A delegation representing the Canadian Labor Congress has conferred with Labor Minister Michael Starr and left with him a memorandum charging that officers of the National Employment Service have violated provisions of Canadas anti-discrimination legislation through improper job referrals.
Such practices, the CLC memorandum charged, included: acceptance of job orders containing discriminatory qualifications from employers; discussion of an applicants race or religion with an employer before referral is made, and the distribution of application forms which ask questions in violation of the Fair Employment Practices Act of Canada. Also, it asserted, qualified applicants were frequently skipped in consideration for jobs because National Employment Service officials thought that as members of a minority group they would not be acceptable to an employer.
The CLC urged the Ministry of Labor to sponsor regional education conferences for National Employment Service personnel on the subject of discrimination and means of eliminating such unfair practices. It also asked for the appointment of a “citizens advisory committee on the FEPC which could make available to the government the experience of community, church, labor and employer organizations in dealing with problems of prejudice and discrimination.”
Finally, in a reference to the recent conference on job discrimination held in Geneva by the International Labor Organization, the CJC memorandum urged the Dominion government to “give serious consideration to supporting the strongest form of international action to outlaw discrimination in employment.”
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