Category: Economy

Sexual harassment denunciations last fall have led to a lot of awareness in the workplace. The complaints of psychological harassment have since taken over and there has been a flood of complaints that are pushing a large number of companies to take action to stop the phenomenon.

“People who talk to others with disrespect, who can scream, make violent gestures. Not necessarily physical, it can be slamming doors. When it’s an environment like that, it’s harassment,” explains Manon Poirier, Executive Director of the Order of Human Resources Advisors, whose primary mission is to protect Quebec employees.

The harassment argument as a “corporate culture” is “no longer acceptable” to Ms. Poirier. “No matter the industry, no matter the sector, it does not justify the lack of civility […]. In 60% of cases, [harassment] starts from a problem of lack of civility, “she adds.

Since last fall, Poirier has seen a rise in the level of sensitivity of companies on this subject.

This increase echoes the growing number of complaints filed.

In one year, complaints received by the Commission for Standards, Equity, Health and Safety at Work (CNESST) for psychological harassment have increased.

We are talking about 4669 complaints in 2017, an increase of 269 complaints compared to 2016, and 647 complaints compared to 2011.

Different methods to help companies fight against psychological harassment

As a result, many employers are calling on the College to update their behavioral policies, but also to request internships or training to manage and identify this type of crisis.

Other companies seek the services of private investigators specialized in the workplace.

Anaïs Lacroix, a lawyer specializing in labor law, found that applications have exploded since last fall, so she decided to start her own business.

“We are absolutely overwhelmed, we are recruiting,” says the lawyer. The company places special emphasis on prevention and provides follow-up.

Requests come from all walks of life, from restaurants, shops, small and medium-sized businesses to multinationals. Surveys can take four to six weeks.

Since 2004, psychological harassment has been recognized by law in Quebec. Many companies have a code of conduct, but the workplace is changing very quickly, which is causing a lot of stress. Nobody is safe and it starts very often with a lack of courtesy and civility.

It is often difficult to define psychological harassment, which is why “there is a need for education […] and certain notions to be clarified,” adds Lacroix.

For Manon Lacroix, there lies the difficulty of investigations when there is a complaint. We have to “preserve reputations and pay attention to colleagues … we make sure to look for the right elements, to be rigorous in our method, to conclude whether or not there has been harassment,” she concludes.

Canada and Mexico will be exempt from tariffs on steel and aluminum exported to the United States, but there is no guarantee that this will be the case forever.

US President Donald Trump promulgated the decree imposing these tariffs at an official signing ceremony at the White House on Thursday afternoon.

The United States will indeed impose a 25% duty on imported steel and a 10% tax on aluminum. These rates will come into effect in 15 days.

All countries in the world are covered, except Canada, which supplies more than one-sixth of all steel used by the United States and more than 40% of its aluminum, and Mexico.

The President invokes national security reasons under the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, a US law little used until then, to justify this exemption.

A “step forward” for Canada

For Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland, Canada’s exemption from these tariffs is a “step forward”.

“Canada is America’s best friend and closest ally,” she says. That Canada is considered a threat to the security of the United States is inconceivable. ”

She submits that obtaining Canada’s exemption is the result of hard work.

The work continues and will only stop when the threat of these duties vanishes completely and permanently.

Chrystia Freeland, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Canada

“We will not stand idly by while the livelihoods of Canadians are at risk,” the minister said at a news conference in Toronto.

An exemption that depends on the success of NAFTA

“If we come to a new agreement with Canada and Mexico on NAFTA, these two countries will not be taxed on steel and aluminum,” said the president in his speech. Thursday afternoon.

This is a direct reference to the NAFTA negotiations, which are currently in their eighth round of talks and which should allow the three countries to update the agreement by more than 20 years.

The temporary exemption could therefore be lifted if the United States failed to obtain the required concessions at these talks.

Canadian metal producers could be subject to the same punitive tariff as the rest of the world, very soon.

Canada exported $15 billion worth of these two metals to the United States last year, so a tariff would likely result in retaliation of US goods imported into Canada.

Canada, for its part, maintains that the NAFTA negotiations and the reasons of national security invoked to impose tariffs are two completely different issues.

“Today’s announcement will not change our strategy,” said Minister Freeland, who points out that Canada has been following the same path since negotiations began last year to “modernize NAFTA”. in a way that will promote the interests of Canadians.”

Asia denounces tariffs

Reactions to the imposition of tariffs are strong in Asia, with Japan and China strongly opposing them.

The Chinese Ministry of Commerce denounced in a statement “the abuse of the national security clause by the United States,” calling it “deliberate attack on the multilateral trading system embodied by the World Trade Organization.”

China has also warned of a “serious impact on the world trade order”.

The Chinese Foreign Minister assured that Beijing will adopt a “proper and necessary response” in the event of a trade war with the United States.

China is the world’s largest producer of steel and aluminum. Its production, however, represents only 2.7% of US steel imports and 9.7% of aluminum imports.

“We will take appropriate action after careful consideration of the impact on the Japanese economy,” said Japan’s foreign minister, who described the taxes on US imports as “regrettable”.

He warned that the measure could have “a serious impact on the economic relations between Japan and the United States, which are allies, and also on the world economy”. Japan is the sixth largest supplier of steel in the United States.

A list of US products targeted by the EU

The European Union has promised to heavily tax dozens of US products if it was affected by customs duties. It is :

• Some rolled steels, stainless steel bars, seamless tubes, steel wires, doors, windows, tools and cutlery.
• Beans, corn and rice, cranberries, orange juice, peanut butter, bourbon, cigars, cigarettes, tobacco.
• T-shirts and undershirts, jeans, shorts, cotton bed linen and some leather shoes.
• Lipstick, eye makeup, nail polish and foundation.
• Motorcycles with a cylinder capacity greater than 500 cm3, sailing, pleasure or sport boats, with or without motor, rowing boats and canoes

Economic benefits are already being felt in the United States

“The US steel and aluminum industry has been devastated by aggressive foreign business practices,” said Trump. “It’s a real aggression against our country. ”

Donald Trump said that long-term “dumping” by foreign companies has led many factories to close down or eliminate many jobs. “We are going to reopen these factories, they will produce again and it will be very positive for our country,” he concluded.

In his speech after the signing of the decree, Donald Trump announced that the benefits to the US economy were already being felt. “US Steel has announced its reopening in Illinois and has recalled 500 technically unemployed workers on the spot. ”

“Century, an aluminum smelter in Kentucky, will invest more than $ 100 million to reopen its military-grade aluminum production plant … 150,000 tonnes more aluminum going into production and 300 more workers will be engaged, “he added.

Mr. Trump also invited metallurgical companies to come to the United States.

“We are not going to impose taxes on products made in the United States. You do not want to pay the tax? Move your factory here! Said the US president.

“We urge all companies to buy American,” he repeated.

Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan disagreed in a statement and “fears unintended consequences”. However, he welcomed the exemption granted to Canada and Mexico.

A decade after the world fell into a devastating economic crisis, it has finally reached a turning point for a revival. The main economies of the planet are expanding and a wave of growth is creating jobs with which the luck of the people begins to improve and the fears of popular discontent are tempered.

There is not a single generalized explanation about how the world finally escaped the global recession. The momentum in the United States is partly due to increased government spending during the Barack Obama administration and a recent tax cut of $ 1.5 billion. In Europe it seems that the effects of the central bank issuing so much money were finally felt.

In general terms, the improvement is due less to the fact that a new source of wealth has been found than to the simple fact that many of the destructive forces that toppled growth have finally run out of power.

The global recovery is far from having an accelerated pace and geopolitical risks threaten to end it. Many economists are skeptical that the benefits of growth go beyond the educated, wealthy and politically connected class that has captured most of the booty in many countries, while much of the working class and other workers have lagged behind. stagnant wages despite the fact that unemployment rates have plummeted.

Even so, the fact that the economy of the important areas of the globe is expanding is a source of optimism. There is no guarantee that this expansive phase will bring greater economic equality; however, it now feels similar to the start of an evolving growth that will bolster wages and increase the security of middle-class lives.

“Now the world depends less on a few stars,” said Barret Kupelian, senior economist at the London office of global accounting and consulting firm PwC. “If something bad happens in an economy, the fact that global growth has spread gives assurance that this is more sustainable.”

The United States, the world’s largest economy, is in its ninth year of growth; The International Monetary Fund has raised its expectations of expansion to 2.7 percent for this year, when earlier it had forecast 2.3 percent, due to tax cuts.

China has allayed fears that there was an abrupt interruption in its growth trajectory, which has been going on for decades. Europe, until recently dismissed as anemic and affected to a point beyond remedy by political dysfunction, is emerging as one of the leaders of growth. Even Japan, synonymous with decline for a long time, is now expanding.

The rise in oil prices has given encouragement to producers in Russia and the Middle East, while Mexico has so far overcome fears that the trade rhetoric of the Donald Trump government will negatively affect its economy. Brazil, which still suffers the effects of an economic depression, shows signs that it is recovering.

The result is a hopeful recovery, although fragile and vulnerable to the increasingly unpredictable preferences and decisions of world leaders.

The threats of nuclear annihilation exchanged by President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un have sown fears. The pending departure of the United Kingdom from the European Union may end up happening without an agreement for all the issues under discussion, which would subject Europe to a great uncertainty about the rules of trade, especially in the field of finance. In addition, the confusion generated by Trump’s intermittent promises to end the North American Free Trade Agreement ( NAFTA ) while unleashing a trade war with China feeds the risk of derailing growth.

“We used to operate under the idea that Western markets are politically stable and border markets are risky,” said Martin Scheepbouwer, executive director of the OLX Group, which operates online advertising platforms in 41 countries. “Today, with brexit in Europe and the presidency in the United States, there is a new level of instability that hangs over the economy. That is something that worries us. ”

The world economy is expected to grow 3.9 percent this year and next, according to the IMF, compared to 3.7 last year and 3.2 in 2016. This is positive. However, in the years before the crisis, global growth generally exceeded four percent.

The World Economic Forum recently published an assessment of risk factors, based on a survey of a thousand experts, in which 93 percent of respondents observed a greater threat of political or economic confrontations. About 79 percent were concerned about the increased likelihood of a military conflict and 73 percent saw an increase in the risk of erosion of global trade rules.

The report also warned of rising economic inequality, growing threats to cybersecurity and the increased incidence of extreme weather fueled by climate change.

“Many of these risks are becoming increasingly systemic,” said Margareta Drzeniek Hanouz, an economist at the World Economic Forum, adding that they threaten to bring “catastrophic consequences for humanity and the economy.”

Although global companies are cautiously optimistic that good times can last.

In Poland and Brazil, online job listings are increasing, according to OLX, a clear indication of growth. Across Europe, real estate advertising for homes for sale has more than doubled that of rental properties, another sign that people operate with more money. As the recovery has spread, factories in Eastern Europe have been filled with orders. Automotive plants in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland and Romania are sending more cars to Germany, France and the Netherlands.

“We are investing heavily in Asia and also in Africa, because the population growth there is stronger,” said DMS executive director Feike Sijbesma, a Dutch multinational company that manufactures food products and has just opened a factory in Rwanda. “Africa, which was always the forgotten continent, is no longer”.

The favorable situation in Europe and the growth of the United States have also led to the Chinese industry having a still frenetic activity to meet the demand for products, from auto parts to tools and clothing. More factory production has raised prices of raw materials and increased the income of copper producers in Chile and Indonesia, gold mines in South Africa and silver operations in Sweden.

The biggest worry comes from Washington, where the Trump administration has often promised to punish Mexico and China for their unbalanced trade balances with the United States.

“You get into a commercial war, that’s the real concern,” said Ben May, a global economist at Oxford Economics in London. “The impacts on global growth would be quite severe.”