Win for pay equity in Canada

Win for pay equity in Canada

By Margaret Allum

In a monumental victory for women's rights, the Canadian government agreed on October 29 to implement the July 1998 findings of a human rights tribunal which ruled that there existed a discrepancy in the pay levels for workers in the Canadian public service.

The Public Service Alliance of Canada had complained that government employees in six categories of predominantly female occupations, ranging from secretaries and clerks to hospital workers and librarians, were not receiving equal pay for work of equal value to that performed mostly by men.

The case, initiated more than 14 years ago, reached its formal conclusion with the agreement, following an unsuccessful appeal lodged by the government in August in the Canadian federal court. The federal court judge commented that to uphold the government's appeal would "inflict a substantial injustice on [...] thousands of employees in the federal public service".

The agreement will cost the government an estimated C$3.3 to $3.6 billion and will cover around 230,000 current and former government employees, most of whom earn less than C$30,000 per year.

Public servants affected by the decision, of whom 85% are women, will be paid the pay gap retrospectively to 1985 with simple interest. Payments to individuals may be as high as C$70,000, as in the case of one librarian.

The chief commissioner of the Canadian Human Rights Commission, Michelle Falardeau-Ramsay, said on October 29, "This agreement is a landmark in the development of pay equity in Canada. It confirms that equal pay for work of equal value is a fundamental human right."

The government has announced that it will review the pay equity provisions of the Canadian Human Rights Act 1977. Falardeau-Ramsay stated that she agreed that the act should be examined, "as long as the objective is to improve, not dilute the law".

From GLW issue 385