In a biennial survey that began in 1996, the Canadian Labour and Business Centre surveys labour and management in the private and public sectors to identify their current perceptions on the state of labour-management relations in Canada, and to track the factors underpinning these perceptions as they evolve over time. Each survey asks questions concerning the state and impact of labour-management relations at different levels of interaction (i.e., workplace, industry and economy-wide) in Canada.
The health of the relationship between management and labour has a very real impact on the economic and social well being of all Canadians. The state of this relationship affects economic performance at different levels of the economy. The interactions between management and labour may be quite different at the various levels, from individual workplaces to industry sectors to the national economic environment and labour market. Still, the labour-management relationship can affect both policy and practices, with positive or negative consequences on the lives of workers and the performance of organizations.
Viewpoints 2000 was conducted during a period of improved economic conditions. Employment was up; unemployment levels had decreased.
In the private sector, both companies and unions seem to have digested and adjusted to the wave of economic and industrial restructurings, layoffs and downsizing, and workplace reorganizations that had dominated their environment in the early years of the past decade. Similarly, in the public sector, the restructuring and fiscal restraint of the past few years has started to ease.
Within this context, management and labour are concerned less about job shortages and more about skills shortages and related recruitment and retention issues. People are also increasingly preoccupied with “healthy workplace” issues such as stress levels, morale, and work-family balance.
The analysis of Viewpoints 2000 highlights several important findings with respect to labour-management relations in Canada.
1. Evidence suggests there has been a marked improvement in labour-management relations in the public sector over the last two years, and a stabilization of relations in the private sector.
The 1998 survey found that labour and management perceptions were most divergent within Canada’s public sector. While labour-management relations still appear to be better in the private sector (at the industry and workplace levels) than in the public sector, the last two years have seen a marked improvement in labour-management relations from both a public sector management and labour perspective.particularly at the industry and This is evident economy-wide levels. The perceived improvement in the public sector was greater than the perceived improvement in the private sector. As a word of caution the public sector, such a trend does not deny that significant relationship issues and points of conflict continue to exist in
2. Labour’s overall view of labour-management relations continues to be consistently more negative than that of management.
On virtually every aspect of Canadian labour-management relations, labour expressed a more negative view than management. This applied to the state of labour-management relations in 2000; to changes in relations over the past two years; to the effects of labour-management relations on economic performance; and to the expected evolution of labour-management relations over the next two years. The consistency of these views over time indicates a continuing unease, and suggests the need for improved communications between the constituencies.
3. The impacts of current labour-management relations on workplace indicators are generally still seen as negative by both labour and management.
The overall net effect of current labour-management relations on most aspects of workplace performance continues to be viewed as more negative than positive by the leaders of labour and management in both the private and public sectors in Canada. Labour leaders in both the private and public sectors were more negative in their assessment of the effects on workplace performance than their management counterparts. Public sector respondents in both labour and management generally have more negative assessments than their counterparts in the private sector.
4. Labour, both in the private and the public sector, clearly thinks that the state of the labour-management relationship influences key workplace performance indicators more than does management.
While both management and labour identify specific performance indicators that, in their opinion, are affected by the state of labour-management relations, it is labour respondents in particular who consider the state of labour-management relations an important factor in workplace and economic performance.
This is borne out by labour's more negative perceptions of the impact of the current labour-management relationship across a range of workplace performance indicators: morale, costs and productivity, employee turnover, innovation, job security, quality, training, job creation and investment.
Viewpoints 2000, conducted by the Canadian Labour and Business Centre between March and April 2000, was sent to 4442 private and public sector management and union leaders. The total number of responses was 790, or an 18 percent response rate, which is in line with surveys of this type.
Each survey also asks a range of questions relating to labour and management perceptions of the challenges facing the Canadian economy, trends in the nature of work and work organization, and related areas of work This report is the third in a series of analyses of the 2000 survey.
