Question

Under Employer’s duty, every employer is required to implement equity
by doing what? considering Employment Equity Act of Canada  

Answer 1

Purpose of Act

The purpose of this Act is to achieve equality in the workplace so that no person 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 by giving effect to the principle that employment equity means more than treating persons in the same way but also requires special measures and the accommodation of differences.

Every employer shall implement employment equity by doing following tasks:

Employer’s duty

• (a) identifying and eliminating employment barriers against persons in designated groups that result from the employer’s employment systems, policies and practices that are not authorized by law; and

• (b) instituting such positive policies and practices and making such reasonable accommodations as will ensure that persons in designated groups achieve a degree of representation in each occupational group in the employer’s workforce that reflects their representation in

  • (i) the Canadian workforce, or

  • (ii) those segments of the Canadian workforce that are identifiable by qualification, eligibility or geography and from which the employer may reasonably be expected to draw employees.

Employer not required to take certain measures

The obligation to implement employment equity does not require an employer

• (a) to take a particular measure to implement employment equity where the taking of that measure would cause undue hardship to the employer;

• (b) to hire or promote persons who do not meet the essential qualifications for the work to be performed;

• (c) with respect to the public sector, to hire or promote persons without basing the hiring or promotion on merit in cases where the Public Service Employment Act requires that hiring or promotion be based on merit; or

• (d) to create new positions in its workforce.

Analysis and review

• For the purpose of implementing employment equity, every employer shall

  • (a) collect information and conduct an analysis of the employer’s workforce, in accordance with the regulations, in order to determine the degree of the underrepresentation of persons in designated groups in each occupational group in that workforce; and

  • (b) conduct a review of the employer’s employment systems, policies and practices, in accordance with the regulations, in order to identify employment barriers against persons in designated groups that result from those systems, policies and practices.

• Marginal note:Self-identification

  Only those employees who identify themselves to an employer, or agree to be identified by an employer, as Aboriginal peoples, members of visible minorities or persons with disabilities are to be counted as members of those designated groups for the purposes of implementing employment equity.

• Marginal note:Confidentiality of information

  Information collected by an employer is confidential and shall be used only for the purpose of implementing the employer’s obligations under this Act.

The employer shall prepare an employment equity plan that

• (a) specifies the positive policies and practices that are to be instituted by the employer in the short term for the hiring, training, promotion and retention of persons in designated groups and for the making of reasonable accommodations for those persons, to correct the underrepresentation of those persons identified by the analysis under paragraph.

• (b) specifies the measures to be taken by the employer in the short term for the elimination of any employment barriers.

• (c) establishes a timetable for the implementation of the matters.

• (d) where underrepresentation has been identified by the analysis, establishes short term numerical goals for the hiring and promotion of persons in designated groups in order to increase their representation in each occupational group in the workforce in which underrepresentation has been identified and sets out measures to be taken in each year to meet those goals;

• (e) sets out the employer’s longer term goals for increasing the representation of persons in designated groups in the employer’s workforce and the employer’s strategy for achieving those goals; and

• (f) provides for any other matter that may be prescribed.