POL 209Y PUBLIC
POLICY AND ADMINISTRATION IN CANADA
The Employment
Equity Act: A short paper evaluating the
success of the Act.
For: Prof.
J. C. Simeon
By:
Due: November 25, 1993
Canada has a population of approximately twenty
six million people. With the
introduction of the federal government's multicultualism program, the social
demographic make up of Canada is quite vast,
bringing together people from many
different nations to join those already living here. Taking the population as a whole into
account, it is no secret that historically, certain members of this social
order have been denied fair access to employment system. The federal and provincial governments had
undertaken steps to address the issue through a wide range of programs such as
equal employment and other affirmative action programs to "promote equal
opportunity in the public service for segments of the population that have
historically been underrepresented there." Today those designated groups,
underrepresented in the labour force include women, Aboriginal peoples,
disabled people, and persons who are, because of their race or colour, is a
visible minority in Canada. In October 1984, Judge Rosalie Silberman Abella
submitted a Royal Commission Report on equality in employment (the Abella
Report) to the federal government.
"The Commission was established in recognition of the fact that
women, visible minorities, the handicapped and native peoples were being denied
the full benefits of employment."
Based on the findings of the Abella Commission, the federal government
implemented "The Employment Equity
Act" in 1986. This short paper will
evaluate the success of the "Act" and will argue that although some progress
has been made, the Canadian Labour force still does not reflect the demographic
composition of Canada as the Act had targeted.
For the purposes of implementing Employment
Equity, certain individuals or groups who are at an employment disadvantage are
designated to benefit from Employment Equity. The Employment Equity Act
describes the designated groups as "women, aboriginal peoples; Indians,
Inuit or Metis, who so identify themselves to their employer, or agree to be so
identified by an employer, for the purposes of the Employment Equity Act. Persons with disabilities; are people who, because of any persistent
physical, mental, psychiatric, sensory or learning impairment, believe
that they are potentially disadvantaged
in employment, and who so identify themselves to an employer, or agree to be so
identified by an employer, for the purposes of the Act. Members of visible minorities are persons,
other than aboriginal peoples, who are non-Caucasian in race or non-white in
colour, and who so identify themselves to an employer, or agree to be so
identified by an employer, for the purpose of the Act."
The designated groups, in particular women,
have essentially been discriminated against for a substantial period of
time. A 1977 study of women in federal
Crown Corporations conducted by the Advisory Council on the Status of Women,
reported that the federal government is the largest employer in Canada, with
almost 40% of it's employee's (excluding the Army) employed by federal Crown Corporations. At
that time, employees of Crown Corporations were not subject to the Public
Service Employee Act, which prohibited discrimination in all aspects of
employment including personnel hiring and promotion. The study showed that women made up 37% of
the Canadian labour force population and 33% of federal public service employee
population. However, only 15.4% of the
total employee population of federal
Crown Corporations were female. The
underrepresentation of women in federal Crown Corporations are clearly evident
in the two charts indicated below. According to the 1981 census, women were at a
disadvantage in a number of ways. In
comparison to men, women have higher
unemployment rates, lower participation rates and are concentrated in lower
paying jobs, regardless of their level of education.
Company Men Women % of Women
CN 71,369 4,434 5.9
Air Canada 14,867 6,073 29.6
CBC 8,015 3,094 27
Atomic Energy
Canada 5,000 778 13.5
Cape Breton
Development 3,822 78 2.0
Number of men and women working for Crown
Corporations in 1977
Company Men Women % of Women
CN 1,014 2 0.2
Air Canada 158 1 0.6
CBC 116 2 1.7
Atomic Energy
Canada 78 0 0
Cape Breton
Development N/A N/A N/A
Number of men and women in senior
management
There is also evidence that the other
designated groups were at a disadvantage to fair access to employment. Studies have shown that aboriginal peoples,
have significantly lower participation rates and higher unemployment rates than
those generally experienced in the Canadian labour force. They also have significantly lower levels of
education and are paid lower average salaries.
The 1981 census indicate that "of the total aboriginal population,
50.4% worked in the Canadian labour force in 1981."
Persons with disabilities have also been at a
disadvantage in the Canadian labour force.
Like the aboriginal people, they too have higher unemployment rates,
lower participation rates and lower levels of education. 1981 census statistics for disabled person in
the labour force were not readily available, however it has been suggested that
whatever the figure was, between "1984 and 1986 their participation in the
labour force had increase by 11%."
Although members of visible minority groups
have relatively high levels of education and relatively high participation
rates, they are generally concentrated in particular occupational groups
The Abella Commission found that the essence of
the problem with respect to why women and the other designated groups were not
reaping the full potential benefits from their participation in the labour
force was "systemic" in nature.
In other words, "the prevailing socio-economic system in which all
Canadians worked had a set of social and political values and institutions in
place which often unintentionally discriminated against these
groups." The Abella Commission
harboured the opinion that the discriminating systemic barriers could only be
eliminated through systemic remedies, thus, "comprehensive programs had to
be adopted and put in place to enable target groups to overcome the systemic
barriers of employment. . . . . . . . .and that a new term 'employment equity'
be adopted to describe programs of positive remedy for discrimination in the
workplace."
In 1986, the federal government passed the
Employment Equity Act. The Act required
that all "federally regulated employers with 100 or more employees to
implement equity programs and provide for minimal commitments on the part of
employers to file bare census information on their work force with the Canada
Employment and Immigration Commission and to develop their own defined
employment equity program to remedy systemic discrimination."
On September 1, during the same year, the
federal government implemented the Federal Contractors Employment Equity
Program, requiring that all contractors with 100 employees or more, tendering
for goods and services with the federal government to implement employment
equity within their organization.
The Acts essentially aimed at making the demographic
characteristics of the Canadian labour force to be representative of the
demographic base of Canada. "In
it's full sense, employment equity is a comprehensive planning process designed
to bring about not only equality of opportunity but equality in results. Its primary objective is to ensure that the
Canadian work force is an accurate reflection of the composition of the
Canadian population given the availability of required skills. This objective is essentially an ethical goal
based on the value of ensuring equity."
Although some progress has been made since the
enactment of the Employment Equity Act, to date the target groups are still
underrepresented in the labour force, in addition there are other difficulties
facing these groups in relation to the Act.
Provisions were made in the Act requiring
mandatory reporting of progress in the companies affected by the Act (all
federally regulated companies with more than 100 employees). From the information provided by these
companies, which approximates 350, the Minister of Employment and Immigration
Canada is required to compile an annual report, to analyse and monitor the
progress of the Act and to ensure compliance.
Although annual reports exist from 1987 to
1992, while researching this paper, only the reports for 1989, 1990 and 1992
were readily available for examination.
As such is the case, only the data contained in these reports wsill be
used in this paper.
The 1989 report indicated their had been an
increase over the previous year in representation in the work force by each target group. Women increased their representation from
40.90% to 42.12%. Aboriginal peoples
increased their representation from 0.66% to 0.73%. Persons with disabilities
increased their representation from 1.59% to 1.71% and members of visible
minorities increased their representation from 4.99% to 5.69%. Of the women employees that had to be
reported by employees under the Act, they constituted 42.12% of the work force. This constituted a 1.22% increase over the
previous year. Their representation
under the act remained lower than their representation in the Canadian labour
force which is 44%.
Aboriginal peoples in the work force under the
Act increased very slightly in the same period and remained underrepresented. They represented 0.73% of the work force
under the Act compared with 2.1% representation in the Canadian labour force.
10,289 persons with disabilities were reported
by employers and constituted 1.71% of all employees reported under the Act. Like the women and the aboriginal peoples,
they too remained underrepresented in each province for which employees
provided a report.
A slight increase in representation was
reported for the visible minority group, however, the report indicated that despite
the increase, they remained underrepresented in the work force under the
Employment Equity Act.
The 1992 Annual Report shows that two of the
four target groups exceeded representation in the work force under the Act,
compared to representation in the Canadian labour force. Both the women and visible minority groups
achieved this mark, however the aboriginal peoples and persons of disability
remained underrepresented in the work force under the Act. Women increased their representation to
44.11% which is about the same now as it was for the Canadian labour force
(44%) at the time of the 1986 Census.
Aboriginal peoples increased to 0.96%.
The representation of persons with disabilities increased from 2.39% in
the previous year to 2.50%. And Visible
minorities increased to 7.55%, slightly higher than it was for the Canadian
labour force (6.3%) at the time of the 1986 census.
Though the government may want to pat
themselves on the back and claim partial success of the program, in reflecting
on the achievements of the women and visible minority target groups, there is a
concern that factors other than the Act may have influence the rise in the
participation rate of these two groups.
In occupations that were traditionally male
dominated, i.e.: lawyers and notary publics etc., women have been slowly but
gradually playing catch up. This is in
part due to the fact that more and more women are graduating from
university. In 1987, Canadian
universities granted more than 103,000 degrees at the bachelor level. This number represented growth of more than
21 % from 1981. Female graduates out
numbered male graduates for the seventh year in a row and by 1987 accounted for
53% of those receiving bachelor's degrees.
The question then is did the doors to accessible employment open to
women because of the Employment Equity Act or did the women provide access for
themselves by attending university.
Unless there is some equity program in place for university attendance, it
would be unreasonable to summize that the Employment Equity program was the
sole vehicle for allowing women fair access into the workplace.
But even still, there is no real success to
speak of. Although gaps are being closer to being closed, women are still
underrepresented in some occupations such as upper level managerial positions
and overrepresented in traditionally female occupations. For example, under the Act women comprise
0.21% of upper level managers compared to 1.53% of men. And they comprise 60.97% of clerical workers
compared to 14.59% of men. Much of the
indicators are similar for that of the visible minority groups.
As indicated previously, there are other
problems associated with the Act.
Complaints have be raised from "public servants and from their
unions that the equal opportunity programs violate the merit principle and
discriminate against candidates outside the target groups for appointment and
promotion." White males in
particular feel that they have become victims of reverse discrimination. As such problems occur when they retaliate
against the system by employing candidates in the target group who are
sometimes not competent for the position hired, in an attempt at hindering that
persons oppotunities for advancement within the company.
Another problem that becomes present is that
when a qualified candidate in a target group is promoted, concerns are raised
among those outside the target group, that the candidate did not excel because
of his or her merit but rather, because of the affiliation to one of the target
groups.
Employment equity was initially seen as good
social policy. Most people would agree
that it is unjust and unacceptable for a society to have individuals facing
barriers to employment opportunities for reasons unrelated to ability. These people were underemployed because they
are women, aboriginal peoples, members of visible minorities, or persons with
disabilities. Despite the governments
efforts to address the issue, and although some gains have been made, there is
still a significant number in the target groups that still face the systemic
barriers. Perhaps the government has not
done enough to change the status quo. Perhaps allowing the employers to set
their own goals and time tables was an error and should be reviewed. But given the data presented thus far in
their own annual reports and the continuous controversy surrounding the issue,
the Employment Equity act as far as I am concern has only partially attained
its goal.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Kernagan,K et al,
Public Administration in Canada
Scarborough, Ontario, Nelson Canada
1991
Kelly, John G. Human Resource Management and the
Human Rights Process
Canada, CHH Canadian Limited 1991
Annual Report: The Employment
Equity Act. 1989, 1990, 1992
Ottawa, Ministry of supply and
Services Canada
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