Christian A. Belabed, 2016. "Inequality and the New Deal," IMK Working Paper 166-2016, IMK at the Hans Boeckler Foundation, Macroeconomic Policy Institute.
    15. Tonia NOVITZ, 2020. "Engagement with sustainability at the International Labour Organization and wider implications for collective worker voice," International Labour Review, International Labour Organization, vol. 159(4), pages 463-482, December.
    16. Kaltenberg, Mary & Foster-McGregor, Neil, 2020. "The impact of automation on inequality across Europe," MERIT Working Papers 2020-009, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    17. Frederico Cantante, 2020. "Four profiles of inequality and tax redistribution in Europe," Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 7(1), pages 1-7, December.
    18. Brancaccio, Emiliano & Garbellini, Nadia & Giammetti, Raffaele, 2018. "Structural labour market reforms, GDP growth and the functional distribution of income," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 34-45.
    19. Romain Duval & Prakash Loungani, 2021. "Designing Labor Market Institutions in Emerging Market and Developing Economies: A Review of Evidence and IMF Policy Advice," Comparative Economic Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Association for Comparative Economic Studies, vol. 63(1), pages 31-83, March.
    20. Mark Harcourt & Gregor Gall & Margaret Wilson, 2023. "The effects of public goods framing for a union default policy," Economic and Industrial Democracy, Department of Economic History, Uppsala University, Sweden, vol. 44(4), pages 1197-1221, November.
    21. Farhad Taghizadeh‐Hesary & Naoyuki Yoshino & Sayoko Shimizu, 2020. "The impact of monetary and tax policy on income inequality in Japan," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(10), pages 2600-2621, October.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:ilrrev:v:72:y:2019:i:4:p:871-896. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.ilr.cornell.edu .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.