No. 48                                                        November 7, 2001

Shedding some light on Workers’ Compensation and Pay Equity Adjustments

Earlier this year Treasury Board issued information on the application of the federal pay equity settlement to current and former employees who have received or are receiving direct workers’ compensation benefits or pensions. Cheques are finally being issued and some questions have arisen about the application of the settlement. (Note: if you were on injury-on-duty leave, which is paid leave, you should have already received your pay equity adjustment and interest cheques and the following information does not apply to you.)

What is clear from Treasury Board’s information bulletin is that anyone who received direct workers’ compensation benefits or pensions before July 29, 1998 (the date the pay equity adjustments were folded into salaries) will receive pay equity adjustments for any period they remained an employee and received benefits between March 8, 1985 and July 29, 1998. Treasury Board is treating the time that employees were on direct workers’ compensation benefits as if they were on paid leave for that period. As a result, for the period before July 29, 1998, the federal government - not the workers’ compensation authorities - is issuing the pay equity adjustment cheques directly to these workers. Two cheques are being issued, one for the adjustment to salary and one for the interest payment on the adjustment.

For direct workers’ compensation benefits or pensions received in the period July 29, 1998 to the present, Treasury Board has indicated that any adjustments in benefits/pensions must be done by the workers’ compensation authorities.

Treasury Board’s information bulletin states that anyone whose direct workers’ compensation benefits or pension was determined on or after July 29, 1998 should contact their workers’ compensation authority and ask to have their benefits/pension adjusted in accordance with the pay equity adjusted salaries.

Unfortunately, at this time, it is not clear whether or not workers’ compensation authorities may recalculate salary-based benefits or pensions if the benefit or pension was determined or approved before July 29, 1998 but is received by someone who continues to be an employee after the July 29^th fold-in date. Anyone in this position should contact their workers’ compensation board authority and ask for a recalculation.

The situation is similar if you are continuing to receive salary-based workers’ compensation benefits or pension, and you ceased to be an employee before July 29, 1998. In this case, Treasury Board will only pay the adjustment for the period that you were an employee. For example, if you started receiving workers’ compensation benefits on May 18, 1995 and were no longer an employee as of January 14, 1997, you would only receive pay equity adjustments up to the January date. Meanwhile, your worker’s compensation benefits or pension continues to be based on your unadjusted salary. You too should be contacting your workers’ compensation board asking to have your benefits or pension recalculated, based on the pay equity adjusted salary - the salary you should have been receiving at the time.

The PSAC’s position is that worker’s compensation benefits or pensions paid to workers affected by the pay equity settlement from March 8, 1985 onwards are based on salary rates which were found to be discriminatory. If you do not receive full compensation for any resulting shortfalls in direct workers’ compensation benefits/pensions either from Treasury Board (for the period before fold-in) or from your workers’ compensation authority (for the period after fold-in), you may wish to file a complaint with the Canadian Human Rights Commission. When filing, you can ask the CHRC to group your complaint with others on the same issue. Treasury Board should be named as the respondent because it is responsible for the discriminatory salary rates that caused the shortfall. There is a one-year deadline for filing CHRC complaints, running from the point at which your efforts to receive full compensation from Treasury Board or your workers’ compensation authority have reached a dead end. The Representation Section of PSAC would appreciate receiving a copy of any complaint which you may file.

If more information becomes available on this issue, it will be posted on this web site.