The Employment Equity Act

PURPOSE OF ACT

2. 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.

Employer Obligations

Employer’s duty

5. Every employer shall implement employment equity by

(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

6. 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.

In the Employment Equity Act, the four designated groups are defined as

• Women
  
• Aboriginal peoples: persons who are Indians, Inuit or Métis
  
• Persons with disabilities: persons who have a long-term or recurring physical, mental, sensory, psychiatric or learning impairment and who
  • consider themselves to be disadvantaged in employment by reason of that impairment, or
    
  • believe that an employer or potential employer is likely to consider them to be disadvantaged in employment by reason of that impairment and includes persons whose functional limitations owing to their impairment have been accommodated in their current job or workplace
• Members of visible Minorities: persons, other than aboriginal peoples, who are non-Caucasian in race or non-white in colour

For more information or to review the Employment Equity Act in its entirety
please click here: http://laws.justice.gc.ca/en/e-5.401/index.html