Report of the Equal Opportunities Committee

Equal Opportunities Committee
Report of the Equal Opportunities Committee
March 2014

Robin Johnson

The UTE Equal Opportunity Committee plus delegates attended the PSAC National Equity Conference from November 17-22, 2013. This was the first conference that had all equity groups together at one time and it seemed to work really well. All the comments that I heard was positive on the conference. Each equity group attended workshops around their own equity group and came together at the beginning and end of the conference to hear some wonderful speakers on Human Rights and the Conservative Government. Each Equity caucus also held elections for 2 delegates to be chosen to represent them at the National PSAC Convention in 2015. For Racially Visible the delegates will be Chris Lansdell (UTE) and Sandra Dignagbo. For Aboriginal the delegates will be Sandra Lockhart and Maxine Boutin. For Persons with Disability the delegates will be Leslye Brown and Dave Burchell. For GLBT the delegates will be Lisa Vollans and Victor Guzman. For Women the delegates will be Nancy Johnson (UTE) and Gwen Wally. I want to congratulate all of the UTE members who put their names forward and be a representative for the PSAC Convention. Overall it was a very successful conference. 

I also attended a National Employment Equity meeting planned with the Canada Revenue Agency on November 27, 2013. We were advised that OLEED (Official Languages, Employment Equity Division) has 5 priorities that they are looking at:

1) To develop annual workforce analysis
2) Annual Equity Report
3) Engaging with the new National Equity Committee
4) To support the latest CHRC (Canadian Human Rights Commission) audit
5) A working committee to work on implementation of the new Maturity Model

The new Governance Model was discussed and the Employer wants the unions involved in the working groups on how to include the Diversity portion into the Employment Equity Committees.

We were advised that the new Labour Market availability statistics for 2011 will be coming out sometime during the summer of 2014 and we will be advised once it has been received.

It was agreed by all parties that more education is required for all employees on how the Employment Equity Act works and its requirements to be used on staffing processes.

I attended a working group Canadian Human Rights Maturity Model Conference call on January 16, 2014.  We reviewed the 5 levels of the model being, 1.initiated, 2.defined, 3.managed and routine, 4.predictable and sustainable and 5.continuously optimizing.

There are 5 key elements that have to be reached in each level they are leadership and accountability, communication and consultation, alignment of policies and processes, capacity building and resources, and evaluation for performance measurement and continuous improvement. The committee wants to achieve level 1 by the end of this year (2014). It will take another 2 years in order to achieve level 3.

And lastly, the women’s representative on the UTE EO Committee has resigned, we wish Carrie Ann French good luck in her future endeavours and wish to welcome into our committee Nancy Johnson from the Saskatoon Local.

Respectfully submitted,

Robin Johnson
Chair of the Committee