Status of Women committee  In certain situations where there are severe shortages of workers in particular jobs, regardless of the equity of the situation, employers are compelled, from time to time, to pay higher wages than a normal job evaluation process would deliver. We don't disagree with you that wo

Status of Women committee  Well, it--

Status of Women committee  Absolutely. Well, working conditions exist in an environment, but ways to cope with working conditions are--

Status of Women committee  Actually, the health and safety provisions in the federal jurisdiction are dealt with in parts of the Canada Labour Code, part II, which deals with health and safety. There's a mechanism to address those issues in the current legislation. But health and safety is a fundamental ri

Status of Women committee  And unions.

Status of Women committee  The employer is compelled to bargain with its unions to resolve all compensation matters and all terms and conditions of employment. This act is proactive, because it requires both the union and the employer to talk about the pay equity issues in advance of bargaining so that the

Status of Women committee  We submitted papers to the Bilson task force. They are on the public record. We did that in 2004. As far as I know, we were not consulted directly in respect to the drafting of this legislation.

Status of Women committee  No.

Status of Women committee  Perhaps I could respond. The rights to collective bargaining and freedom of association are also human rights, as is the right to equal pay for work of equal value. We value, as employers, both of those rights, and we're compelled to deal with both of those rights simultaneously

Status of Women committee  The fundamental problem that we think this equitable compensation act resolves, which was not resolved in 2004, is that today we're saying that the real solution to a pay equity gap in a unionized environment is to make both employers and unions equally responsible for defining t

Status of Women committee  That's correct.

Status of Women committee  It's a pleasure for both of us to be here. FETCO represents the majority of employers in the private sector under federal jurisdiction, covering railroads, trucking companies, broadcasters, telephone companies, the operation of the ports, the airlines, among others. There are ap

Finance committee  Perhaps I can comment. I have worked for a number of federally regulated companies and for employers in provincial jurisdictions. Where the provinces have moved to a non-mandatory retirement scheme for age 65, employers were initially concerned that it would create certain probl

Finance committee  Thank you very much. I am going to ask David Olsen, who is assistant general counsel for Canada Post, to present our position. He is also a member of FETCO and has been involved in employment equity matters for many years. David, I'll turn it over to you.