Tania Saba, recipient of the Gerard Dion 2021 Award from the Canadian Industrial Relations Association (CIRA)
At its 58th annual conference held May 26-28, the Canadian Industrial Relations Association (CIRA) awarded the Gérard-Dion Prize to Tania Saba, a full professor at the School of Industrial Relations at Université de Montréal. This award recognizes individuals or organizations that have distinguished themselves in the field of industrial relations. The award is offered in memory of Gérard Dion of Laval University, a founding member of the Canadian Industrial Relations Association. The 2021 Gérard Dion Award was presented by CIRA President Patrice Jalette at a ceremony held online on May 27, 2021 during the CIRA Conference.
CIRA wanted to recognize Tania Saba's contribution to industrial relations and her rich career that is an inspiration to all those working in the field.
Over the years, Tania Saba has built a career that has been distinguished by her research work on diversity management, the relationship between equality and inclusion in the workplace, the aging of the workforce, intergenerational value differences, new modes of work organization including telework, the transformation of employment relationships, and future skills, among others. In 2017, she founded and was appointed to the BMO Chair in Diversity and Governance at the Université de Montréal, which is now widely recognized, both in Quebec and internationally, in the areas of equity, diversity and inclusion management, transformation of employment relationships, as well as women's entrepreneurship and innovation within companies. Author and co-author of dozens of scientific articles published in French and English in renowned journals, her publications have won several awards and her work on aging and retirement has been cited in the prestigious journal Nature. She is the coauthor of the book La gestion des ressources humaines : Pour des milieux de travail plus durables, humains et performants, an essential reference in the field in the French-speaking world.
Tania Saba collaborates and consults on a regular basis with public policy makers as well as national and international institutions. She has also distinguished herself in other aspects of her academic career. In addition to her current position as a professor at the Université de Montréal, she has held the positions of Vice-Dean and Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (2010-2017). She is the first woman to have held the position of Director of the School of Industrial Relations since its founding in 1945.
Tania Saba leads the Québec and Francophone communities of Canada cluster of the Women Entrepreneurship Knowledge Hub (WEKH) project led by the Diversity Institute at Ryerson University. She sits on advisory committees for major research centers in Canada and internationally. She co-chairs the committee responsible for developing the public standard for the federal government's 50-30 Challenge to promote diversity in Canadian companies. She is a member of CRIMT (Centre de recherche interuniversitaire sur la mondialisation et le travail), CÉRIUM (Centre d'études et de recherches internationales de l'Université de Montréal) and OBVIA (Observatoire international sur les impacts sociétaux de l'AI et du numérique). She has also received several awards, the Verity International Award, the Distinction Fellow of the Ordre des conseillers en ressources humaines agréés du Québec and the Cedar and Maple Award from the Canada-Lebanon Chamber of Commerce.
The Gérard-Dion Award was given to Tania Saba in recognition of her outstanding research achievements and contributions to the field of industrial relations throughout her career.
