Treasury Board rejects proposal for mandatory training on anti-oppression and discrimination – Public Service Alliance of Canada

PSACisrenewing its call formandatory training that would address systemic racism, harassment, and discrimination in the federal public serviceafter Treasury Board outright rejected the proposalat theCommon Issues bargainingtablein December.

Thistraining for all employees and managers would be facilitator-ledwith an intersectional approach,and coverimportant issuessuch asanti-oppression and discrimination, harassment and violence in the workplace, and Indigenous historythat alignswith the Truth and Reconciliation Commissionscall to action #57.

The employergavetheir decision just daysafterandindirectcontradiction tothe federal governmentspublic apologyfordecadesof sexual harassment,abuse,and workplace harassment at the Department of NationalDefence, andtheirpledgeof$40 billionto Indigenous child welfare.

Treasury Board is being completelydisingenuous,in one breath saying they're committed to doing betterand in the next discounting the value ofemployee and managertraining, saidPSAC National President Chris Aylward. They cant have it both ways. Either they supportthe long overdue needforchange in the public service, or theydont.And disappointingly, based on their blanket rejection of all training proposals,it seems theydont.

In response toourproposals,TreasuryBoardclaimed they already have many resources for employees. The employer also saidthat, despite their strong commitment to these issues, theyhave nointerest in enshriningtrainingintocollective agreements.However, thecourses currently offered by the governmentare often optional andarent taken by all federal public service workers, leaving large gaps in education that canand shouldbe addressedthroughmandatory training for all staff.

Thegovernmentsown2020Public Service Employee Surveyshowsthe importance of more training on these critical issues.Some56 per cent of respondentswerent satisfied with how their concerns or complaints about racism in the workplace were addressed.Of the respondentswhowerevictimsof discrimination,28 per cent experienced race-based discrimination and77per centexperienced it from individuals with authority over them.

Similar resultsemergedfromthe2021PSACMembership Bargaining Input Survey,with35 per cent of respondents who self-identified within an equity groupsayingtheyhaveexperienceddiscrimination in the federal public service,andone-third sayingtheir career progress in the federal public service has been adversely affected by discrimination.This comes as no surprise considering therecent launch of class actionlawsuitsby bothBlackandIndigenouspublic service workers.

The results are clear. The government still has a big problem when it comes to discrimination and harassment in the federal public service, and the optional resources that Treasury Board currently offers employees are not enough to close the gaps.

PSAC will continue to fightto ensure employers actively work to dismantlesystemicracism. Mandatory, intersectional anti-oppression and discrimination training for employees and managers is just one tool we can use to do that. Butit isan important and necessary one, andwewillcontinue to push for it at the table.

TheCommon Issuesbargaining team meets with the employer again February 13, 2022.

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Treasury Board rejects proposal for mandatory training on anti-oppression and discrimination - Public Service Alliance of Canada