Employment Equity
Equity gains in the Revised National Joint Council Travel Directive
The NJC Government Travel Committee has recently completed its review of the Travel Directive. The NJC Joint Employment Equity Committee was provided an opportunity to review the policy and to identify potential barriers against members of the equity groups.
The PSAC, in their submission, identified that obligations flowing from the duty to accommodate were critical. Although not all of our recommendations were incorporated, PSAC members should note the following important gains:
The principles outlined in the revised NJC Directive include the need for management decisions to respect the duty to accommodate.
The definition of dependent now includes children adopted by aboriginal people under Custom Adoption Practice. These adopted dependents were not previously recognized. In addition, dependents who are disabled are now covered by the policy regardless of age.
The Administration section again makes mention of the accommodation of employee needs in determining travel arrangements and the responsibilities section states that the accommodation of needs be provided to the point of undue hardship. For persons with certain types of mobility disabilities, barrier free travel requires that they have access to appropriate seats.
Unfortunately, other issues of concern to the PSAC were not corrected and these include:
Ensuring that specific measures will be taken so that accommodation (lodging) provided by suppliers or service contracts meet acceptable accessibility standards. In our view, having the largest employer in this country exert pressure on the hotel industry by giving preference to accessible facilities would go a long way to supporting the rights of persons with disabilities and their access to this industry.
We are concerned with the provision which only allows reimbursement of dependent care expenses if, in a two parent family, both parents work for the federal public sector. It is our view that an employee in a two parent family should be entitled to the reimbursement of additional dependent care expenses that are incurred if the other parent is not available to assume dependent care responsibilities, regardless of where the other parent is employed.
This was the first such NJC Directive, to be assessed using an “equity lens” and an important opportunity for the PSAC to support equality and equity in the workplaces subject to NJC Directives. Please note that the revised NJC Travel Directive becomes effective October 1st, 2002. For additional information on this Directive.)
Employers are obligated to accommodate employees up to the point of undue hardship. If you want to know more about the duty to accommodate, please consult "Duty to Accommodate: a PSAC Guide for Local Representatives". You should also ask for a copy of your workplace duty to accommodate policy.
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Date Modified : 2008/04/24
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