No. 1, April 25, 1997

Treasury Board's partial Pay Equity offer

leaves many questions unanswered

On April 21 Treasury Board met with the PSAC to table a partial offer on Pay Equity. We have put together some questions and answers based on calls we have received from members.

Q. Treasury Board was meeting with the Alliance on April 21 to make an offer on pay equity. What happened?

A. Treasury Board tabled a partial offer which leaves a lot of questions unanswered, questions such as just who will be entitled to payments, how much will be paid and for how long.

Q. The figure released in the media says Treasury Board's offer is up to $1-billion. Is this an exact figure or are they trying to make it sound better than it is?

A. Treasury Board claims their partial offer is worth $815-million.

Q. Are all the groups included in the partial offer?

A. No. The HS and DA-PRO groups have not been included. One of the arguments Treasury Board is using to exclude the HS group is that they had a previous settlement. This reasoning is faulty because the LS group also had a previous settlement and they have been included. Also, while the HS group became gender neutral in 1990, Treasury Board recognized it became female-dominated again between 1990 and 1994. In the case of the DA-PROs, Treasury Board has averaged the salaries of the whole group. The much higher salaries at the highest levels make the average look better. We will continue to fight for the inclusion of both groups.

Q. Does the partial offer include retroactivity?

A. It includes some retroactivity back to April 1, 1987. According to Treasury Board they are willing to pay 65% of what is owed, according to their calculations.

Q. Why did they pick 1987? The joint pay equity study was launched in 1985 as a result of a complaint filed in 1984.

A. 1987 is the year that the job information was collected for the pay equity study. More to the point, 1987 also happens to be the year when there is the lowest possible wage gap. It is no coincidence that Treasury Board picked that year. After 1987, male-dominated groups such as EGs, PMs, SCs and WPs received wage increases as a result of contract settlements which widened the wage gap.

Q. Does the law specify how much retroactivity should be paid?

A. The Canadian Human Rights Act does not but a recent Federal Court of Appeal decision confirmed that retroactivity to one year prior to the complaint date was reasonable. That has been Treasury Board's practice in the past and is the Canadian Human Rights Commission's policy.

Q. Will the payments, including the retroactivity, be added to our salaries?

A. Treasury Board will not commit to include the payments in salaries.

Q. Will Treasury Board recalculate what I am owed for maternity leave, overtime, severance pay, acting pay and other similar entitlements?

A. Treasury Board has no position at this time on whether or not the offer will apply to these and any other salary-related entitlements. However, due to the administrative work involved Treasury Board would probably want to avoid these calculations.

Q. Will the offer apply to employees in the affected groups who have resigned, retired or taken an EDI or ERI?

A. The Treasury Board position at this time is that the retroactive pay will apply to employees who have resigned or retired. However, the partial offer would only apply to employees terminated on DI or LTD if the termination occurred after 1993. No position on severance pay and ERI/EDI packages was submitted.

Q. Will there be interest on the retroactivity?

A. Treasury Board has said they have a position on the question of interest but have not told us what it is. The union's position before the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal was that compound interest should be awarded. Treasury Board argued for simple interest.

Q. How serious is Treasury Board with the partial offer they've made?

A. They've finally admitted that they do owe our members a lot of money. This is a major breakthrough. However, there are a lot of issues left to resolve.

Q. Is this Treasury Board's final offer?

A. At the April 21^st meeting Treasury Board confirmed that this was their initial offer and that they were prepared to meet and discuss a mutually-negotiated settlement

Q. Have more meetings been scheduled?

A. Without prejudice, the parties have agreed that the Employer and the Alliance will meet to attempt to resolve the issue outside of the regular collective bargaining process as set out in the Public Service Staff Relations act. These meetings are to start as soon as possible with a deadline of July 30, 1997 for completion. However, the period could be extended by mutual agreement.

Once meetings are held we will distribute further information as it becomes available.

(Prepared by the Public Service Alliance of Canada)