The government agency that operates as the principal employer of the core public service is at odds with the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) on plans to implement pay equity for workers.
The Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat indicated last week that it is maintaining its desire to implement three separate pay equity plans for core public service employees, excluding members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
All employers within the federal government were tasked with enacting a pay equity plan within three years of the Pay Equity Act, put into force in 2021. Last June, the Treasury Board made a submission to the Pay Equity Commissioner requesting three pay equity plans, dividing employees by bargaining unit. Following that proposal, PSAC made a separate submission to the Commissioner outlining reasons to deny the Treasury Board’s plans, arguing there should be one single plan covering all employees.
Given the opportunity to respond to PSAC’s submission, on March 16, Treasury Board sent a statement to the Commissioner, indicating that it was maintaining its recommendation for multiple pay equity plans.
PSAC believes that the proposal to have three separate plans instead of one undermines the aim of the new Pay Equity Act, which is to ensure that federal employers provide equal pay for work of equal value and adjust salaries as needed so that pay practices do not discriminate based on gender.
“Multiple plans will not be effective in overcoming pay-based gender discrimination,” said PSAC National President Chris Aylward in an email to this newspaper. “We already know occupational segregation results in discriminatory pay rates, and multiple plans will only reinforce systemic inequities.”
PSAC stated that one plan would better address systemic wage discrimination by including all female-dominated classifications and all male-dominated classifications in order to compare work of equal value and rates of pay. Having three plans, the union said, would restrict those comparisons.
The union also stated that having separate plans grouping employees by bargaining unit is “arbitrary” and would likely add to administrative challenges within the agency.
Rola Salem, a spokesperson for the Treasury Board, said the proposal for multiple plans was made in recognition of the size and complexity of the core public administration.
“Applications to the Pay Equity Commissioner for multiple pay equity plans are permitted under the Pay Equity Act,” Salem said. “Additionally, other large employers have used this approach in similar cases. We continue to work closely with the federal Pay Equity Commissioner, bargaining agents, organizations and employees to achieve and maintain pay equity in our workplaces.”
The federal Pay Equity Commissioner will make the final ruling on whether to deny or authorize the Treasury Board’s request for multiple pay equity plans. It will consider PSAC’s submission as well as any submissions from other federal public service unions. Following its decision, for which there is no specific deadline, the agency will likely have 30 days to file a judicial review before the Federal Court of Canada, under normal procedure.
Salem said Treasury Board looks forward to the decision of the Pay Equity Commissioner and trusts that the ruling will result in the efficient implementation of the equity Act.
Once a decision is made, Salem said the Treasury Board will work to establish equity committees and develop pay equity plans that identify gaps between the compensation of jobs held mostly by women and those held mostly by men that involve work of equal value.
“With pay equity plans in place, we will then systematically close any pay gaps that exist by increasing compensation for employees in predominantly female jobs not receiving equal pay for work of equal value.”
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