HUMA Committee Report

Almost all of our witnesses pointed out that success in achieving employment equity depends on many activities that fall outside the legislation. This is as true in achieving an understanding of equity in the general population as it is in the workplace. Chief among these activities are education and promotion that will support the goals expressed in the Act itself.

The purpose of this Act is to achieve equality in the workplace so that no persons shall be denied employment opportunities or benefits for reasons unrelated to ability and, in the fulfilment of that goal, to correct the conditions of disadvantage in employment experienced by women, aboriginal peoples, persons with disabilities and members of visible minorities…¹³

The Act recognizes the importance of education in achieving this purpose and gives Human Resources Development Canada (HRDC) responsibility for developing and conducting information programs that foster public understanding of employment equity and that promote the program (Section 42 (1)). Representatives of the four designated groups, employers and unions reiterated that HRDC has an important role in marketing and promoting employment equity among the general public.

Creation of employment equity is not enough. Educating the general public and the workforce on the need for, and importance of, employment equity is as important as its implementation. Education will assist in alleviating myths and misconceptions that are synonymous with employment equity. (Mr. Raj Dhaliwal, Director, Human Rights Department, Canadian Auto Workers Union)¹⁴

Changing mindsets is probably the most essential step required to open the workplace to people with disabilities. Constantly challenging existing mindsets will help this to happen. (McLarren Consulting Group, Brief)¹⁵

We encourage the Labour Program [HRDC] to become more active in fostering broader public understanding and recognition of the principles and objectives of employment equity. We still believe that more information about employment equity is needed in the public forum and in schools and that the Labour Program has an educational role to play to that end. All Canadians should understand the goals of equity. When individuals arrive in employment, they should already be familiar with concepts of diversity and inclusiveness. Members of designated groups still need to be reassured… (Canadian Bankers Association, Brief)¹⁶

Throughout our review of the Act, we often felt that the education and promotion activities were being obscured by the need for administrative measures, data collection, employer obligations, and compliance reviews. When the question did come up for discussion, designated groups pointed the finger at management and labour; labour blamed management and everyone blamed the Department. Obviously, this is an area where all parties bear some responsibility for the lack of effective action.

In respect of public education, we are extremely disappointed that the federal government did not provide the resources necessary for information programs to foster public understanding of this act and to foster public recognition of the purpose of this act, as provided in the Act. It is our opinion that this is an indispensable role for government. The government should also have public education and awareness campaigns on a regular basis to deal with employment equity-related backlash. (Mr. Harminder Singh Magon, Anti-Racism Co‑ordinator, Union of Public Employees )¹⁷

Employers also put forward a very convincing case that a continuing dialogue among those with a stake in success would be particularly helpful. They suggested:

We believe we need to spend more time exchanging results, not in the statistical sense, but rather letting others know that, for example, a co-op program tested at one particular location was quite successful and could prove useful to other employers who may not have had an opportunity to do the same things. (Ms. Elisabetta Bigsby, Senior Executive Vice-President, Human Resources and Public Affairs, RBC Financial Group, Canadian Bankers Association)¹⁸

There were, of course, several caveats. Among them was a warning that strategies need to be adapted to community needs as well as designated group requirements. For example, an outreach program that works in Toronto might not work in Saskatchewan.

In our first years of looking at our workforce from an employment equity perspective, we had four taskforces that looked at all the four different designated groups, identified stereotypes and myths, and then looked at our population, found the evidence that supported or rebutted those myths and communicated the results to not only our employees but also to the communities in which we do business. This is putting aside stereotypes and showing the reality that these people from the designated groups are available, they are skilled, they have the opportunity to come to work and we welcome them and have an equitable and supportive environment. (Ms. Lesya Balych-Cooper, Vice-President, Diversity and Workplace Equity/EAP, Bank of Montreal, Canadian Bankers Association)¹⁹

The Committee’s evidence provided back-up to our view that some of the specific issues that we discuss later in this report could be at least partly resolved through greater understanding. The Federal Employers in Transportation and Communication (FETCO), for example, identified a proactive campaign to create broader public awareness and understanding of employment equity as one means of overcoming the reluctance of some of the designated groups to self-identify.²⁰

Again, HRDC was identified as having a specific role within the employment equity ‘system’ that it could play more successfully. HRDC could assist employers and help them to bridge the gaps with designated groups.  HRDC should also provide more advice and technical support to employers and members of designated groups (e.g. guidelines to the Act; workforce gap analysis; clustering analysis; numerical goal setting; and, regular updates on relevant case law, best practices and innovative approaches).

Some witnesses put forward another perspective on promotion and education in their argument that employers themselves should take a more active role in education in the workplace. The success of any employment equity program depends on the type of education initiatives in support of these programs. The Act does not specifically mandate employers to provide workplace education on employment equity and labour representatives argued that where there is a union, the provision of education and information should be a joint obligation. Employers should develop effective means of communicating employment equity programs and policies and develop effective educational materials. Some employment equity practitioners took essentially the same position.

Right now, there isn’t a lot of employment equity training per se. There’s the compliance book that says here are some of the things you can implement with the new organizations. But what happens on a company level is that the companies put an individual in the position who may have the competencies and skills required around human resources, but not necessarily around how to deliver these types of directives.

A lot of times what happens is the employment equity person becomes the in‑house expert. You’re considered to know it all; however, you’re not given any of the training to know it all. So it’s really put upon you to educate yourself a lot of the time. Some companies will say you can go to a conference in Toronto, if there’s a diversity conference or an employment equity conference, and they’ll pay for stuff like that, but there isn’t really any in-house training provided for most individuals. (Ms. Crystal Laborero, Council Member, Manitoba Women’s Advisory Council)²¹

There are people who, because of their work responsibilities, should receive training on employment equity in addition to education and awareness sessions which should be provided at all levels to everyone in workplaces covered by the act. This type of training should cover all aspects of workplace relations and should be built into all training programs, providing effective information to counter the backlash effect. (Mr. Harminder Singh Magon, Anti-Racism Co‑ordinator, Canadian Union of Public Employees)²²

Many of the designated groups reiterated the need for training programs for both employers and unions. These witnesses believe that education should be a required component of all barrier identification, removal and prevention plans. They also believe
the education of employers could assist in creating a workplace where some individuals with intermittent health problems, including those with mental illnesses would not be afraid to self‑identify. In this case, the witnesses pointed out that the Canadian Human Rights Commission could provide information that would assist employers.

We would therefore ask that the attitudes of employers and unions be examined, that awareness and training programs for employers, employees and unions be offered…. (Ms. Chloé Serradoni, Executive Director, Confédération des organismes de personnes handicapées du Québec)²³

Education and training are key aspects of employment equity. There is a need to improve the overall understanding of the Act through better education and training of employers, managers, workers and  the general public to eliminate misperceptions about employment equity and prejudice. Again the role of the federal government, particularly HRDC’s Labour Branch was highlighted — not just in dealing more narrowly with employment equity but more broadly in looking at the place of some of the designated groups in the workplace and implementing policies apart from employment equity that would support its goals.

Research carried out around the world has consistently shown that organizations with programs designed to manage disabilities are much more open and generally recruit people with disabilities at a much higher rate. (Mr. Viateur Camire, Director and Vice-President, Human Resources, Abitibi Consolidated Inc., National Institute of Disability Management and Research)²⁴

According to the National Institute of Disability Management, the federal government should promote and support the adoption and implementation of the International Labour Organization’s Code of Practice on Managing Disability in the Workplace. The Institute also recommended increasing the resources of HRDC’s Labour Branch to allow it to carry out research on disability management in the workplace and encouraging cooperation between workers and employers.

Obviously, what is needed is a more systematic and comprehensive strategy to deal with education, promotion, and training for employment equity.

… what an opportunity to have a marketing and a communications plan in both these areas [legislation employment equity and the federal contractors program] that would sell employment equity in this whole country, even if we don’t fall under the legislation. (Ms. Mary Margaret Dauphinee, University Advisor on Employment Equity, Queen’s University)²⁵

Meeting this need would not require any amendments to the Act, but it would require a commitment and resources on the part of all the stakeholders to translate some of their words about achieving the purposes of employment equity into action.

Recommendation 2

The Committee recommends that the Minister of Labour develop a more focused and better-resourced employment equity research, promotion, education, and technical support strategy. As a basic premise, such a strategy should also aim to create, and to build on partnerships between business, labour, the community and designated groups. This strategy should entail the development of:

Recommendation 3

The Committee recommends that the Labour Branch of Human Resources Development Canada be the sole source of technical support for both public (including Separate Employers) and private sector employers.