New protections for young workers, women and people with disabilities
Newfoundland and Labrador has introduced new human rights legislation that provides a wide range of new protections and increases the efficiency of the complaints process.
The Human Rights Act, 2010, which replaces the province's Human Rights Code, has added protections for young workers, women and people living with disabilities, said Minister of Justice Felix Collins.
"As a result of this legislation, it will be prohibited to discriminate on such grounds as pregnancy, source of income, disfigurement, or criminal conviction, among others," he said. "While these changes are generally already practiced and supported in our province, it is important to signify that discrimination, either intentional or unintentional, is not to be tolerated under the laws of our province."
Significant changes will also create efficiency within the province's Human Rights Commission. To move complaints through the process more quickly, the act allows for regulation specifying timelines for documentation related to the complaints process. Also, the executive director of the Human Rights Commission will have the ability, subject to appeal, to dismiss complaints that are frivolous or do not fall within the act's jurisdiction.
In creating the act, the government held an extensive consultation process with submissions from municipalities, labour groups, various associations, individuals and the legal community.
Highlights of the act include:
• A definition of disability consistent with other jurisdictions in Canada
• A modernized preamble which gives a statement of the fundamental principles of the legislation
• The establishment disfigurement as prohibited in its own right Prohibits discrimination in the making of a contract
• The removal of the age of restriction (19 years) for employees to file complaints
• The clarification that discrimination on the basis of pregnancy is prohibited
• The prohibition of discrimination on the basis of criminal conviction by an employer when it is unrelated to the employment
• A broadened definition of marital status.
