Act respecting equal access to employment in public bodies
The Act respecting equal access to employment in public bodies helps remedy employment inequality for:
- women
- ethnic minorities
- visible minorities
- Indigenous peoples
- people with a disability
The Act aims to counter systemic discrimination in hiring and employment. This is the law that governs the equal access employment programs (PAÉE) that certain public bodies must establish.
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What does the Act say?
The Act applies to five groups of people:
- Women
- Indigenous peoples
- First Nations, Inuit and Métis people in Canada
- Visible minorities
- people, other than Aboriginal peoples, who are non-Caucasian in race or non-white in colour
- Linguistic and ethnic minorities
- people whose mother tongue is neither English nor French and who belong to a group other than the Aboriginal peoples group or the visible minorities group
- People with a disability
- handicapped people within the meaning of the Act to secure handicapped persons in the exercise of their rights
The Act respecting equal access to employment in public bodies contains measures to:
- ensure that members of these groups have access to all types of occupation in an organization
- enable employers to identify and eliminate discriminatory rules or management practices that could negatively affect members of these groups
This is the law that governs the equal access employment programs that certain public bodies must establish.
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The Commission’s role in relation to this Act
The Commission helps organizations implement an equal access employment program under the Act. We also evaluate their application of the program every three years and make recommendations that must be implemented.
Did you know?
Neither this law nor the equal access employment programs encourage hiring people solely because they belong to one of these groups.
People who belong to these groups are protected by the Act only if they have equivalent skills to the other people who applied.
Learn more
- Information about equal access employment programs (French only)
- Training: Establishing an equal access employment program
- Frequently asked questions about human rights and employment