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Initial Work to Begin on Accessible Employment Standard

Dec 02, 2015

The Minister has identified employment as the next area of standard development under The Accessibility for Manitobans Act (AMA).

The purpose of the standard is to break down employment barriers to assist more persons with disabilities to secure and maintain employment. This will be done by introducing measures, policies, and practices to identify, prevent and remove barriers in the area of employment.

The Minister’s Annual Plan calls for a discussion paper on an accessible standard in employment to be prepared for public consultations on March 31, 2016. As a result of the provincial election blackout period beginning January 19, 2016, the discussion paper is expected to be released in April.

As required by the AMA, the Minister has prepared a Terms of Reference document to guide the development of the employment standard. Click here to download a copy.

Work on drafting the employment standard will be done the newly established eight-person Accessible Employment Standard Development Committee. Following are the names and organizational affiliations of the members:

  • Jim Baker (Chair) – Manitoba Hotel Association, Executive Director
  • Yvonne Peters – Disability Lawyer
  • Jesse Turner – University of Winnipeg, Accessibility Advisor
  • Maureen Morrison – Manitoba Federation of Labour, Representative
  • Allison Moist – City of Winnipeg, Coordinator of Corporate Staffing and Diversity Branch
  • Glen Coutts – Government of Manitoba, Policy Analyst, Jobs and Economy Department
  • Heather Korol – Reaching Equality Employment Services, Executive Director
  • Jamie Horyski – Great West Life Assurance Company, Legal Counsel

The provincial goverment's Disability Issues Office (DIO) will be posting updates on the work of the committee at: http://www.accessibilitymb.ca/employment-standards.html. Unfortunately, not much in the way of details will be made public until after the April 19, 2016 general provincial election. That's yet another reason why ‪#‎DisabilityMatters‬: Vote 2016 is so important.

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