Pay Equity Maintenance and the Proxy Method
Pay equity is a fundamental human right to ensure “equal pay for work of equal value.” In 1987, the Ontario government implemented the Pay Equity Act to redress systemic gender discrimination in compensation for jobs typically and historically performed by women. In other words, pay equity is meant to correct decades of ‘women’s work’ being undervalued and underpaid. Certainly, women who are represented by Unions at work have an advantage; they have the ability to bargain wages and a collective agreement, and they have the resources to hold employers accountable under the law. In addition, the Pay Equity Act requires certain employers to negotiate pay equity plans with Unions. In doing so, the process becomes more inclusive and transparent. Many gains have been made as a result. Although the Act has been in effect for more than 30 years, the reality is that the fight for equity is not over, particularly for those in the broader public sector with job classes mainly held by women. To address the inability to compare women’s job classes in some of these workplaces, the government introduced the Proxy method in 1993. This method allowed a comparison between job classes held largely by women in one establishment with other job classes largely held by women in a different establishment where pay equity had already been achieved with compa-
rable jobs held by men. The Proxy provisions of the Act applied to all employers in the public sector that had employees on July 1, 1993 and is set out in Part III.2 of the Act. Once an employer achieves pay equity, the Act requires that it be maintained. But the issue of how to maintain pay equity through the proxy method has been an ongoing issue for years. The dispute centres around whether workplaces that used the proxy method to achieve pay equity initially, must continue to use the external proxy comparators to maintain pay equity. In 2019, the Ontario Divisional Court overturned an earlier decision made by the Pay Equity Hearings Tribunal with regard to this dispute. The Divisional Court determined that employers that had established pay equity through proxy continue to have access to a male comparator in order to maintain pay equity. Following that court decision, the ‘Participating Nursing Homes’ (employers) in the original case and the Ontario government launched an appeal. This appeal only acts to further delay the pay equity that these healthcare workers rightfully deserve. The Ontario Court of Appeal heard the matter on October 6 & 7, 2020, and a decision is expected in the coming months.
our Personal Support Workers (PSWs) and Nurses heroes, but his public comments have not been met with any real, permanent legislative improvements as of yet. And a reminder, that Ford’s Progressive Conservative government enacted Bill 124 just last year, which prevented public sector workers – including many healthcare workers – from receiving wage increases of more than 1% per year for at least three years. To learn more about Bill 124 and why Your Union joined a coalition to file a constitutional challenge against the legislation, scan the QR above with your phone. Ford is not willing to stand alongside these and other healthcare workers to fight for real economic equality. Even the recent announcement of a temporary wage increase of $3 per hour for PSWs is not the same as a permanent pay equity increase. A permanent increase would recognize the legacy of this undervalued work, and the real skill, effort, responsibility, and working conditions of what is historically and currently still predominantly women’s work. This gender inequality is what Unions are fighting to address.
From the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Premier Ford has called Winter 2020
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