Preventing Discrimination
Through the work of its prevention initiatives, employment equity audits and proactive communications, the Commission’s Discrimination Prevention Branch aims to assist employers prevent discrimination in the workplace and service delivery centres. In so doing, the Branch develops strong collaborative relationships with employers and other stakeholders. The Branch also works closely with staff of the Commission’s other branches to help gather intelligence related to trends and patterns on human rights matters. This external and internal collaboration allows the Commission to focus on and coordinate its work in the areas of prevention, compliance, and information-sharing in a proactive way.
Prevention Work with Employers
First established in 2004, the Prevention Initiatives and Liaison Division has a specific mandate to work with employers to prevent discrimination and develop strategies to resolve complaints effectively and quickly. The program works to advance human rights by engaging key stakeholders in the prevention of discrimination in workplaces and service centres, and through raising awareness, understanding and acceptance of, and commitment to, human rights.
Prevention activities and services are provided in all regions of Canada. The Commission’s regional offices work with many organizations and groups, such as public and private sector employers, unions, federal councils, First Nations communities and various associations representing visible minorities and persons with disabilities.
In 2006, the Commission continued to realize success with more employers embracing a preventive approach as an important part of their overall human rights strategy. Three more organizations, with a combined workforce of 34,000, signed memoranda of understanding (MOU) in this regard. These organizations include:
Canadian Pacific Railway, which, in January 2006, signed a letter of understanding with the Commission to reduce discrimination through a proactive and systematic approach, to work together to resolve allegations of discrimination as early as possible and to collaborate on preventive measures where appropriate. Industry Canada, which, in August, signed an operational memorandum of understanding to provide duty-to-accommodate training to the department’s managers across Canada. The duty to accommodate involves eliminating or changing policies and behaviours that discriminate against persons based on a group characteristic such as race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, age, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, marital status and disability. As a result of the Industry Canada operational memorandum of understanding, 11 duty-to-accommodate training sessions were delivered to some 160 managers across Canada. Purolator Courier Ltd., which, in November 2006, signed an MOU with the Commission to collaborate on preventive measures aimed at reducing discrimination in the workplace, and to work together to resolve allegations of discrimination as early as possible.These three agreements are in addition to existing MOUs with Canada Border Services Agency, Canadian Forces, Canada Post Corporation, National Bank of Canada, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Penauille Servisair and WestJet Airlines.
The Commission has also developed training manuals, currently being updated and revised, on the duty to accommodate and anti-harassment. The Commission is developing human rights training for investigators and a train-the-trainer program.
In February 2006, a Discrimination Prevention Workshop hosted by the Commission attracted representatives of federally regulated public and private sector employers as well as other key stakeholders. Participants received training on a range of human rights topics, including the duty to accommodate, workplace harassment and anti-racism.
In October 2006, the Commission hosted a Discrimination Prevention Forum for representatives of federally regulated employers who are signatories to memoranda of understanding. The Forum focused on meeting the challenges associated with disability and accommodation. Participants also benefited from updates on the full range of programs and services offered by the Commission.
Employer Advisory Council
In April 2006, the Commission launched an Employer Advisory Council, which provides a forum for raising, discussing and acting on issues related to the prevention of discrimination in workplaces and service centres across Canada. The Council is made up of senior Commission Discrimination Prevention staff and representatives of employers who have signed a memorandum of understanding with the Commission. The diverse membership of federally regulated employers helps the Commission communicate more widely throughout various sectors on prevention-related matters, best practices, tools and resources. It is anticipated that the membership will continue to grow.
Because employers identified the duty to accommodate as having a significant impact on their organizations, the Council established a subcommittee to undertake a detailed exploration of the issue. The subcommittee is examining challenges and best practices with a view to reducing the number of complaints filed related to this ground. It will report its findings to the Council in 2007.
Demonstrated benefits
The Commission initially offered its services in a very strategic way, identifying the largest employers as its initial key stakeholders. Given the positive response to its work to date with this first group of MOU signatories, the Commission is currently developing relationships with a broader range of stakeholders. The interest shown by employers in working together with the Commission to review and share practices and policies that address human rights disputes is an encouraging sign of their ongoing commitment to fostering inclusive, respectful workplaces. As the Commission expands its efforts in this area, more of its tools and resources will be made available online, making them easily accessible to all employers, unions and other stakeholders interested in providing a discrimination-free environment and a more inclusive and representative workforce.
Employment Equity Compliance Program
Striving for continuous improvement
The Employment Equity Compliance Program requires employers to identify barriers to employment and implement best practices to make progress in increasing the representation of the four designated groups. Through the Employment Equity Act, the Commission is mandated to conduct audits of public sector and federally regulated private sector workplaces to ensure compliance with the Act.
As well as being a critical component of the Commission’s Discrimination Prevention Program, the Employment Equity Compliance Program is also an important part of the Commission’s renewal and continuous improvement efforts. To that end, the program is streamlining its audit process to ensure it accurately reflects the environment in which the program currently operates. These streamlining efforts will build on the program’s current strengths, while positioning it for increased efficiency and effectiveness.
The highlights of the new process include:
- emphasis on results and monitoring of progress;
- a streamlined internal approval process;
- a clearer process;
- evidence-based analysis of compliance; and
- shorter time frames for completion of the audit steps.
The Commission’s experience with the audit program reveals that employers need more support in building on the information and knowledge they require to help them increase their employment equity compliance and sustain gains achieved. As the program progresses, the Commission similarly gathers more and more information through the audit process on successful strategies and best practices for increasing representation of the designated groups. Sharing this knowledge and intelligence with employers on hiring and promoting practices that help encourage equality in the workplace for designated groups is an important aspect of the program.
This is the reason why the audit program has been incorporated into the Discrimination Prevention Program. The Commission is now able to enhance its audit approach by providing employers with targeted advice, prevention tools and enhanced information for the continuous improvement of the human rights culture in the workplace.