Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
On behalf of the 166,000 members of the Public Service Alliance of Canada, I welcome the opportunity to be here today and provide members of the finance committee with a few observations on Bill C-10, the Budget Implementation Act, 2009.
In our submission we focus on two aspects of Bill C-10, namely, the Expenditure Restraint Act and the Public Sector Equitable Compensation Act. Both are unnecessary and abhorrent.
If adopted, the Expenditure Restraint Act will be the subject of extensive litigation. Given that unfortunate but inevitable circumstance, I'll focus my opening statements on the Public Sector Equitable Compensation Act and why it should be withdrawn from Bill C-10.
Let me be clear: equal pay for work of equal value is not a budget measure but a fundamental human right that is protected by the charter and enforced by the Canadian Human Rights Act. The budget is no place to debate or to trade off human rights enshrined in legislation and in international instruments.
Moreover, as government officials have affirmed, the Public Sector Equitable Compensation Act is not about saving money. Whatever the government motivation was when drafting and introducing the Public Sector Equitable Compensation Act, it is clear that the act has nothing to do with stimulating the economy or with protecting jobs, sectors of the economy, and the unemployed.
While we take the position that the Public Sector Equitable Compensation Act has no place in Bill C-10, we also believe that the federal pay equity legislative framework does need reform.
In this regard, we note that the federal pay equity task force issued a comprehensive report in 2004 on how to improve the current law and make it fairer and more accessible. This report, the culmination of years of consultation with employers, including the federal government, and unions, individuals, and women's groups, should be the starting point for a legislative agenda on equal pay for work of equal value.
In appendices to our submission, we have provided your committee with an analysis of the Public Sector Equitable Compensation Act, as well as a document that compares the Public Sector Equitable Compensation Act and the Ontario and Manitoba pay equity models.
We urge you to review this material carefully, because we have noted that some debate in the House has equated the PSECA and the Ontario and Manitoba pay equity models. Unfortunately, the PSECA bears no resemblance whatsoever to the Ontario or Manitoba legislation.
Before concluding, let me make the point that pay equity legislation is fundamentally important. It is fundamentally important in a society where women earn 70% of what men earn, and, as a human right protected by the charter, it is fundamentally important to all Canadians.
As a union that has championed equal pay for work of equal value for decades, we understand full well that the current system takes too long and is unnecessarily legalistic. Moreover, pay equity has been costly because of the government's refusal to recognize and compensate for paying discriminatory wages to employees in female-dominated occupations.
The PSAC 1984 pay equity complaint against the federal government resulted in 15 years of protracted court and other actions on behalf of the government at the taxpayer's expense. These protracted actions resulted in an obligation to pay $3.2 billion to workers and former workers whose wages were found to be discriminatory all those years.
I'll conclude by saying that the pay equity model articulated in Bill C-10 is flawed beyond redemption. The PSAC strongly recommends that it be withdrawn. At the very least, it should be introduced as a stand-alone bill. That said, our preference is that the government go back to the drawing board and draft a new bill based on recommendations of the pay equity task force.
I thank you for the opportunity to appear.