Posted: Tuesday, 2 November 2010

On behalf of the 3.2 million members of the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC), we want to thank you for the opportunity to present our views on C-471. The CLC brings together Canada’s national and international unions along with the provincial and territorial Federations of Labour and District Labour Councils whose members work in virtually all sectors of the Canadian economy, in all occupations, in all parts of Canada.

This Bill provides for the implementation of the recommendations of the Task Force on Pay Equity. These recommendations were the result of years of careful and comprehensive study and consultation and were widely supported by labour and women's organizations. The work of the Task Force could be the most significant and in-depth study on pay equity anywhere.

The Task Force recommended a series of measures which would have transformed the federal pay equity regime and made it more effective and fair for women working in the federal sector. I would like to highlight some key recommendations that the Canadian Labour Congress singled out for support when the report was released in 2004. I would also like to contrast these recommendations with the Conservative government's response to the Task Force, the Public Sector Equitable Compensation Act (PSECA).

The Task Force recommended “that Parliament enact new stand-alone, proactive pay equity legislation in order that Canada can more effectively meet its international obligations and domestic commitments, and that such legislation be characterized as human rights legislation”. This recognition that pay equity is a fundamental human right acknowledges that we require systemic solutions to eliminate systemic discrimination. In contrast, the Public Sector Equitable Compensation Act completely ignores this fundamental recommendation and proposes the exact opposite, relegating pay equity to the bargaining table.

The Task Force recognized that Canadian workers who belong to other designated equity-seeking groups also experience wage discrimination. A proactive pay equity law would be expanded to cover racialized workers, Aboriginal workers and workers with disabilities. This expansion of pay equity was ignored by the Public Sector Equitable Compensation Act.

The Task Force placed the onus on employers to correct discriminatory wage disparities. It also obligated employers to work with unions and employee groups by creating pay equity committees to prepare and monitor pay equity plans in all workplaces (unionized or not). These committees should include a significant proportion of women workers from predominantly female job classes, and the plans would cover all workers, regardless of full-time, part-time, contract or casual status.

Although the current government labelled its Public Sector Equitable Compensation Act “proactive”, we are not convinced that this is so. The PSECA does not place the responsibility for eliminating discriminatory wages on employers alone. It introduces “market forces” as a factor for consideration when valuing women's work in the public sector. It only targets certain employers, redefines a “female predominant” group and restricts the comparator groups, thus making it more difficult to establish where wage discrimination exists. This is not proactive pay equity legislation.

The Pay Equity Task Force proposed the establishment of a separate Pay Equity Commission to assist employees, employers, and unions, to provide education on pay equity issues and to resolve any disagreements. Rather than establishing a separate body with specific pay equity expertise, this government's Equitable Compensation Act refers disputes to the Public Sector Labour Relations Board, prohibits unions from filing complaints and compels women to file complaints alone, without the support of their union. It is difficult to imagine a system further from the vision articulated by the Pay Equity Task Force, despite the government's claims they acted in the spirit of its recommendations.

It has been six and a half years since the Task Force on Pay Equity tabled its report and recommendations. Six and a half years since the Canadian Labour Congress and others have been advocating for its implementation. Given the amount of work that went into its development, it's shocking and shameful that this report has been relegated to the archives without any meaningful implementation.

But women have been waiting far longer than six and a half years. We have been waiting for decades. We've waited while we haggle with resistant employers at the bargaining table. We've waited while settlements are held up by employers who drag their feet in lengthy court proceedings. We've waited and we've advocated for proactive pay equity legislation as leaving the matter to collective bargaining or a complaints-based system simply does not help us close the wage gap for women in this country.

While we wait, the debt owed to women who are caught in the wage gap continues to mount – women with children to raise, women who deserve a dignified retirement, women in every sector of our economy.

Justice delayed is justice denied.

We urge you to support this Private Member's Bill and bring proactive pay equity to Canada's working women.

Thank you.

Note: We also provided to the Committee the CLC Research Paper 47; An analysis of the Public Sector Equitable Compensation Act.