In the 90 years since women workers in New York City took to the streets to fight for safer worker conditions and better wages we have been many positive changes in women’s lives. Canadian women became "persons" under the law (1929), the United Nations passed the Human Rights Declaration (1948), the International Labour Organization adopted a resolution calling for equal remuneration for work of equal value (1951), and in 1978 the Canadian Human Rights Act (CHRA) was proclaimed, prohibiting wage discrimination of women workers under federal jurisdiction. So why is it, 20 years later, that women working for the federal government are still suffering wage discrimination and are owed in excess of $2 billion?

One of the most well known avenues for resolving wage discrimination is pay equity. The federal pay equity legislation (Section 11 of the CHRA) attempts to correct wage discrimination by paying workers for the value of the work they do instead of paying workers based on their gender. Work value is assessed through job evaluations which compare jobs done primarily by women with jobs done primarily by men using four criteria: skill, effort, responsibility, and working conditions. The job evaluation model has both benefits and disadvantages. One of the benefits of the model is that it provides a comparison between men’s work and women’s work (i.e. apples and oranges) for those who would not otherwise be willing or able to understand wage discrimination. One of the disadvantages of the job evaluation model is that it is based on job descriptions which often reflect gender bias. Workers in the federal sector who are trying to achieve pay equity through the CHRA must follow the job evaluation model.

The Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC), which represents 140,000 federal workers, has been fighting for pay equity for its members since the passage of the Canadian Human Rights Act. In the late 1970s and early 1980s the PSAC successfully negotiated pay equity settlements for librarians, general service workers, and nursing assistants, among others. In 1984 the PSAC filed a pay equity complaint on behalf of 50,000 federal clerks, 80% of whom were women. That complaint led to a four-year joint union/management job evaluation study which confirmed a gap of 15 to 20 percent between men’s and women’s wages. In January, 1990 the federal government unilaterally paid wage adjustments but those adjustments ignored 95% of the study data and were only paid to some of the workers involved. The wage adjustments were not included in the collective agreement so they had no impact on pensions, maternity leave entitlements, etc.

In January, 1991, at the request of the PSAC, the Canadian Human Rights Commission (CHRC) set up a Human Rights Tribunal to deal with the issue of wage discrimination in the federal government. Later that year the Conciliation Board appointed by the government’s Public Service Staff Relations Board recommended that the Treasury Board negotiate pay equity with the PSAC. The Treasury Board ignored that recommendation which led to a 25-day public service strike in September 1991. From 1991 to 1997 the Human Rights Tribunal heard submissions from the PSAC, the Treasury Board, and the CHRC regarding the wage discrimination in the federal public service. The Treasury Board made many attempts to derail the proceedings, including arguing that the job evaluation study (in which they were a full participant) was invalid, but their objections were consistently overruled by the Human Rights Tribunal. During closing arguments in January, 1997, the PSAC asked the Tribunal to award retroactive equal pay wage adjustments, a recalculation of all salary-related benefits (pension, maternity leave, overtime, acting pay, DI payments, etc.), and a $5000 payment for suffering, damages, and lost opportunities to each employee and former employee. The federal Treasury Board argued that there was no requirement for any further payment. The Tribunal’s decision is expected later this year.

In April, 1997, two months before the federal election, the Treasury Board announced (in the Toronto Star) it would negotiate a pay equity settlement with PSAC. From May to December 1997 the PSAC attempted a negotiated settlement with the Treasury Board and some progress was made. The Treasury Board’s position went from $0 in January 1997 to $850 million in June, 1997 to $1.3 billion in October 1997. Unfortunately for the approximately 200,000 current and former workers involved, the $1.3 billion offer only represents 50% of what is owned, and it does not meet the CHRA requirement of closing the wage gap entirely. On December 8, 1997, one week after the 13^th anniversary of the filling of the PSAC’s pay equity complaint, the Treasury Board walked away from negotiations. Since that time the PSAC has encouraged the federal government to pay the $1.3 billion as a down payment and show of good faith. The government has ignored this request and continues its illegal wage discrimination of women workers 20 years after the passage of the Canadian Human Rights Act.

Pay equity is one of the ways in which unions are trying to end wage discrimination against women workers. Other approaches include collective bargaining, political action, and easier access to unionization (unionized women earn 33% more than non-unionized women). Women will not be equal in our society until there is economic equality, and there won’t be economic equality as long as wage discrimination is allowed to continue.

For more information on the PSAC’s fight for pay equity, please contact the PSAC Edmonton Regional Office (423-1290 or 1-800-814-3948) or PSAC Calgary Regional Office (270-6555 or 1-800-461-8914).