TORONTO, November 13, 2007 -- The links between workers’ rights, such as the right to bargain collectively, and fundamental human rights that are recognized internationally, will be the focus of a conference this week organized by York University’s Centre for Research on Work and Society.

“Workers’ Rights, Human Rights: Making the Connection” will bring together labour and human rights activists and academics to discuss how to promote workers’ rights in Canada at a time when they appear to be in decline. The goal of the conference, which will be held in downtown Toronto on Friday and Saturday, is the establishment of a Canadian Workers’ Rights Institute to put core labour rights on the public policy agenda.

A Canadian Workers’ Rights Institute would publicize international developments about the human rights nature of labour rights, remind governments of their responsibility to protect and promote those rights, and call on corporations to respect labour rights, says York Sociology Professor Norene Pupo, director of the Centre for Research on Work and Society.

“We want to raise awareness of workers’ rights as human rights, because people understand so well the need for human rights to be respected,” says Pupo, a sociology professor at York. “Access to work that is safe and within employment standards is a human right. It gives people dignity and liberty and autonomy – all of those things that are protected as human rights.”

The conference will explore a number of domestic and international topics and trends, including: bridging the gap between labour rights and human rights; collective bargaining as a human right; the human rights responsibilities of business; and the implications of international and legal developments in the field.

WHAT: Workers’ Rights, Human Rights: Making the Connection

WHEN: Friday, Nov. 16 and Saturday, Nov. 17, 2007

WHERE: Best Western Primrose Hotel, 111 Carlton Street, Toronto

Highlights will include:

• Keynote speaker Lee Swepston, senior adviser on human rights for the International Labour Organization, on western countries’ tendency to consider civil and political rights to be “real rights” in contrast to economic, social and cultural rights, and how this perception is changing. (Saturday)
• McMaster University professor emeritus Roy Adams, widely respected for his industrial relations research and a primary catalyst for this conference, on the evolution and current status of collective bargaining as a human right. (Friday)
• Implications of the B.C. Health Services Decision in June, in which the Supreme Court of Canada struck down sections of B.C.’s Bill 29, the Health and Social Services Delivery Improvement Act. The court found that workers’ right to bargain collectively was part of their freedom to associate, a value protected by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (Friday and Saturday)
• A panel on bridging the gap between labour rights and human rights, including Carol Pier of Human Rights Watch, who published a report documenting workers’ rights violations in the U.S., including at Wal-Mart stores. (Saturday)

INFORMATION: Conference program

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Media contact:

Janice Walls, Media Relations, York University, 416 736 2100 x22101 / wallsj@yorku.ca