Latest news with #employmentequity
CTV News
6 days ago
- Politics
- CTV News
Auditor general to study hiring, promotion of public servants with disabilities
OTTAWA — The federal auditor general is planning to study the recruitment, retention and promotion of people with disabilities in the federal public service. Documents obtained by The Canadian Press through Access to Information indicate that the audit is expected to be tabled in the spring. Claire Baudry, a spokesperson for the Office of the Auditor General of Canada, said in an email that while auditor general Karen Hogan expects to table the report in Parliament in 2026, the audit is in the planning phase and any comment on its scope or timelines now would be 'premature.' Hogan's office sent a letter to Secretary of the Treasury Board Bill Matthews on March 7 notifying him of the upcoming study. The most recent employment equity report for the public service says that since March 2020, the number of people with disabilities has increased steadily in the core public service — the federal government departments and agencies that fall under Treasury Board. But that number remains below the rate of 'workforce availability' — the metric used by the government to measure the share of the national workforce that is eligible for federal public service work. As of 2024, 21,089 people with disabilities were working in the federal public service, up from 17,410 in 2023, 14,573 in 2022 and 12,893 in 2021. The report also found that representation of people with disabilities among government executives was above the rate of workforce availability. As of March 2024, 9.7 per cent of federal executives were people with disabilities, up from 4.6 per cent in March 2019. The employment equity report also looked at promotions in the core public service. It found that 2,517 federal public servants with disabilities were promoted in 2024. The report also tracked 1,642 promotions of Indigenous public servants, 1,788 promotions of Black employees, 8,115 promotions of members of visible minorities and 19,578 promotions of women in the core public service. Nathan Prier, president of the Canadian Association of Professional Employees, said he hopes the report will take into account the impact of the government's return-to-office mandate on people with disabilities. The government has gradually increased the number of days public servants must be in the office since the end of the pandemic. As of last fall, most public servants are expected to work in-office at least three days per week, while executives are required to be there at least four days per week. 'We hope to see from the report a snapshot before and after the forced return to office took place to see how many workers with disabilities are leaving the federal public sector and taking their expertise with them, while other workers struggle with increasing workload and now cuts — all when we had an easy and workable solution in front of us this whole time,' Prier said. 'During the pandemic we saw on a large scale how telework worked well for so many workers with disabilities, and we've been disappointed to see that, since the forced and mismanaged return to office, those same people have not been getting accommodations or have been made to jump through hoops in a long, drawn-out process,' he said. Rola Salem, a spokesperson for the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat, said in an email that the Government of Canada has committed to building an accessible and inclusive public service and, in 2024, exceeded its goal of hiring 5,000 people with disabilities. Salem said the secretariat welcomes the opportunity to work with the Office of the Auditor General on the planned audit. The Employment Equity Act defines 'persons with disabilities' as people who have a long-term or recurring physical, mental, sensory, psychiatric or learning impairment and who consider themselves to be disadvantaged in employment or believe that an employer is likely to consider them disadvantaged. The definition also includes people whose limitations have been accommodated in the workplace. This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 26, 2025. Catherine Morrison, The Canadian Press
The Independent
06-05-2025
- Business
- The Independent
South African party launches legal challenge against new diversity and equity labor law
South Africa's second biggest political party launched a legal challenge Tuesday against a new labor law aimed at boosting the hiring of Black people and other groups in some industries, arguing it is unconstitutional, discriminatory and could dampen foreign investment. The challenge by the Democratic Alliance, or DA, takes aim at amendments to the Employment Equity Amendment Act that went into effect in January. Intended to force companies to diversify their staff, the new laws have divided the country's unity government, which includes the DA. The measures have drawn fire from the U.S. government under President Donald Trump, who has cited 'racist laws' as part of his reasons to cut financial aid to South Africa and offer to support the relocation of some of its white minority Afrikaner community to the U.S. The recent amendments give the labor minister the power to set numerical targets for the hiring of Black people, women and people with disabilities in sectors identified by the government as not reaching certain targets. Companies face fines for not reaching the targets. Helen Zille, the federal chairperson of the Democratic Alliance, has described the new law as 'totalitarian' and says it discriminates against other groups of South Africans while potentially discouraging foreign investment. 'Jobs are created by companies that invest in South Africa. The draconian labor regime created by the Employment Equity Amendment Act will continue to drive away investment and predictably increase unemployment,' Zille said. She said the new law is aimed at using racial quotas to address the injustices of the past under the apartheid system of white minority rule, and that it would contribute to the country's unemployment rate, which now stands at over 32%. She said such discrimination in the past has failed to lift up marginalized groups. 'It is completely senseless to knowingly intensify a discriminatory regime that has already failed so spectacularly to empower economically marginalized people,' Zille said. Though South Africa's constitution allows some discrimination to make amends for the oppression Black people experienced during apartheid's enforced racial segregation, it must meet a fairness threshold that the DA argues is not met under the new measures, which it describes as 'draconian.' Official government statistics show that racial and gender disparities in the country's economy remain widespread more than 30 years after the end of apartheid. The African National Congress party, which is the biggest party in the unity government after losing its parliamentary majority in the 2024 national elections, criticized the Democratic Alliance for its court challenge. 'The Employment Equity Act is not about quotas. It is about justice," ANC spokesperson Mahlengi Bhengu-Motsiri said. 'It is about correcting structural imbalances in the economy and ensuring that all South Africans have a fair shot at opportunity.' South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, the leader of the ANC, defended the employment law in his weekly message to the nation on Monday, writing it was 'part of our effort to overcome the structural inequality of apartheid.' The clash over the law is the latest public spat between the two biggest parties in the unity government who remain ideologically opposed on many issues. The parties also are divided on education and land reform policies aimed at addressing inequalities created under apartheid. Two weeks ago, the government withdrew plans to increase a value-added tax paid on consumer goods after the DA and most opposition parties opposed it and refused to vote for the budget which contained the tax increase. ___
