April 2009
The president of the Public Service Commission has some serious explaining to do about the dubious numbers she provided a Senate committee regarding the hiring of visible minority workers by the federal government.
Maria Barrados told the committee that the PSC has re-calculated its figures. According to her, the number of new racialized recruits to the federal government is nearly double (17%) what was previously reported (9%) and therefore the federal government is exceeding its hiring goals.
These new numbers are surprising. The same day Ms. Barrados gave her testimony, the Office of the Chief Human Resource Officer of Treasury Board released its latest Employment Equity Annual Report that shows the federal public service is still far short of having a representative workforce, especially when it comes to racialized workers.
For the last 14 years, the Public Service Commission has been using figures from its voluntary self-identification surveys as required by the Employment Equity Act, the same method used by all federal employers to collect employment equity data. Given Ms. Barrados's new numbers, we wonder how the PSC re-calculated the data and whether its methods are consistent with the Employment Equity Act.
Ultimately, however, we feel time, energy, and resources are better spent on removing barriers that continue to exist for many marginalized workers rather than on massaging the numbers. We still hear of many instances of discrimination from our members, and a glass ceiling still exists for women, Aboriginal and racialized workers, and workers with disabilities. The experiences of these workers are real, no matter what the numbers appear to say.
John Gordon,
PSAC National President
Date Modified : 2010/01/29
