Employment Equity FAQ

The federal government has identified four designated groups that have experienced historical and current barriers to full employment opportunities and therefore are under-represented in the Canadian workforce. The identified groups experience high unemployment rates, lower than average salaries as well as a concentration in low-status jobs. Employment Equity measures are necessary to facilitate the removal of systemic barriers that may prevent members of the identified groups from full participation in the workplace.

Section 16 of the Canadian Human Rights Act and Section 14 of the Ontario Human Rights Code stipulates that it is not a discriminatory practice to collect information if it is intended to be used in adopting or carrying out a special program, plan or arrangement designed to eliminate discrimination of certain groups of individuals.

All full-time, part-time, contract and sessional employees are invited to complete the Employment Equity Questionnaire. Completion of Humber’s Employment Equity Questionnaire is voluntary.

The Employment Equity Act and its Regulations requires the Employment Equity Questionnaire have a unique employee identifier. Centre staff will conduct a workforce analysis based on the information provided. Every position at Humber is coded with a National Occupational Classification (NOC) code. In order for us to develop aggregate statistics based on NOC codes, Humber needs to be able to link employees’ equity data using the employee number to the NOC code. Once the workforce analysis process is completed, a report will be prepared to show the representation of designated groups in each Employment Equity Occupational Group.

Completed Employment Equity Questionnaires are confidential and are only accessible by the Centre for Human Rights, Equity and Diversity at Humber College. To ensure confidentiality, the Employment Equity data is reported in an aggregate format and never on an individual basis.

The information that you provide in the Employment Equity Questionnaire will be kept confidential and will only be reported in aggregate form for Employment Equity purposes. In other words, the reported data will not contain any personal identification. The information will provide up-to-date knowledge of Humber’s workforce representation and will allow the College to identify where under-representation exists. It will also help Humber to target its efforts toward removing barriers that may exist in the College’s employment systems.