The Treasury Board has ruled that the Canadian Human Rights Commission has been discriminating against its own Black employees. The ruling comes as a blow to an organization supposedly dedicated to upholding the human rights of all Canadian citizens and has increased pressure on them to reach a settlement with Black workers in the federal government.
“It is now a fact that workers cannot turn to the Canadian Human Rights Commission, a commission that is plagued with discrimination, for redress,” said Nicholas Marcus Thompson, Executive Director of the Black Class Action Secretariat. “It is time to stop the hurt and pain inflicted on workers.”
With sadness in his voice, Thompson laid out the difficult task ahead for Black federal public servants at a press conference on Monday, March 27. With the Treasury Board recently ruling that the Human Rights Commission discriminated against its Black and racialized employees, this conference was held to renew calls to settle the Black Class Action.
Thompson explained that systemic racism in the public service is more than deeply entrenched, and attempting to eliminate it has exposed Black workers to even more harm. To minimize this harm and achieve the justice that Black workers deserve, Thompson said the Black Class Action Secretariat needs all of Canada’s labour movement to join them in upping the pressure.
Action outside of the union structure leaves workers vulnerable
Because the advocacy work of the class action secretariat is not happening within the union structure, many of the employees involved are not legally protected by Canadian labour law.
According to a lecture by York University’s employment law professor David Doorey, if non-unionized workers take collective action, there is no law forbidding employers to fire these employees.
READ MORE: Canadian government discriminated against Black public service workers
This gaping hole in Canadian labour law was laid bare when Black Federal Public Service workers tried to develop a mental health plan to support victims of racism.
Canada’s Federal Budget for 2022 included $3.7 million dollars to “Black-led engagement, design, and implementation of a Mental Health Fund for Black federal public servants.”
However, the mental health project was far from Black-led, according to Thompson. When employee networks within the public service complained about the lack of Black leadership, about eight employees were hired to work on the mental health plan.
After four months of work, these employees sent a letter to the Treasury Board’s chief human resource officer criticizing the racism they faced while trying to develop the mental health plan. Thompson said the government responded by ending all the contracts with these workers.
Labour needs to protect the Black Class Action Secretariat
Thompson said there is no way this would have been allowed if this action had been taken within the union structure.
“That is why our approach has been consistently to work with labor,” Thompson said.“If we mobilize labor, we know that as a political machine, the labor movement can help deliver this victory for workers. But what we need is more of the labour movement showing up.”
Thompson admitted that he is a little frustrated with the lackluster support from unions. So far, only two unions have financially supported the class action, Thompson said.
“It does make it frustrating because on other issues, on childcare, on contracting out, the union knows how to mobilize. That’s the very basis of their existence. So they know how to run campaigns and how to protest,” Thompson said. “But where’s their leaders calling for the reinstatement of the mental health plan workers? Where’s the pressure on the system?”
Thompson said that there is still time for unions to help support the class action, but the time to begin mobilizing is now.
“Unions need to be anti racist,” Thompson said. “This goes beyond just not being racist. That means they’re actively taking steps to address racism.”
Thompson said that there have been recent actions that have reinvigorated his hope in labour mobilizing. He said the fight against Doug Ford using the notwithstanding clause to impose a contract on education workers last fall showed him that the level of solidarity that Black workers need is possible.
“All unions should stand in solidarity because the federal government is the largest employer in the country,” Thompson said. “It is setting a precedent for other places to follow, at provincial level, the city level and private sector levels. We have workers who say that they face the same thing in different provinces, cities and in the private sector. People are asking us to bring the same relief to them because it is everywhere.”
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