SIXTH INTERNATIONAL METROPOLIS CONFERENCE

WORKSHOP 63: Employment Equity and the Impact of Globalization and Human Rights

Thursday, November 29, 2001
14:00 - 15:30


ORGANIZERS

CAROL AGOCS
Professor
Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Western Ontario, Canada
London, Ontario, CANADA N6A 5C2
Phone: (519) 660-8537
Fax: (519) 661-3904
Email: cagocs@julian.uwo.ca

JEAN LOCK KUNZ
PhD., Research Officer, Human Resources Development Canada
Income, Security and Labour Market Studies
Applied Research Branch, Strategic Policy
165 Hotel de Ville Street
Phase II - 7th Floor
Hull, Quebec K1A 0J2 CANADA
Phone: (819) 953-8049
Fax: (819) 953-8584
Email: jean.l.kunz@spg.org

ELIZABETH STANGER
PhD. student, Simon Fraser University, Canada
C/O Children's & Women's Health Centre of BC
Room A108 - 4500 Oak Street
Vancouver, BC V6H 3N1 CANADA
Phone: (604) 875-2345 x. 6440
Fax: (604) 875-3740
Email: bstanger@cw.bc.ca

WORKSHOP DESCRIPTION

Employment equity policies, program and legislation must contend with two major trends if they are to remain relevant in addressing barriers to the labour market integration of (im)migrant workers into the 21 Century. The first is the globalization of domestic labour forces as the demand for and mobility of skilled labour increases flows across national borders. 'Managing diversity' has become a key theme for human capital development and utilization in the increasingly global context, and has had a significant impact on how employment equity programs are now understood and implemented. The second is an increasingly sophisticated human rights jurisprudence, which, in the last two decades, has evolved from a narrow conception of direct discrimination based on legal theories of formal equality to a more penetrating analysis of systemic discrimination derived from theories of substantive equality.
These two separate but sometimes intersecting trends need to be considered in
examining employment equity policy today. They radically alter the terrain in which employment equity programs were originally conceived, and impact employment equity policy and practice in complex and contradictory ways.
Employment Equity legislations have created opportunities and challenges concerning the workplace. On the one hand, open discrimination in the workplace is no longer accepted. Visible minorities regardless of immigration status have gained greater access to the labour market. On the other hand, systemic discrimination still exists, hindering the career advancement of visible minorities, and other designated groups. It requires human rights jurisprudence to develop further elaboration and clarification of the appropriate responses to more long-standing and 'hidden' forms of discrimination.

Highlighting experiences in Europe, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, this innovative, cross-disciplinary workshop brings together researchers, policy makers and NGOs to assess the positive and negative effects of these two trends on employment equity implementation, its scope and enforcement, and to analyze emerging limitations and best practices. It has long been a challenge for practitioners in the fields of human resources and equality policy to bring together developments in these two separate domains that so crucially affect practice.

DURATION: 1.5 hours

PARTICIPANTS:

Jean Lock Kunz, Human Resources Development, Canada
Noel Watts, Massey University, New Zealand
Sheila Rogers, Equality Commission, Northern Ireland
Beth Stanger, Simon Fraser University, Canada
Cheryl Engler Wadasinghe, Human Resources Development, Canada