YUFA
Equity
YUFA Executive Attends Equity Workshop
12 Dec 03 – The YUFA Executive and
Equity Committees, as well as YUFA staff, attended a day-long workshop on
December 3, 2003 entitled “Meeting the Equity Challenge”. The workshop
was led by Rosemary Morgan, legal counsel for the Canadian Association of
University Teachers (CAUT) and Anver Saloojee, Chair of the CAUT Equity
Committee and a professor at Ryerson University.
The workshop explained the legal
context of equity obligations shared by unions and employers. These
obligations are found in a number of statutes, regulations, policies,
court decisions and, codes including the Ontario Human Rights Code, the
Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the Federal Employment Equity Act, the
Federal Contractors Program and, in our own Collective Agreement. These
collectively bind unions, their members and, employers to
non-discriminatory hiring practices and to affirmative action programmes
for designated groups of individuals. The Employment Equity Act requires
employers to conduct an Employment Systems Review (ESR), “an examination
of human resources policies and practices for their impact on women,
Aboriginal peoples, persons with disabilities and members of visible
minorities. The review also includes an analysis of the reasonable
accommodation of the special needs of designated group members to ensure
their full participation in an employer’s workforce.” These reviews
should take place every four or five years. York has not yet conducted
such a review.
The workshop dealt with the practice of
an Employment Systems Review at other institutions and how York could
benefit from such a review done jointly by YUFA and the Administration.
There was also a discussion of how YUFA could conduct an ESR of its own
organization, policies and practices.
The YUFA Executive committed to holding
further meetings and workshops on equity.