Our union members appointed to the Joint Employment Equity Committee (JEEC) met in Montreal on November 7, with the other CBC/Radio-Canada unions and the CBC senior management team responsible for diversity and inclusion, to discuss the Corporation’s renewed commitment to hire and retain a diverse workforce that is more reflective of Canada’s demographics.
To this end, we discussed revising the CBC’s requirements under the Employment Equity Act to reflect the ambitious goals management has set for itself in recruitment and retention, and talked about how the Committee’s decisions can gain traction as the Corporation moves forward with its own plans.
There was some discussion around renaming this committee to better represent its importance; one of the names currently being considered is Wendy Martin’s suggestion, the Joint Committee on Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, or JEDI for short.
Ongoing employment equity initiatives at CBC/Radio-Canada
The Committee heard a presentation about the role the Employee Resource Groups (ERG) play in the workplace, and Heather Conway shared the corporation’s plans for recruiting and retaining diverse groups over the next three years, with specifics on how managers will be accountable for the hiring decisions they make.
Regarding this year’s Cultural Census, we conveyed that we want to work on it with CBC in order to help the corporation achieve a better than 80% return rate.
Our members are extremely interested in hearing how the Corporation is going to expand its leadership ranks, and so pressed for discussion on the next class of Developing and Emerging Leaders (DEL) candidates. We also urged the Corporation to take a serious look at doing a pilot “blind recruitment” project for new hires, either in a specific location or position, to determine its effectiveness.
We are aware that anti-bias training is being rolled out to management ranks, and we proposed that there be an assessment of this training’s success.
Our members pressed management to return to meeting three times a year given that this Committee is doing work that requires more regular monitoring of the Corporation’s initiatives.
Our Committee members continue to look closely at the Corporation’s plans to hire and retain members from diverse groups, and to hold the CBC accountable for results. We hope you will send us feedback and your own ideas as these efforts kick into higher gear over the coming new year.
CMG members of the CBC Joint Employment Equity Committee:
Debora Barkun
Wendy Martin
Saïda Ouchaou-Ozarowski
Jonathan Spence
Ronna Syed
Terri Monture, CMG Staff Rep