Employers’ Recruitment Duties

HIRING IN CANADA: EMPLOYERS’ RECRUITMENT DUTIES

     Nunzio Presta
     Senior Sales and Marketing Executive

QUESTIONS NOT ALLOWED ON A JOB INTERVIEW

When you or your HR manager interviews a prospective employee, you should always be careful about the things you ask them. Any questions pertaining to topics that are protected under federal and provincial human rights acts should obviously be avoided.

Under Canadian Human Rights Acts, questions about age, sex or gender, gender/sexual identity and expression, marital and family status, race or color, religion, and mental or physical disabilities are illegal when asked by an employer.

Other questions that could be viewed as discriminatory are questions about political views and criminal records. Be sure not to ask inappropriate questions about those topics to avoid being investigated by the province’s human rights tribunal.

DISABILITY ACCOMMODATION ON RECRUITMENT

It is mandatory that the employers of Canada make efforts to accommodate their employees who have disabilities. But when it comes to recruitment, Ontario is an example of a province that has disability accommodation legislation that requires employers to accommodate applicants with disabilities right from the start of the recruitment process.

For example, if a candidate has a vision impairment, the employer must provide material with a bigger font when needed in their interview process.

Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act

Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act or AODA is the law in Ontario that aims to identify, remove, and prevent barriers for people with disabilities. This law applies to every employment type, from full-time to contractual, and all levels of government, nonprofits, and private sector businesses in Ontario. The AODA has five standards that are part of the Integrated Accessibility Standards Regulation (IASR). Here are those standards:

• Customer Service Standard
• Information and Communication Standard
• Employment Standard
• Transportation Standard
• Design of Public Spaces Standard

DRUG AND ALCOHOL TESTING

Pre-employment drug testing is illegal in Canada unless employers can show a significant safety risk posed to the workplace. One of the reasons for this is to avoid discrimination against persons with addiction-related disabilities. 

Of course, employers can set rules to prohibit employees from being intoxicated by alcohol or drugs while working. However, random drug testing is even rarer unless the employer has a proven track record of workplace accidents due to drugs and alcohol.

CRIMINAL BACKGROUND AND CREDIT CHECKS

Running a credit check or checking your candidate’s criminal background is legal in Canada. Still, you have to tie the reason for doing so to the employee’s ability to perform their job.
For example if you run a credit check, this means that the position that you are hiring for has something to do with finances or deals with cash. Such checks can typically also be utilized if the job requires exceptional trust or deals with vulnerable populations such as the young, old, or disabled.

Also important to note is that if a background check uncovers something, the employer must carefully weigh the information’s relevance to the job.

Background Check policies should also be consistent for every prospect and current employee and avoid singling out candidates to ensure that the review is not discriminatory. The candidate must also give written permission to the employer before running the necessary checks.

CONCLUSION

When recruiting a candidate in Canada, the employer should always keep in mind that the whole process should not involve any discrimination. Discrimination is illegal and could lead you to a trial with the human rights tribunal. A professional recruiter should be well-versed in recruiting and employment law’s intricacies to avoid even the perception of discriminatory behavior.

Employers should be careful when deciding to run drug tests or background checks, as this could be illegal if you don’t have a valid reason to run the check for the position you are hiring for.