Preventing Discrimination

The Commission works closely with employers and other stakeholder groups to promote culture change towards workplaces and service delivery centres that are free of discrimination. Commission staff across Canada work with employers and stakeholders to identify challenges and encourage solutions.

The Commission shares the credit for the ongoing success of the Discrimination Prevention Program with its partner employers and stakeholders who have demonstrated a real commitment to improving their working environments.

The open dialogue between the Commission, employers and other stakeholders inspires the Commission’s adaptive discrimination prevention initiatives. Interactive workshops, sharing resources and proven practices, and Employment Equity Act compliance audits provide employers with the necessary tools to prevent discrimination and promote the shift towards a human rights culture.

Working Towards a Common Goal: Prevention Work with Employers

Innovation stems from successful collaboration. The Prevention Initiatives and Liaison Division has chosen to channel its efforts by working strategically with key organizations to enhance and expand discrimination prevention initiatives. These initiatives support employers in realizing greater sensitivity to human rights within the workplace, and provide them with the tools to anticipate differing needs, and to respond to misunderstandings before they develop into discrimination complaints.

Discrimination Prevention Forum – Diversity ’07

The Commission held its third annual Discrimination Prevention Forum in October 2007. This annual forum is an opportunity for the Commission, federally regulated employers and members of civil society from across the country to come together to identify and discuss emerging issues, share knowledge and experience, and develop tools to prevent discrimination.

This year’s discussions and workshops explored accommodating mental health issues and religious differences, disability management and return to work, medical information and functional assessments, and the role of community groups in preventing workplace discrimination.

This event broke new ground as the first Discrimination Prevention Forum to be held in conjunction with the Canada Public Service Agency’s Duty to Accommodate Conference. This cooperative initiative was well received by delegates and was praised by keynote speaker, Louise Arbour, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and former Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada.

Employer Advisory Council (EAC)

The Employer Advisory Council (EAC) meets quarterly to raise, examine, discuss and act on issues aimed at preventing discrimination in workplaces and service centres across Canada.

The EAC is made up of organizations that have signed Memoranda of Understanding with the Commission. Members benefit from a close working relationship with the Commission. In turn, the Commission is informed of emerging issues identified by partner organizations. This year, the Report of the Employer Advisory Council Sub-Committee on Accommodation Issues was submitted to the Council.

The EAC also facilitates broader communication. Prevention-related matters, proven practices, tools, and resources reach a greater audience throughout various sectors thanks to the diversity of the Council’s membership and the relationships forged by the Commission’s offices across Canada. As the diversity of membership continues to increase, so too will the Commission’s ability to share prevention information and resources with various sectors.

Employer Advisory Council members also have access to the Community of Practice website – a new tool that aims to facilitate a smooth transition between the formality of a council structure and the fluidity of an electronic community of practice. As members of a learning e-community with extensive resources, employers and Commission representatives from across the country share information and participate in forum discussions.

Memoranda of Understanding

Establishing Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs) with employers of federal jurisdiction is integral to the success of all activities initiated by the Prevention Initiatives and Liaison Division.

As part of these MOUs, the Commission works closely with each organization to develop solutions to human rights challenges. Once an organization has committed to making discrimination prevention a priority, our specialists meet with their management team to identify areas of concern. Strategies to address these concerns are developed by a team of experts from the Commission and a specially selected group of people from the partner organization with expertise in the identified areas of concern.

These solutions can include creating new policies or changing existing ones; sharing proven practices through human rights training and information; and developing instruments to assist employers, such as case studies, presentations, posters and interactive teaching tools.

Moving forward as part of a focused strategy, the Commission will offer to expand its outreach and prevention initiatives to include unions and community organizations by linking them to our MOU signatories.

Community Bridging – Stakeholder Engagement

Beyond working directly with employers to prevent discrimination, the Commission also engages civil society – non-governmental organizations (NGOs), unions, and other stakeholders – in order to hear their concerns and benefit from their perspectives.

Acting as the hub of a network, the Commission leverages the relationships built by the offices across Canada to bring NGOs and employers together to foster dialogue and decide how they want to work together. NGOs and employers are both enthusiastic about the potential for progress.

Tools and Resources

A commitment to preventing discrimination in the workplace is a commitment to cultural change. Building a culture of human rights in the workplace requires training, policies, systems, and people within the organization who understand how to deliver these programs.

Tools and resources have been developed to assist organizations with culture change and contribute to the Commission’s ability to deliver its commitments within the MOUs by giving people the ability to identify and prevent discrimination.

In 2007 the Commission piloted the Train-the-Trainer program to teach employers to deliver CHRC workshops to their employees on the duty to accommodate and anti-harassment. The Commission provides continued support, resources and advice to the trainers through online fora and regular communication. Lessons from the original pilot project have contributed to enhancing and improving the Train-the-Trainer program for 2008.

Employment Equity Compliance Program

Striving for Continuous Improvement

As an essential component of the Commission’s Discrimination Prevention Program, the Employment Equity Compliance Program supports the Commission’s commitment to renewal and continuous improvement. The Program requires employers to identify barriers to employment for the four designated groups – women, visible minorities, Aboriginal peoples, and persons with disabilities – and implement proven practices to eliminate those barriers. The Commission is mandated to conduct audits of public sector and federally regulated private sector workplaces to ensure compliance with the Employment Equity Act.

A results-based approach has led to a new streamlined audit process, which provides employers with a smoother, faster and user-friendly audit experience. The audit process has been further improved through increased outreach and information sharing. Through workshops explaining the audit process, a simplified framework document and a compliance questionnaire, employers are encouraged to fulfill their responsibility and take on a greater role in their compliance before they engage in the audit process.

In 2007, invitations were extended to over 600 federally regulated employers. Workshops were held in Montreal, Toronto, Ottawa, Calgary and Vancouver and nearly 200 managers, human resources advisors and employment equity officers participated. Compliance Review Officers and statistical analysts explained procedures and answered questions in order to provide a clear understanding of the audit process. Feedback was extremely positive and encouraging.

This collaborative and proactive approach to ensuring that organizations are compliant with the Act has increased the Program’s output significantly.

Streamlined Audits

The Commission has implemented a streamlined audit process, designed to accurately reflect the results-oriented environment in which the program currently operates. A simplified process and shorter timelines for completing audit steps and the approval process mean that employers can move faster to resolve issues identified during the audit. By placing greater emphasis on monitoring progress and measuring results using evidence-based analysis, auditors are able to provide employers with clearer direction.

A number of systemic challenges have been observed during the audit process. Solutions to these challenges form part of the work that the Prevention Initiatives and Liaison Division engages in with employer groups. This ensures that employers benefit from targeted advice, prevention tools and enhanced information for the continuous improvement of the human rights culture in the workplace. The program has demonstrated that employers need support in building on the information and knowledge they require to increase their compliance, and to sustain the progress they have made with employment equity.

The new audit process is also designed to gather valuable information on successful strategies and proven practices for increasing representation of the designated groups, which is shared with employers.

Employment equity should not be seen as something within the job description of an employment equity manager to be monitored as a statistic. Rather, achieving employment equity should be articulated in the organization’s vision, values and objectives, and be supported both in its business plans and through institutionalized incentives such as performance measurement and accountabilities for all managers.

Ensuring Progress for Designated Groups

To achieve equality in the workplace, employers covered by the Act are to monitor the progress made in the representation of designated groups. The audit experience tells us that, too often, employers are not adequately monitoring their employment equity program.

Our audit process now includes a progress assessment phase focusing on the achievement of hiring, promotions and representation goals by employers. By placing greater emphasis on monitoring progress and measuring results using evidence-based analysis, auditors are able to provide employers with clearer direction.

Profile of Employers Subject to the Act

The following table shows the number of employers subject to the Employment Equity Act and the number of employees in each sector, including those who have been or are being audited. It also highlights the Commission’s focus on auditing larger employers, where the potential impact for progress in the employment of designated groups is greatest. For the first time, more than one million employees are covered by the Act.

Figure 1 - Employers and Employees by Sector subject to the Employment Equity Act, Audited or Under Audit      

Employers and Employees Currently under the Act

Figure 1 shows that 41% of the 608 employers currently under the Act have been audited or are in the audit process. This percentage has declined since 2004 for two reasons. First, there has been an increase in new employers reporting under the Act. Second, employers who are no longer under the Act, but who had been the subject of an audit, have been removed from the list of employers currently under the Act. The percentage of the workforce audited or under audit has also dropped slightly from 77% to 75%, mainly as a result of the increase in the number of employees.

Audit Results

A total of 229 employers have been found in compliance with the requirements of the Act since 1998. The Commission found 11 employers in compliance in 2007: eight were under preliminary assessment audit, and three were under progress assessment audit. In addition, 18 employers were found to be in non-compliance: eight were under preliminary assessment audit and 10 were under progress assessment audit. No directions were issued in the past year.

Observed Challenges for Employers

Ten years of audit experience has identified fundamental components of an efficient employment equity program. Employers can take a number of proactive steps to enhance the likelihood of increased representation of designated groups.

Meaningful Consultation

As required by the Act, consultation of employee representatives is a key element for success in employment equity. Many employers who are proposing efficient strategies to increase the participation of designated groups in their workforce have first conducted meaningful consultatio n with their employees. This approach creates better decision-making and better buy-in, and reduces potential backlash from the implementation of an employment equity program. It also contributes to the development of creative solutions by the people who best understand the organization’s environment and challenges.

Ensuring Ongoing Capacity

Employment equity audits reveal that too often employers are not investing enough resources and commitment on the continuing fulfillment of their employment equity obligations. While the initial audit may in some cases act as a catalyst for compliance, the increased level of effort is not always sustained afterward. Employment equity must be a continuous commitment, requiring ongoing vigilance, resources and support.

Corporate Planning, Culture and Accountability

Many employers rely on their human resources personnel to ensure compliance with the Employment Equity Act. Despite the good faith efforts of these specialists, this approach alone rarely succeeds. Employment equity is achieved when it becomes an integral part of corporate culture and business planning, where incentives are institutionalized. Managers at all levels can play a key role in reaching employment equity goals.

Proven Practices

Many employers have demonstrated a real commitment to improving their working environments. The proven practices highlighted below are examples of how some organizations are promoting a human rights culture within their workplace.

MBNA Enhances Participation of Persons With Disabilities

MBNA has retained the services of a national organization to recruit persons with disabilities for entry and higher level positions. The company requires external agencies to take into consideration its efforts to hire persons with disabilities when requesting temporary help and it also uses its websites to encourage applications from qualified candidates with disabilities. MBNA Corporation is an international credit card-issuing institution with about 1,700 employees in Canada.

CIDA Increases Representation of Visible Minorities

The Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) encourages visible minorities to participate in developmental programs, such as the Career Advancement Program and the Executive Developmental Program for visible minorities. These positive initiatives help to increase representation levels for visible minority members at the executive levels of the federal public service. CIDA is Canada’s lead agency for development assistance abroad. Its mandate is to support sustainable development in developing countries in order to reduce poverty and to contribute to a more secure, equitable, and prosperous world. CIDA employs about 1,600 people.

OC Transpo Promotes Accessibility and Accommodation

OC Transpo developed an accessibility plan to resolve outstanding issues relating to the accessibility of its employment and services programs. The plan includes purchasing only low-floor transit vehicles and a goal of acquiring a fully accessible bus fleet by 2015. All 30 Transitway stations and five O-Train stations are now accessible. The City is committed to ensuring full access for employees and candidates and to implementing duty-to-accommodate training for managers and supervisors. OC Transpo provides public transit services in Ot tawa. Its mandate is to deliver safe, reliable and courteous service at a reasonable cost to all residents. OC Transpo employs about 2,400 people.

American Airlines Ensures Meaningful Consultation

American Airlines has taken appropriate steps to ensure meaningful consultation with its employee representatives within its Canadian operations. An Employment Equity Council, composed of a cross-section of volunteers from various levels and geographic locations, including members of designated groups, was established. The Council members have contributed to the development, implementation and monitoring of the company’s employment equity plan. As part of its mandate, the Council is expected to discuss employee concerns regarding employment equity issues in the workplace and to provide advice on how these can be resolved. American Airlines employs about 300 people in Canada.

Finance Canada Increases Accountability

Finance Canada is taking steps to ensure the accountability of its managers in the implementation of its employment equity program. Senior managers’ responsibility for employment equity has been entrenched in their accountability agreements. Finance Canada is the federal department primarily responsible for providing the Government of Canada with analysis and advice on the broad economic and financial affairs of Canada. The department employs about 1,000 people.