GN workers can now speak Inuktitut at work: language protection act

Since September, Government of Nunavut workers who speak Inuktitut have had the right to use the language at work.

If you speak Inuktitut and work for the Government of Nunavut, you’ve had the right to use Inuktitut as your working language since this past September.

That’s one of the rights guaranteed by the Inuit Language Protection Act, which recently came into effect.

GN employees “have the right to use the Inuit language during recruitment or employment, delivered in a manner that is culturally appropriate and non-coercive,” says the act.

There must be an “active offer” or encouragement of these rights, says the act, approved by Nunavut’s legislative assembly in 2008.

“The act is very clear in detailing the responsibilities of territorial institutions as employers,” said Nunavut Languages Commissioner Alexina Kublu, in a Nov. 10 news release. “They cover subjects such as elimination of language barriers, recruitment, language training, management and supervision of an employee in the Inuit language and so on.”

According to the act, the GN should have resources in place to accommodate Inuktitut-speaking employees.

These resources include the Inuit-language Microsoft Word interface, which is available to any department that needs it.

GN departments should also be able to provide interpretation services for employees to communicate with a non-Inuktitut-speaking staff members or managers.

But that’s no easy task, due to shortfalls in Inuktitut terminology, acknowledges David Shadbolt, an Office of the Languages Commissioner public affairs officer.

“The Inuit language does not contain words for much of the day-to-day business language,” Shadbolt said. “Each department has its own glossary of terms but they have to work with the Inuit Language Authority (Inuit Uqausinginnik Taiguusiliuqtit) to come up words that best describe certain terms.”

Inuit language standardization will play into the future of the Inuit language, he said.

Without standardization, developing Inuktitut as the GN’s working language by 2020 will require “a tremendous amount of work.”

To meet that deadline, its departments should already have started developing the terminology they need for their internal and external communications.

Meanwhile, GN workers who feel their language rights have not been respected are asked to contact the Office of the Languages Commissioner.

But since September no GN workers have made complaints, Shadbolt said.

The act also says that by 2012, municipalities must offer services in the Inuit language, and by 2019, all school grades will have the right to an Inuit language education.

A copy of the act is available here.