Affirmative Action and Employment Equity

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Affirmative Action and Employment Equity

• March 18, 2002

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Employment Equity What is It?

• employment equity (def) ensuring that employers
  identify and remove employment barriers...and
  take appropriate special measures to ensure the
  representation of disadvantaged groups consistent
  with their availability in the labour force

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Employment Equity Why?

• groups in society that have faced historical and
  continuing discrimination
• systemic barriers to employment of disadvantaged
  group
• underrepresented in overall workforce
• underrepresented in specific industries/job
  categories e.g. pink ghetto
• underrepresented in upper management e.g.
  glass ceiling
• time alone will not correct the problem
  requires government intervention

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Canada and the United States

• which is more likely to adopt employment equity?
• why?
• political culture
• equality of opportunity
• equality of results

5
Canada and the United States

• which is more likely to adopt employment equity?
• why?
• political culture
• equality of opportunity (United States)
• equality of results (Canada)

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Canada and the United States

• which is more likely to adopt employment equity?
• why?
• political culture
• equality of opportunity (United States)
• equality of results (Canada)
• context...

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Context The American Dilemma

• strong American commitment to political
  principles
• egalitarianism all men are created equal
• individualism and personal liberty
• emphasis on freedom from government
• history of slavery, racism and segregation
• history in conflict with principle of
  egalitarianism
• solutions (usually relying on government) in
  conflict with principle of individualism and
  limited govt

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Affirmative Action in the United States Keys
to the Kingdom

• Equal Pay Act 1963
• Civil Rights Act 1964
• affirmative action -- 1965
• You do not take a person who, for years, has
  been hobbled by chains...and then say you are
  free to compete with all the others, and still
  just believe that you have been completely
  fair. Lyndon B. Johnson, 1965
• programs and policies to actively
  encourage/enforce proportional representation of
  disadvantaged groups

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Affirmative Action in the United States Keys
to the Kingdom

• affirmative action -- 1965
• AA in federal public service by presidential
  executive order (1965-)
• federal contractors program (1965)
• university admissions
• public school integration (including forced
  bussing)
• characteristics
• focus on numerical targets for proprotional
  representation
• quotas

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Affirmative Action in the United States The
Denouement

• Bakke v. UCal Davis, 1978
• federal contractors program under Reagan
• ...affirmative action under the contract
  compliance program ceased to exist in all but
  name after 1980. J.S. Leonard, 1994
• Hopwood v. Texas, 1996
• Proposition 209 (California, 1996)
• by the mid-1990s, affirmative action seriously
  under challenge...

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Employment Equity in Canada

• Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
• S.15(1) Every individual is equal before and
  under the law and has the right to the equal
  protection and equal benefit of the law without
  discrimination and, in particular, without
  discrimination based on race, national or ethnic
  origin, colour, religion, sex, age or mental or
  physical disability.

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Employment Equity in Canada

• Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
• S.15(1)
• S.15(2) Subsection (1) does not preclude any
  law, program or activity that has as its object
  the amelioration of conditions of disadvantaged
  individuals or groups including those that are
  disadvantaged because of race, national or ethnic
  origin, colour, religion, sex, age or mental or
  physical ability.

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Employment Equity in Canada

• Employment Equity Act and Federal Contractors Act
  
• adopted in 1986 (amended 1995)
• applies to...
• federal public service
• federally regulated sectors (e.g. banking)
• contractors (gt200,000) with the federal
  goverment (with more than 100 employees)
• 5 of Canadian labour force

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Employment Equity in Canada

• legislation
• target groups
• aboriginals
• disabled
• visible minorities
• women

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Employment Equity in Canada

• legislation/target groups
• requirements
• employers required to collect data on target
  groups
• attempt to identify reasons where
  under-representation occurs
• identify barriers to employment
• implement plan to remove barriers
• set own goals (including timetables) for
  addressing under-representation

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Employment Equity in Canada

• legislation/target groups/requirements
• issues (i.e. potential barriers to employment)
• job assignment
• training
• compensation (pay equity)
• promotion
• terms and conditions of employment
• workplace culture/climate

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Employment Equity in Canada

• legislation/target groups/requirements/issues
• limits
• no quotas
• cannot be required to hire unqualified persons
• requirements cannot cause undue hardship
• cannot be required to create new positions
• compliance
• does not mean having representative workforce
• means meeting the required steps to identifying
  potential barriers and making reasonable
  progress toward equitable representation

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Employment Equity in Canada

• legislation/target groups/requirements/
  issues/limits
• enforcement
• Canadian Human Rights Commission
• performs audits (as of 1996)
• penalties (for violation)
• tribunal directives to cease discriminatory
  practices
• fines

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Affirmative Action (US) vs. Employment Equity

• Canadians more familiar with Affirmative Action?
• opponents of Employment Equity in Canada often
  refer to it as Affirmative Action
• apparent reference to the severe division over
  affirmative action in the US

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Affirmative Action (US) vs. Employment Equity

• AA usually associated with numeric quotas in EE
  quotas are extremely rare
• AA in US is broader than EE in Canada
• applies to broader range of issues than in Canada
• university admissions
• AA is also narrower than EE in Canada

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Employment Equity in Canada

• legislation
• target groups
• areas (potential barriers to employment)
• job assignment
• training
• compensation (pay equity)
• promotion
• terms and conditions of employment
• workplace culture/climate

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Measures of Effectiveness

• ratio of proportion of workforce to proportion of
  population
• ratios of representation/hiring to available
  candidates in workforce
• necessary but not sufficient condition
• vertical equity
• are disadvantaged groups represented
  proportionally throughout the organization
  (including upper levels) or just at lower levels

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Main Messages!!!

• context NOT political culture was crucial in
  shaping the development of programs in the two
  countries
• politics of employment equity in Canada have been
  significantly shaped by the politics of
  affirmative action in the US