Employment Equity

May 2001

PSAC Analysis
Employment Equity in the Federal Public Service 1999-2000

COMPARISON OF THE CURRENT REPRESENTATION OF EQUITY GROUPS IN THE FEDERAL PUBLIC SERVICE AS OF MARCH 31^ST 2000 WITH THE ESTABLISHED AVAILABILITY RATES

Data on the actual representation of equity groups within the federal Public Service is obtained, except for women, via the employment equity self-identification process, where persons voluntarily identify themselves as being in an employment equity group.

Availability rates in an employment equity context, means the identification of the appropriate equity comparator groups in the labour market. The 1996 Census and the 1991 Health Activities Limitation Survey (HALS), captures data on those who were in the labour force sometime in 1995 and 1996 (1990 and 1991 for the HALS) and converts this data in a prescribed distribution of occupations. Availability estimates are then developed, based on the skill requirements and geographic recruitment areas, by identifying the availability of equity groups for appropriate occupations.

Treasury Board has established overall availability rates based on occupations in the Canadian workforce that correspond to the occupational groups in the federal Public Service and these rates are:

We have several concerns regarding Treasury Board’s overall availability estimate for Persons with Disabilities and Persons in a Visible Minority. Data with respect to Persons with Disabilities was last gathered during the 1991 Health Activities Limitations (HAL) Survey which provided a labour market availability rate of 6.5% for "all occupations". The Treasury Board rate of 4.8% is based on a methodology that excludes positions that do not correspond to occupations in the federal public service. Given the time that has elapsed since the 1991 HALS and the probable increase of persons with disabilities in the Canadian population, we are of the view that the "all occupations" rate of 6.5% should be used for Persons with Disabilities.

As with last year’s report, the availability rate being used for those who are racially visible is troubling. Treasury Board has excluded from their availability rate all visible minorities who are non Canadian citizens, according to Census 1996 information. We question and disagree with this move for the following reasons:

-the Alliance is involved in a case where the citizenship requirement for federal Public Service employment is being described as a discriminatory policy, in violation of section 15 (1) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

-the Census data being used was captured in 1996. Permanent residents are eligible to apply for Canadian citizenship following a three year period and research shows that over 80% of these apply for citizenship after this period. Given that the 1996 data is being released in 1999, it is probable that close to 80% of permanent residents included in the 1996 Census have applied for Canadian citizenship.

-finally, the 1991 rate used by the federal Public Service (9.0%) was close to the 1991 rate used in the federally regulated sector of 9.1%. The 1996 rate used in the federally regulated sector is 10.3%. The Alliance is of the view that this rate, or a rate closer to it, is a more appropriate estimate of availability, than the current rate being used by the Treasury Board.

Table1:

The current representation of equity groups in the federal Public Service (indeterminate and terms over three months) as of March 31^st 2000 (141,253 employees) is compared to the Treasury Board availability estimate in the following table. It should be noted that the data in the following tables do not include data from Canada Customs and Revenue Agency.

** the "all occupations" HALS 1991 rate for persons with disabilities (6.5%) is used.
*** the "all occupations" Census 1996 rate for visible minorities (10.3%) is used.

According to table 1, significant under representation appears to exist for persons who are racially visible, given the gap between the current number of visible minorities in the federal public service, (7,764) and the availability of similarly skilled visible minorities (14,549).

Although under representation appears for persons with disabilities, this gap is more significant if the HALS 1991 "all occupations" rate of 6.5% is used.

The Treasury Board report indicates that the gap in representation has been closed for Aboriginal Persons. There are currently 4,639 Aboriginal Peoples working in the federal public service, which is more than the Treasury Board availability estimate of 2,401. However, this is not as a result of improved hiring or an improved retention rate for Aboriginal Persons, but is attributable to the fact that the question used with respect to Aboriginal Persons in the 1996 Census was changed. The 1996 Census asked both an ancestry and an identity question. However, the latter ("Is this person an Aboriginal person, that is, North American, Indian, Métis or Inuit (Eskimo)?") was used to compile the availability estimate. Consequently, the availability rate for Aboriginal persons has decreased from a 1991 Census rate of 2.6% to the current 1996 rate of 1.7%.

Although women are not underrepresented in their overall participation in the federal public sector, women are underrepresented in the Executive (28.4%), Scientific and Professional category (36.6%) as well as the Technical (28.3%) and Operational (15.9%) categories. The data also shows that there is a severe clustering of women in traditional female-dominated occupations, for example, 84% of all people in Administrative Support are women.

Additional highlights of the 1999-2000 Treasury Board Employment Equity Report include:

• Seven out of 10 term employees were members of the equity groups; six out of 10 term employees are also women.

• Six out of 10 persons hired into the federal Public Service were women.

• Fourteen percent of women are also members of another designated group.

• Most new women hires (46%) entered the federal public service via the Administrative Support category.

• The highest proportion of women were hired in term positions (60%)

• Six out of ten all promotions were given to women.

• The proportion of separations for women (59.1%) from the federal public service was more than the proportion of new women hires (57.4%).

• A higher percentage of hires of Aboriginal peoples occurred in term positions.

• Aboriginal Persons had a share of hires of 3.9%, a share of promotions of 3.3%, compared to the Treasury Board availability rate of 1.7%.

• Most number of new Aboriginal hires (200) and the highest proportion of promotions (5.0%) occurred in the Administrative Support category.

• Almost eight out of ten Aboriginal employees separated from the federal public service were term employees.

• Among the larger departments with more than three thousand employees, Indian and Northern Affairs Canada continues to employ the highest proportion of Aboriginal peoples (28.5%).

• Nine out of 10 employees with disabilities were indeterminate employees.

• Persons with disabilities had a share of hires of 2.3%, a share of promotions of 4.1%, compared to the Treasury Board availability rate of 4.8% and the "all occupations" HALS 1991 rate of 6.5%.

• Eight out of ten hires of persons with disabilities occurred via the Administrative Support category.

• The highest proportion of promotions also occurred in the Administrative Support category at 5.9%.

• Five hundred (500) employees with disabilities separated from the federal public service in 1999-2000, which far exceeded the number of new hires of persons with disabilities (312 hires).

• Among the larger departments with more than three thousand employees, Human Resources Development Canada employ the highest proportion of persons with disabilities (8.5%).

• Persons from the visible minority group had a share of hires of 5.7%, a share of promotions of 6.3%, compared to an overall labour market availability of 10.3% (or compared to the availability rate set by the Treasury Board of 8.7%). Almost eight out of 10 employees in a visible minority group were indeterminate employees.

• The highest percentage (9.2%) of visible minorities were hired in the Scientific and Professional category.

• The highest proportion of promotions (12.0%) and separations (8.0%) of visible minorities also happened in the same category of Scientific and Professional.

• Four out of ten employees in visible minority group worked in the National Capital Region.

• Among the larger departments with more than three thousand employees, Health Canada and Citizenship and Immigration Canada employ the highest proportion (9.5%) of visible minorities.

Table 2 : Levels of Representation in Selected Departments as of March 31^st 1998

Table 5 : Hirings of Equity Groups into the Federal Public Service by Occupational Category as of March 31^st 2000

The following table shows the termination rates for indeterminate equity groups as of March 31st 2000. The overall indeterminate termination rate for the public service is 3.0%. Note: Total indeterminate terminations at March 31^st 1999 stood at 14,338. Total indeterminate terminations at March 31^st 2000 stood at 4,133).