Spousal Employment – a departmental priority
David Paget
Co-coordinator for spousal employment
There has been an encouraging development about spousal employment – an area of great concern to FSCA for many years. It is contained in the progress report on the human resources action plan issued on January 13, 2005 by Gisèle Samson-Verreault, ADM, Human Resources Branch.
Under the heading “An Enabling Organization”, the report contains this “Commitment for 2005”:
“We will continue to work to create an enabling, respectful workplace by:…
- Improving conditions of service abroad through spousal employment policies and Foreign Service Directives. We have begun executing a series of measures to remove barriers to assignment abroad, including proposals for spousal assistance, housing, education and financial support. In 2005, we will be working with bargaining agents and TBS to get these issues on the National Joint Council negotiating table.” (emphasis added)
FSCA intends to engage with the Departments, starting with the Human Resources Branch, in their fulfillment of this welcome commitment. In so doing, the Association intends to engage the Foreign Service community in developing and advocating FSCA’s position, including responding to the Departments’ positions.
To do this, Bez Babakhani and I, Co-coordinators, will need a lot of help from you!
We plan to build as appropriate on the 1999 Spousal Task Force Report, in which our Association participated, and subsequent FSCA efforts. We’ll be seeking new ideas, concerns, and current information. One priority area for obtaining updated information is the experience of other countries in terms of their policies and practices to support spousal employment.
Please send us your suggestions, ideas, concerns NOW! And if any of you know about the policies and practices of other countries, please pass this on.
We encourage those of you who are prepared to pitch in, whether you are on posting or at headquarters, to get in touch with us.
There seems to be a window of opportunity for action on this issue, which many people view as a critical challenge for the foreign service. FSCA wants to be an enthusiastic player and seize the opportunity. We’ll need your active support to be able to do this.
Please contact us at:
bez.babakhani@international.gc.ca
ddapaget@sympatico.ca
Or Anne Bourgault
fsca.acse@international.gc.ca
613-944-5729