Pnina Alon-Shenker
Overview
Pnina Alon-Shenker is an Associate Professor in the Department of Law & Business and the founding Academic Director of the Law & Business Clinic. She served as law clerk to the Honourable Justice Dalia Dorner of the Supreme Court of Israel in 2002-2003 and was called to the Israeli Bar in 2003. She earned her LL.B. from Haifa University, LL.M. from the Hebrew University and University of Toronto, and S.J.D from University of Toronto. She joined Toronto Metropolitan University as a sessional instructor in 2009 and became an Assistant Professor in 2010.
Her research interests centre on labour and employment law with an emphasis on workplace discrimination and diversity, the aging workforce, and forms of employee representation and voice. Her current research advances an innovative critique of contemporary legal analysis of age discrimination in the workplace and develops a new paradigm, founded in legal and philosophical theories of equality, which better articulates the wrongs associated with age discrimination in the workplace. This research also has prominent practical implications for topical legal challenges faced by the aging workforce such as the duty to accommodate senior workers, mandatory retirement and cost-based defence claims.
Pnina Alon-Shenker received the Dean’s Scholarly, Research and Creative Activity Award in 2014 for her recent scholarly achievements. In 2016 she received the Provost's Experiential Teaching Award in recognition of her work to develop and lead the Law & Business Clinic. She was the Co-Editor-in-Chief of International Journal of Comparative Labour Law and Industrial Relations (external link, opens in new window) . She is part of the Labour Law Casebook Group co-editing the Labour and Employment Law: Cases, Material, and Commentary (Irwin Law).
Employment law, labour law, human rights, workplace discrimination.
| Publications |
|---|
| “Employee Status Preconditions: A Critical Assessment (external link) ” (2024) 45(2) Berkeley Journal of Employment and Labor Law 233-289 (with Guy Davidov) |
| “ABC Test: A New Model for Employment Status Determination? (external link) ” 51(2) (2022) Industrial Law Journal 235-276 (with Guy Davidov) |
| “Intersecting Age and Gender in Workplace Discrimination Complaints” (2020) 41(2) Comparative Labor Law and Policy Journal 521-562 (with Therese MacDermott) |
| "Do Trade Unions Promote Age Diversity and Intergenerational Solidarity in the Workplace? A View from Canada and Israel" (2019) 70(2) Labor Law Journal 103-118 (with Lilach Lurie) |
| "Capabilities and Age Discrimination (external link, opens in new window) ", in Brian Langille, ed., The Capability Approach to Labour Law (Oxford University Press, 2019), Ch 13, pp 268-289 |
| “Management Consultants and the Employees of their Client Organizations: Towards a Model of Employee Protection (external link, opens in new window) ” (2018) 21:1 Canadian Labour & Employment Law Journal 117-172 |
| "Out of the Closet and Up the Ladder? Diversity in Ontario's Big Law Firms", (external link, opens in new window) (2017) 34:2 Windsor Yearbook of Access to Justice 40-72 (with Asher Alkoby) |
| "Legal Barriers to Age Discrimination in Hiring Complaints, (external link, opens in new window) " (2016) 39:1 Dalhousie Law Journal 289-325 |
| "Organizing: Should the Employer have a Say?, (external link, opens in new window) " (2016) 17:1 Theoretical Inquiries in Law 63-100 (with Guy Davidov) |
| “Law Firm Partners and the Scope of Labour Laws, (external link, opens in new window) ” (2015) 4:2 Canadian Journal of Human Rights 211-235 (with Brian Langille) |
| “Ending Mandatory Retirement: Reassessment, (external link, opens in new window) ” (2014) 35 Windsor Review of Legal and Social Issues 22-53 |
| “Nonhiring and Dismissal of Senior Workers: Is it all about the Money?, (external link, opens in new window) ” (2014) 35:2 Comparative Labor Law and Policy Journal 159-190 |
| “Applying the Principle of Proportionality in Employment and Labour Law Contexts, (external link, opens in new window) ” (2013) 59:2 McGill Law Journal 375-424 (with Guy Davidov) |
| “‘Age is Different’: Revisiting the Contemporary Understanding of Age Discrimination in the Employment Setting, (external link, opens in new window) ” (2013) 17:1 Canadian Labour & Employment Law Journal 31-63 |
| The Duty to Accommodate Senior Workers: Its Nature, Scope and Limitations, (external link, opens in new window) ” (2012) 38:1 Queen’s Law Journal 165-208 |
| “The Unequal Right to Age Equality: Towards a Dignified Lives Approach to Age Discrimination, (external link, opens in new window) ” (2012) 25:2 Canadian Journal of Law and Jurisprudence 243-282 |
| Conference and Workshop Presentation (selected) |
| (with Guy Davidov), “Organizing: Should the Employer have a Say?” in Intentional Workshop: Organizing and the Law, Tel Aviv University Faculty of Law in January 2015. |
| “Tackling Senior Workers’ Challenges to Re-employment: Does Anti- Age Discrimination Law Provide an Adequate Response?” in International Workshop: Too Young to Retire – Too Old to Work, The Pension Planning and Socio-Economic Security Program, Tel-Aviv University and the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung Foundation, October 2013. |
| “Applying the Principle of Proportionality in Employment and Labour Law Contexts”, Labour Law Research Network Conference, Barcelona, June 2013. |
| “Non-hiring and Dismissal of Senior Workers: Is it all about the Money?”, Canadian Industrial Relations Association (CIRA) Conference: From Theory and Research to Policy and Practice in Work and Employment, Toronto, May 2013. |
| “Age is Different”: Revisiting the Contemporary Understanding of Age Discrimination in the Employment Setting, Shades of Grey: Law and Aging in the Contemporary Workplace Conference, Queen’s University Law School, April 2012. |
| “To Abolish Mandatory Retirement or not to Abolish Mandatory Retirement – Is that the Question?” International Workshop on “Increased Longevity and its Impact on Retirement Patterns and on the Economic and Social Well-Being of the Pensioners”, Tel Aviv University, Faculty of Social Sciences, May 2011. |
| Honour / Award |
|---|
| Provost's Experiential Teaching Award, Ryerson University (2016) |
| Deans’ Scholarly, Research and Creative Activity Award (2014) |
| The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Scholarship (SSHRC) (2008-2009) |
| Ontario Graduate Scholarship (OGS) (2007-2008; waived in 2008-2009) |
| Naomi Overend Fellowship in Human Rights (2006-2007) |
| Connaught Scholarship, the School of Graduate Studies, University of Toronto, for International Graduate Students with Outstanding Records (2005-2006, 2006-2007, 2007-2008) |
| University of Toronto Fellowship (2004-2005, 2006-2007, 2007-2008, 2009) |
| World Fellowship Grant and Extension Grant, the Delta Kappa Gamma Society International (2005-2006, 2006-2007, 2007-2008) |
| Qualifications |
|---|
| S.J.D. (Doctor of Juridical Science) Faculty of Law, University of Toronto, 2010 |
| LL.M. (Master of Laws) Faculty of Law, University of Toronto, 2005 |
| LL.M. (Master of Laws) cum laude, Faculty of Law, Hebrew University, Israel, 2003 |
| LL.B. (Bachelor of Laws) summa cum laude, Faculty of Law, Haifa University, Israel, 2001 |