Staff of the Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission presided over a lunch and learn session with the Humboldt District Chamber of Commerce and its members on Wednesday, June 18. The topic was human rights in the workplace, focusing on both employers’ and employees’ perspectives.
The Commission works to educate citizens on the fundamentals of human rights and works toward solution-based outcomes in cases where rights have been violated. One of the key understandings in the workplace is that individuals cannot be discriminated against on the basis of numerous factors. Age, disability and race are key among those factors. More recent additions to the code include sexual orientation and sexual identity.
Adam Hawboldt with the Commission took participants through some of the keys to ensuring employer/employee relations roll smoothly free from discrimination. Friction can sometimes develop around issues of disability, which represents one of the main sources of complaints against employers.
“Under the code, disability is a very far-ranging characteristic,” Hawboldt outlined. “It includes permanent disability, which would include someone confined to a wheelchair. It also includes temporary disability, as in a broken leg, which would require some sort of accommodation at work.”
Mental ailments and addictions also fall under the code in terms of an employer’s need to accommodate. While the code does not provide protections in all relationships and circumstances, Hawboldt pointed out that statements or acts of discrimination are actionable in education, access to public services, housing, contracts, property, trade unions, and professional associations as well as the workplace.
Discrimination is not simply a different treatment based on a set of characteristics. Conversely, discrimination can occur when everyone is treated the same, but that treatment inherently excludes individuals from participation. Cases have been filed over headgear, such as turbans, or facial hair in a workplace that demands adherence to a set uniform or appearance code. Hawboldt notes that discrimination is somewhat fluid in its definition, except that it excludes or denies someone access or participation based on certain parameters.
In the end, an action in practice or policy that creates a disadvantage for an individual due to a protected characteristic would be considered discriminatory.
Complaints that come into the Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission are held up against that standard and can be investigated. While some complaints are not easy to resolve and can ultimately wind up in Court of King’s Bench for ruling, that’s not the way the Commission wants to see every challenge go.
“Our process is focused mainly on mediation and restorative justice concepts,” Hawboldt explains. “The idea is to maintain relationships, and to allow people to work through their own problems and create their own solutions as opposed to being imposed by the Commission. Our mediation process allows people to tailor solutions to suit their own needs and to best suit each party.”
Participants had a variety of questions pertaining to their own circumstances. One question dealt with employers mandating the use of the English language exclusively in workplaces, given that language is not one of the protected characteristics that falls under the Human Rights Code.
Another question dealt with the challenge of proving disabilities and restricted capacities in cases where the workplace was expected to make accommodations. One of the keys was for both the employee and the employer to provide documentation as to the nature of the disability, the accommodations provided (or failure to provide), and a record of all communications between the parties. Consideration was also given to instances of undue hardship that an accommodation may place on an employer.
Hawboldt talked about the process of making inquiries or filing a complaint with the Commission.
“The best way to file a complaint with the Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission is to go to our website, where there is a ‘file a complaint’ section. Before that, we have an ‘Am I in the Right Place’ section to ensure they have a protected characteristic involved, that they have a protected characteristic that’s involved, that it occurred within the Commission’s jurisdiction.”
Once those qualities have been confirmed, Hawboldt says it’s as easy as hitting submit on the bottom to electronically send the information to the Commission for evaluation.
The website for the Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission is saskhrc.ca.
The Commission’s Robin Mowat also conducted an information session on Wednesday night for the public. DiscoverHumboldt will have an upcoming story with more information on Human Rights in Saskatchewan.