Significant barriers remain for racialized people seeking management and executive positions in the federal public service: CHRC audit

OTTAWA, ON, March 19, 2025 /CNW/ - A new employment equity audit report released today by the Commission finds that racialized people, particularly those seeking management and executive positions, still face significant barriers to being hired or promoted.  

The sector-wide audit of the federal public service revealed the most frequently identified barriers are related to recruitment strategies, selection processes, hiring decisions, career development, and workplace culture.  

Of the 46 departments and organizations that submitted a self-assessment survey, 33 of them said they had undertaken a review to identify barriers to hiring or promoting racialized people to management or executive positions. As the result of these reviews, 63.6% reported they had identified barriers.

Although the vast majority of the departments and organizations had an employment equity plan (43 employers), only 46.5% (20 employers) reported that their plans contained special measures to increase the representation of racialized people in management and executive positions.

These findings indicate that despite departments and agencies being aware of these systemic barriers, not enough is being done to address them.

Following the self-assessment phase, the Commission conducted an audit of 18 randomly selected employers. This audit revealed:  

• 61.1% of employers identified the selection processes as a barrier for racialized employees — noting that the main challenges were the official languages requirement, and the lack of diversity within selection committees.  
• 50% of employers noted that the primary challenge with hiring decisions stemmed from unconscious bias, specifically favoring candidates who share ethnic or other similarities with the hiring manager or another authority figure. 
• 44% of employers identified that the workplace culture may be a more prevalent barrier for racialized employees. Some noted instances of micro-aggressions, discrimination, and harassment faced by racialized employees. 
• 55.6% of employers noted career development as a barrier, citing that racialized employees do not have the same opportunities for promotion as other employees. 
• Only two of the 18 randomly selected employers audited had a valid EE plan and measures in place to increase the representation of racialized people in management and executive positions.

As we recognize International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination on March 21, the Canadian Human Rights Commission calls on the Public Service to take concrete action to remove barriers for Black and other racialized people across Canada's federal public service. We also reiterate our calls for the federal government to prioritize a long overdue modernizing of the Employment Equity Act so that it can both redress historical harms and effectively address persistent, systemic inequities. 

As an employer to over 300,000 employees, the federal public service should be a leader in employment equity, and must set a positive example for others in the Canadian labour market.  

Key information

• The Canadian Human Rights Commission is responsible for conducting employment equity compliance audits of federally regulated employers under the Employment Equity Act (EEA).
• Since the Commission began its compliance audits in 1996, there has been noticeable progress in improving the representation of designated groups in the public service. However, some federal departments and agencies continue to face challenges in achieving equitable representation of designated groups, as well as systemic barriers to employment.
• The Commission recognizes that our ability to advance and enforce employment equity is limited to the current legislative obligations outlined in the EEA. In 2024, we continued to actively participate in the consultative process led by the EEA Task Force. We provided a written submission to Employment and Social Development Canada's Labour Program, in which we reiterated the substance of our more comprehensive 2022 submission to the EEA Review Taskforce.
• While this audit focused on organizations within the federal public service, some of the organizations operate independently, which means that the Treasury Board Secretariat is not considered the employer for some of the departments or agencies audited. This distinction is important to note as it influences the implementation of audit recommendations.

Helpful links

• Report – Horizontal audit in the public service: The Employment of Racialized People in Management and Executive Positions

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SOURCE Canadian Human Rights Commission

Media contacts: CHRC Media Relations, 613-943-9118, [email protected]