What's New

Added Dec. 10, 2010

Alberta Human Rights Commission to host national human rights conference

Added Mar. 15, 2010

International Human Right Day will be celebrated at the North Preston Community Centre on Dec. 10, 2010.

The Employment Equity Winter 2010 Newsletter is now available

Amendments to the Nova Scotia Human Rights Act

Amendments to the Human Rights Act came into effect on July 1, 2009 following the introduction of the Nova Scotia Government’s Act Respecting the Elimination of Mandatory Retirement.

The Human Rights Act was amended to eliminate the exemption that allowed employers to discriminate on the basis of a person's age by requiring them to retire. These amendments were passed in the April 2007 sitting of the provincial legislature. July 1, 2009 was selected to allow time for workplaces to plan for the transition.

These amendments will have the effect of prohibiting mandatory retirement policies/ plans/schemes or practices per se. As a result, most employers in Nova Scotia will no longer be permitted to have mandatory retirement policies. There will still be situations where, for legitimate reasons, based on job requirements, an employer can require a person to retire, but it can no longer be based on a uniform and artificially constructed age limit.

For decades, many people were required to retire at age 65 whether they wanted to or not. In recent years, there has been a gradual shift away from this approach to aging workers.

These amendments bring Nova Scotia in line with other national and international jurisdictions.

Read the news release.

Employment Equity Partnerships

The commission is embarking on a new initiative - the employment equity partnership set to launch in 2010. Read more about the partnership.