Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-8bljj Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-07T04:41:54.209Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Wrestling with the New Economy: Judicial Rhetoric in Canadian Wrongful Dismissal Claims

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 December 2018

Annette Nierobisz
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Contemporary Law and Society scholars emphasize focused study of “law and the economy” yet empirical work on the legal implications of important economic transformations of the late twentieth century is limited. To address this issue, I analyze Canadian wrongful dismissal claims heard to judgment between 1981 and 1997 to understand how judges grappled with contradictions that arose between classic legal doctrine on the employment relationship, unstable economic conditions that limited employment opportunities for plaintiffs, and new business ideologies about employee expendability and flexibility. Findings demonstrate that judicial rhetoric was attentive to the contradictions that arose with the new economy, and unique responses were developed. These responses, however, varied according to specific socioeconomic contexts embedded within the seventeen‐year period under study. I conclude by suggesting the development of more dynamic theories of law and the economy to capture the ways in which law shifts in response to changing economic contexts.

Type
Articles
Information
Law & Social Inquiry , Volume 35 , Issue 2 , Spring 2010 , pp. 403 - 449
Copyright
Copyright © American Bar Foundation, 2010 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References

Altheide, David L. 1996. Qualitative Media Analysis. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.Google Scholar
Angus Reid Group. 1996. Americans' Views on Issues Concerning Downsizing and Job Security. Angus Reid Group/Bloomberg Business News Poll, October 16 (public release date). http://www.angusreid.com/pressrel/us/jobsecurity.html (site no longer active).Google Scholar
Arthurs, Harry W. 1999. The New Economy and the New Legality: Industrial Citizenship and the Future of Labour Arbitration. Canadian Labour and Employment Law Journal 7:45–63.Google Scholar
Barley, Stephen R., and Kunda, Gideon. 1992. Design and Devotion: Surges of Rational and Normative Ideologies of Control in Managerial Discourse. Administrative Science Quarterly 37:363–99.Google Scholar
Budros, Art. 1997. The New Capitalism and Organizational Rationality: The Adoption of Downsizing Programs, 1979–1994. Social Forces 76:229–50.Google Scholar
Cappelli, Peter, Bassi, Lauri, Katz, Harry, Knoke, David, Osterman, Paul, and Useem, Michael. 1997. Change at Work. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Carter, Donald B. 1998. Calculating the Length of Reasonable Notice: Has Cronk Made a Difference? Canadian Labour and Employment Law Journal 6:421–34.Google Scholar
Chambliss, William J. 1964. The Law of Vagrancy. Social Problems 12:67–77.Google Scholar
Christie, Innis, England, Geoff, and Cotter, W. Brent. 1993. Employment Law in Canada, 2nd ed. Toronto: Butterworths.Google Scholar
Cross, Philip. 1996. Alternative Measures of Business Cycles in Canada: 1947–1992. Canadian Economic Observer, February, 3.1–3.40.Google Scholar
Dobbin, Frank, Sutton, John R., Meyer, John W., and Scott, W. Richard. 1993. Equal Opportunity Law and the Construction of Internal Labor Markets. American Journal of Sociology 99:396–427.Google Scholar
Dudley, Kathryn Marie. 1994. The End of the Line. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Edelman, Lauren B. 1992. Legal Ambiguity and Symbolic Structures: Organizational Mediation of Civil Rights Law. American Journal of Sociology 97:1531–76.Google Scholar
Edelman, Lauren B. 2004. Rivers of Law and Contested Terrain: A Law and Society Approach to Economic Rationality. Law & Society Review 38:181–97.Google Scholar
Edelman, Lauren B., Riggs Fuller, Sally, and Mara‐Drita, Iona. 2001. Diversity Rhetoric and the Managerialization of Law. American Journal of Sociology 106:1589–641.Google Scholar
Edelman, Lauren B., and Suchman, Mark C. 1997. The Legal Environments of Organizations. Annual Review of Sociology 23:479–515.Google Scholar
Edelman, Lauren B., Uggen, Christopher, and Erlanger, Howard S. 1999. The Endogeneity of Legal Regulation: Grievance Procedures as Rational Myth. American Journal of Sociology 105:406–54.Google Scholar
Edwards, John C., Rust, Kathleen G., McKinley, William, and Moon, Gyewan. 2003. Business Ideologies and Perceived Breach of Contract during Downsizing: The Role of the Ideology of Employee Self‐reliance. Journal of Organizational Behavior 24:1–23.Google Scholar
Estok, David. 1996. The High Cost of “Dumbsizing.” Maclean's Magazine, June 3.Google Scholar
Etherington, Brian. 1999. Supreme Court of Canada Decisions and the Common Law of Employment in the 1990's: Shifting the Balance between Rights and Efficiency Concerns? Canadian Bar Review 78:200–19.Google Scholar
Ewick, Patricia, and Silbey, Susan. 1998. The Common Place of Law. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Freeman, Sarah J., and Cameron, Kim S. 1993. Organizational Downsizing: A Convergence and Reorientation Framework. Organization Science 4:10–29.Google Scholar
Fudge, Judy. 2005. Beyond Vulnerable Workers: Towards a New Standard Employment Relationship. Canadian Labour and Employment Law Journal 12:145–70.Google Scholar
Gall, Gerald L. 1990. The Canadian Legal System, 3rd ed. Toronto: Carswell.Google Scholar
Glaser, Barney G., and Strauss, Anselm L. 1967. The Discovery of Grounded Theory: Strategies for Qualitative Research. New York: Aldine Publishing Company.Google Scholar
Gordon, David M. 1996. Fat and Mean: The Corporate Squeeze of Working Americans and the Myth of Managerial “Downsizing.” New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Gower, Dave. 1996. Canada's Unemployment Mosaic in the 1990s. Perspectives Spring: 16–22.Google Scholar
Haire, Susan B., Songer, Donald R., and Lindquist, Stephanie A. 2003. Appellate Court Supervision in the Federal Judiciary: A Hierarchical Perspective. Law and Society Review 37:143–67.Google Scholar
Hakim, Cliff. 1994. We Are All Self‐Employed. San Francisco: Berret‐Koehler Publishers.Google Scholar
Haydu, Jeffrey. 1998. Making Use of the Past: Time Periods as Cases to Compare and as Sequences of Problem Solving. American Journal of Sociology 104:339–71.Google Scholar
Heydebrand, Wolf V. 1977. The Context of Public Bureaucracies: An Organizational Analysis of Federal District Courts. Law and Society 11:760–821.Google Scholar
Horowitz, Morton J. 1977. The Transformation of American Law, 1780–1860. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Kelly, Erin, and Dobbin, Frank. 1999. Civil Rights Law at Work: Sex Discrimination and the Rise of Maternity Leave Policies. American Journal of Sociology 105:455–92.Google Scholar
Kolko, Joyce. 1988. Restructuring the World Economy. New York: Pantheon Books.Google Scholar
Lauzon, Darren. 1995. Worker Displacement: Trends, Characteristics and Policy Responses. Human Resources Development Canada Research Papers. Hull, Quebec: Human Resources Development Canada.Google Scholar
Lax, Sharon M. 1995. Some Rules of Reasonable Notice: A Review of Recent Decisions. Employment Bulletin 4 (January): 2–3.Google Scholar
Lowe, Graham S. 2002. Employment Relationships as the Centrepiece of a New Labour Policy Paradigm. Canadian Public Policy 28:93–104.Google Scholar
McCammon, Holly J. 1994. Disorganizing and Reorganizing Conflict: Outcomes of the State's Legal Regulation of the Strike since the Wagner Act. Social Forces 72:1011–49.Google Scholar
McCammon, Holly J. 2001. Labor's Legal Mobilization: Why and When Do Workers File Unfair Labor Practices? Work and Occupations 28:143–75.Google Scholar
McCormick, Peter. 1994. Canada's Courts. Toronto: James Lorimer & Company.Google Scholar
McKinley, William, Mone, Mark A., and Barker, Vincent L. III. 1998. Some Ideological Foundations of Organizational Downsizing. Journal of Management Inquiry 7:198–212.Google Scholar
McShane, Steven L. 1983. Reasonable Notice Criteria in Common Law Wrongful Dismissal Cases. Relations Industrielles 38:618–33.Google Scholar
McShane, Steven L., and McPhillips, David C. 1987. Predicting Reasonable Notice in Canadian Wrongful Dismissal Cases. Industrial & Labor Relations Review 41:108–17.Google Scholar
Meyer, John W., and Rowan, Brian. 1977. Institutionalized Organizations: Formal Structure as Myth and Ceremony. American Journal of Sociology 83:340–63.Google Scholar
O'Reilly, Brian. 1994. The New Deal: What Companies and Employees Owe One Another. Fortune 13 (June): 44–52.Google Scholar
Picot, Garnett. 1992. Workers on the Move: Permanent Layoffs. Perspectives Autumn: 18–27.Google Scholar
Picot, Garnett, and Heisz, Andrew. 2000. The Performance of the 1990s Canadian Labour Market. Canadian Public Policy 26:S7–S25.Google Scholar
Picot, Garnett, Lemaitre, Georges, and Kuhn, Peter. 1994. Labour Markets and Layoffs During the Last Two Recessions. Canadian Economic Observer March:4.1–4.13.Google Scholar
Picot, Garnett, Lin, Zhengxi, and Pyper, Wendy. 1997. An Overview of Permanent Layoffs. Canadian Economic Observer February:3.1–3.14.Google Scholar
Pound, Roscoe. 1940. The Economic Interpretation and the Law of Torts. Harvard Law Review 53:365–85.Google Scholar
Quinney, Richard. 1977. Class, State, and Crime. New York: D. McKay Co.Google Scholar
Rashid, Abdul. 1993. Seven Decades of Wage Changes. Perspectives Summer:9–21.Google Scholar
Ritzer, George. 1989. The Permanently New Economy: The Case for Reviving Economic Sociology. Work and Occupations 16:243–72.Google Scholar
Robinson, Sandra L. 1996. Trust and Breach of the Psychological Contract. Administrative Science Quarterly 41:574–99.Google Scholar
Rubin, Beth A. 1996. Shifts in the Social Contract: Understanding Change in American Society. Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press.Google Scholar
Sherwin, Richard K. 2004. Law in Popular Culture. In The Blackwell Companion to Law and Society, ed. Sarat, Austin, 95–112. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing.Google Scholar
Smith, Vicki. 2001. Crossing the Great Divide: Worker Risk and Opportunity in the New Economy. Ithaca, NY: ILR Press.Google Scholar
Sproat, John R. 2002. Wrongful Dismissal Handbook, 2nd ed. Toronto: Carswell.Google Scholar
Statistics Canada. 1997. Annual Labour Force Estimates, 1966–1996. Canadian Social Trends. Spring:60.Google Scholar
Sutton, John R. 2004. The Political Economy of Imprisonment in Affluent Western Democracies. American Sociological Review 69:170–89.Google Scholar
Swidler, Ann. 1986. Culture in Action: Symbols and Strategies. American Sociological Review 51:273–86.Google Scholar
Thompson, Edward P. 1963. The Making of the English Working Class. New York: Vintage Books.Google Scholar
Trubek, David M. 1984. Where the Action Is: Critical Legal Studies and Empiricism. Stanford Law Review 36:575–622.Google Scholar
Weber, Max. 1968. Economy and Society: An Outline of Interpretive Sociology. New York: Bedminster Press.Google Scholar
Weinstein, Marla J. 1993. The Limitations of Judicial Innovation: A Case Study of Wrongful Dismissal Litigation in Canada and the United States. Comparative Labor Law Journal 14:478–505.Google Scholar

Cases Cited

Alyea v. South Waterloo Edgar Insurance Brokers Ltd. (1993) 50 C.C.E.L. 266.Google Scholar
Bardal v. Globe and Mail (1960) 24 D.L.R. (2d) 140.Google Scholar
Bauer v. Unitel Communications Inc. (1994) 5 C.C.E.L. (2d) 179.Google Scholar
Berard v. Caisse Populaire Du Parc Windsor (1984) 28 Man. R. (2d) 62.Google Scholar
Bohemier v. Storwal International Inc. (1982) 142 D.L.R. (3d) 8.Google Scholar
Bullen v. Proctor & Redfern (1996) 20 C.C.E.L. (2d) 36.Google Scholar
Burry v. Unitel Communications (1996) 21 C.C.E.L. (2d) 36.Google Scholar
Carr v. Ireco Canada II Inc. (1991) 80 Alta. L.R. (2d) 154.Google Scholar
Clark v. Fiberglas Canada Inc. (1993) 7 Alta. L.R. (3d) 426.Google Scholar
Clark v. North 102 Developments Ltd. (1997) 34 C.C.E.L. (2d) 92.Google Scholar
D'Onofrio v. Dowell Schlumberger Canada Inc. (1988) 94 A.R. 34.Google Scholar
Dahdouh v. Hugin Sweda Inc. (1993) 45 C.C.E.L. 56.Google Scholar
Danyluk v. Simpson Timber Co. (Sask.) Ltd. (1989) 27 C.C.E.L. 132.Google Scholar
Dasent v. Molesky (D.) Surveys Ltd. (1987) 83 A.R. 100.Google Scholar
Deacon v. Macmillan Bloedel (1982) 3 C.C.E.L. 166.Google Scholar
De Freitas v. Canadian Express & Transportation Ltd. (1986) 16 C.C.E.L. 160.Google Scholar
Dey v. Valley Forest Products Ltd. (1994) 6 C.C.E.L. (2d) 90.Google Scholar
Dunning v. Royal Bank (1996) 23 C.C.E.L. (2d) 71.Google Scholar
Durand v. Aluminum & Glass Mart Ltd. (1997) 26 C.C.E.L. (2d) 272.Google Scholar
Dutt v. British Columbia Hydro and Power Authority (1986) 22 B.C.L.R. (2d) 292.Google Scholar
Erskine v. Viking Helicopter Ltd. (1990) 35 C.C.E.L. 322.Google Scholar
Ferguson v. Dresser Canada Inc. (1987) 19 C.C.E.L. 163.Google Scholar
Graff v. Interprovincial Steel and Pipe Corporation Ltd. (1984) 35 Sask. R. 18.Google Scholar
Hamilton v. Doman Industries (1992) 44 C.C.E.L. 94.Google Scholar
Jackson v. SNC Inc. (1985) 8 C.C.E.L. 274.Google Scholar
Johnston v. Queen's Park Hospital (1983) 44 B.C.L.R. 13.Google Scholar
Jubber v. Iron Ore Company of Canada (1984) 4 C.C.E.L. 63.Google Scholar
Lacharity v. Kelcoatings Ltd. (1994) 8 C.C.E.L. (2d) 241.Google Scholar
Leahy v. Western Concrete Finishers Ltd. (1988) 23 C.C.E.L. 200.Google Scholar
Linkson v. UTDC Inc. (1991) 40 C.C.E.L. 305.Google Scholar
MacDonald v. Royal Canadian Legion (1995) 12 C.C.E.L. (2d) 211.Google Scholar
MacDonald v. Seaboard G.M. Diesel Ltd. and Cullen Canadian Inc. (1984) 61 N.S.R. (2d) 229 and 133 A.P.R. 229.Google Scholar
Mann v. Andres Wines Ltd. (1985) 9 C.C.E.L. 63.Google Scholar
McIntosh v. Saskatchewan Water Corp. (1988) 23 C.C.E.L. 143.Google Scholar
McKee v. NCR Canada Ltd. (1986) 10 C.C.E.L. 128.Google Scholar
Mirza v. Polysar Ltd. (1988) 23 C.C.E.L. 316.Google Scholar
Monk v. Coca‐Cola Bottling Ltd. (1996) 20 C.C.E.L. (2d) 280.Google Scholar
Noseworthy v. Trans Islance Mechanical Co. (1983) 1 C.C.E.L. 305.Google Scholar
Orlando v. Essroc Canada Inc. (1995) 17 C.C.E.L. (2d) 19.Google Scholar
Palchinski v. Sperry Inc. (1986) 48 Sask. R. 281.Google Scholar
Rhodes v. Koksilah Nursery (1997) 29 C.C.E.L. (2d) 303.Google Scholar
Russell v. Winnifred Stewart Assn. for the Mentally Handicapped (1993) 49 C.C.E.L. 177.Google Scholar
Rupchan v. Simpson Timber Co. (Sask.) (1988) 24 C.C.E.L. 47.Google Scholar
Shuya v. Azon Canada Inc. (1995) 11 C.C.E.L. (2d) 49.Google Scholar
Sicard v. Timminco Ltd. (1994) 3 C.C.E.L. (2d) 50.Google Scholar
Simmons v. United Gear & Machine Works Ltd. (1993) 47 C.C.E.L. 116.Google Scholar
Slater v. Sandwell Inc. (1994) 5 C.C.E.L. (2d) 308.Google Scholar
Stewart v. British Columbia Sugar Refinery Co. (1994) 2 C.C.E.L. (2d) 125.Google Scholar
Stumph v. Morris Industries Ltd. (1993) 46 C.C.E.L. 156.Google Scholar
Swinamer v. Unitel Communications Inc. (1996) 17 C.C.E.L. (2d) 59.Google Scholar
Szwez v. Allied Van Lines Ltd. (1993) 45 C.C.E.L. 39.Google Scholar
Trudeau‐Linley v. Plummer Memorial Public Hospital (1993) 1 C.C.E.L. (2d) 114.Google Scholar
Tse v. Trow Consulting Engineers Ltd. (1995) 14 C.C.E.L. (2d) 132.Google Scholar
Tzvetcoff v. Deleuw Cather Canada Ltd. and Willis, Cunliffe, Tait & Company Ltd. (1984) 60 B.C.L.R. 1.Google Scholar
Wuorinen v. Workers' Compensation Board (1983) 1 C.C.E.L. 29.Google Scholar

References

Burstein, Paul. 1991. Legal Mobilization as a Social Movement Tactic: The Struggle for Equal Employment Opportunity. American Journal of Sociology 96:1201–25.Google Scholar
Spaeth, Joe. 1979. Vertical Differentiation among Occupations. American Sociological Review 44:746–62.Google Scholar
Statistics Canada. 1998. Historical Labour Force Statistics. Cat. No. 71‐201‐XPB. Ottawa: Statistics Canada.Google Scholar

Cases Cited

Bardal v. Globe and Mail (1960) 24 D.L.R. (2d) 140.Google Scholar
Battaja v. Canada Tungsten Mining Corp. (1989) 29 C.C.E.L. 50.Google Scholar
Gordon v. Aklavik (Hamlet) (1995) 10 C.C.E.L. (2d) 249.Google Scholar
Hall v. Giant Yellowknife Mines Ltd. (1992) 44 C.C.E.L. 101.Google Scholar
Hudson v. Giant Yellowknife Mines Ltd. (1992) 44 C.C.E.L. 109.Google Scholar
Moores (Murphy) v. Yap's Supermarket Ltd. (1993) 1 C.C.E.L. (2d) 10.Google Scholar