Groups traditionally left out of the labour force can contribute knowledge that can be used in the design of products or in the marketing of goods and services. Business success depends upon employers' ability to recruit and retain high-quality personnel and support innovation.
By adopting equity principles in hiring and recruiting, employers will have access to a considerably broader skills base. Employers will have to challenge the misconceptions that surround equity, help managers accommodate members of the equity groups, create positive work environments, and clarify senior commitment to innovative change.
Credited seniority for members of designated groups
Collective bargaining can play a role in implementing elements of employment equity. Effective 1 January 1993, a letter of understanding between the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool and Grain Service Union and its employers stipulated that members of the designated equity groups are credited with seniority in bidding on vacancies, maintaining employment in cases of layoff, and recall where designated group members are underrepresented within an occupational grouping. Seniority is credited in the amount of one-half of the average term of service of the members of the bargaining units (6.2 years). Posting of vacancies indicates which designated groups may exercise credited seniority rights.
There is another compelling reason for promoting employment equity in the workplace: for Canadian society, it is far more efficient to have a larger pool of taxpayers contributing to prosperity than to have a large group drawing on prosperity.
Training on the job, cooperative education, apprenticeship placements, and education-industry partnerships are excellent opportunities for the employer to develop a diverse labour force.