Appendix 1

LIST OF RECOMMENDATIONS

1. Setting the Pace by Including Employees of Parliament

Amend the Act to include the employees of the Senate, the House of Commons and the Library of Parliament under the Employment Equity Act.

STRENGTHEN THE ENFORCEMENT MANDATE

2. Legal Proceedings

Amend the Act to include a process to ensure that once an employer or the Commission has sought a tribunal, an initial assessment of merit is conducted within a specified period of time.

Amend the Act to delete from the second part of sub-section 22(2) the requirement to take enforcement action only as a ‘last resort’.

3. Failure to Make Reasonable Progress

Amend the Act to permit the Commission to issue a direction or request a Tribunal where an employer has clearly failed to make reasonable efforts to implement the organization’s employment equity plan.

PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES

4. Accommodation Policies and Procedures

Amend the Act to clearly establish an obligation to accommodate by explicitly requiring employers to develop and effectively communicate a written policy and procedures - based on the duty to accommodate to the point of undue hardship and the standards established by the Supreme Court.

The Regulations should provide direction on what are these minimum standards in order to guide the content for such a policy and procedures. The Committee may wish to consider the Canada Labour Code’s requirement for a harassment policy as a precedent.

As the Canadian Human Rights Act includes the concept of the "duty to accommodate to the point of undue hardship," the Employment Equity Act should also be amended to replace "reasonable accommodation" with the same concept.

5. Accessibility

Amend the Act to clarify a pro-active requirement to ensure accessibility into and within the workplace is an integral component of the duty to accommodate. Careful attention will be required in drafting Regulations to ensure the standards to be met by the employer are reasonable but effective.

6. Treasury Board`s Employment Equity Positive Measures Program

Review with the Treasury Board the feasibility of continuing to fund the Employment Equity Positive Measures Program.

7. Comprehensive Strategy for Persons with Disabilities

The Committee should propose a broader, integrated employment strategy for persons with disabilities which would not replace but complement the Employment Equity Act.

8. Funding Support for Promoting Employment

The Committee should seek input on the impact of funding cuts on the services available to employers by advocacy groups and NGOs to assist employers to hire designated group workers and how this has affected the success of employment equity plans.

The Committee should support HRDC and Labour’s plans to develop a responsive approach towards fostering partnerships designed to assist employers recruit and retain designated group members.

9. The Role of Advocacy Groups

The Committee should review the current role of advocacy groups under the Act and propose means to ensure greater co-operation between employers and these organizations.

GIVING THE COMMISSION A CLEAR MANDATE

10. Statutory Requirements

The twelve key statutory requirements need to be clearly articulated along with their sequential relationships to each other. The Regulations should therefore be amended to do this and to provide operational clarity for each requirement in a manner that would provide employers with accessible standards for reaching compliance.

11. Clustering Analysis

Amend the Regulations to require a clustering analysis for all occupational groups and categories where the size of the occupational group and the representation of a designated group in that occupational group warrant.

12. Employment Systems Review

Amend the regulations to specify that an employment systems review

• is required for each occupational group/category where the workforce analysis indicates significant under-representation of one or more designated groups;
• must identify those barriers which provide a reasonable explanation for the under-representation of the designated group in the occupational group/category and which, if removed would permit progress towards full representation; and
• provides the basis for formulating the employment equity plan.

The Regulations should also provide employers with a clear set of standards for conducting an employment systems review. This should include guidelines on determining when an occupational group/designated group should or should not be selected for review and what constitutes a reasonable explanation.

13. Special Measures

Clearly articulate the requirement for special measures as part of the employment equity plan. The requirement should include the standard that the employment equity plan must have sufficient positive policies and special measures to ensure a reasonable expectation that short term hiring and promotion goals will be achieved.

Amendments to the Regulations should provide direction on the operational requirements to meet this standard, e.g. what will be taken into consideration in assessing whether or not the proposed positive policies and special measures are sufficient to achieve the goals.

Amendments to the Regulations should specify that a required part of positive policies and practices will be employment equity and harassment policies (or employer guidelines) that must be communicated to managers and employees.

14. Hiring and Promotion Goals

Amend the Act to clarify the requirement to establish hiring goals at no less than availability and above availability when the analysis of the variables established in section 11 indicates that this is necessary in order to achieve reasonable progress towards full representation during the term of the employment equity plan. Similarly, promotion goals should be at least equal to internal representation.

15. Accountability

Amend the Act to include an explicit provision for accountability. The standards for acceptable accountability mechanisms should be outlined in the Regulations based on further consultations with employers.

16. Education, Promotion and Information Sharing

Clarify an education role for the Commission under Part II of the Employment Equity Act, separate but complementary to that of HRDC. This would give the Commission a clear mandate by which to seek the necessary resources and pursue critical activities in this regard.

Encourage HRDC to dedicate additional funds to more effectively carry out its consulting, promotion and education activities.

17. The Role of Unions

Amend the Act to include in Section 8 the existing statutory requirement to collaborate with bargaining agents, in order that the Commission can assess for compliance.

Consider the feasibility of establishing statutory requirements for bargaining agents in those areas where the Act requires employers to consult and collaborate.

Review the desirability of including the union as an organization as part of the duty to consult and collaborate, in addition to that of bargaining agents as currently specified in the Act.

18. Complaints Based on Patterns of Discrimination

Amend the Act to repeal the consequential amendment, (section 50) that prohibits a tribunal or court from issuing a full remedy when it believes a complaint under section 10 related to patterns of discrimination under the Canadian Human Rights Act is founded. Regulations under the Employment Equity Act covering the development of an employment equity plan should include clear instructions on how such a remedy should be considered in the course of an audit.

19. Public Service Reporting Requirements

Amend the Regulations to require each federal department and agency to report under the National Occupational Code, using the same 14 occupational groups used by the private sector.

Amend the Act to place separate employers under the private sector and Crown Corporations Regulations, assign HRDC the responsibility for receiving, vetting, and tabling the reports with Parliament, and confirm HRDC’s support role with these employers. The Commission supports the Treasury Board’s recommendation to the Committee that the Act should clarify the role of central agencies and individual departments.

20. Federal Contractors Program

The Commission recommends that the Committee may wish to review the framework applying to the Federal Contractors Program, including the feasibility of conferring the same sharing of responsibilities between HRDC and CHRC as now exists with the federally regulated program.