Thank you, Chair and committee members. Good afternoon.
Thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today. Of course, Bill C-86 contains many provisions that are important to working people. I welcome any questions you may have in any aspect of the bill. However, I will confine my opening remarks to pay equity provisions and the amendments to the federal labour standards, the pay equity bill.
We're glad to see the federal pay equity bill finally being tabled. Of course, working women have been calling for this legislation for decades. This historic legislation will hold employers accountable for proactively identifying and correcting systemic wage discrimination. It will put working women in the federal sector on a path towards equal pay for work of equal value.
We also want to commend the government upon repealing the Public Sector Equitable Compensation Act brought forward by the previous government. We're pleased that the bill provides for pay equity committees to both develop and review pay equity plans. The bill also establishes a pay equity commissioner to administer and enforce the bill. We hope the commission and their team will have the resources and capacity required to implement the legislation effectively.
There are some parts of the bill that we need to change in order to reinforce pay equity as a human right and to ensure the process works to accomplish the goals of ending systemic wage discrimination.
First, the “Purpose” clause must be amended to remove the qualifying phrase “while taking into account the diverse needs of employers”. This language in this part of the bill undermines the intent of the bill, as well as the human rights of equal pay for work of equal value.
Second, language on voting in pay equity committees states that the decision of the employee groups must be unanimous or they will forfeit their right to vote. We suggest that a majority agreement is sufficient, as in the case of the Quebec legislation.
Finally, the language on maintenance provides for retroactivity when wage gaps have arisen in the interim between the posting of the original pay equity plan and the five-year review. However, it is retroactive to when the revised pay equity plan was posted, not to when the gap first occurs. A similar provision in the Quebec legislation was recently struck down by the Supreme Court of Canada. The federal act should not replicate this unconstitutional language.
On federal labour standards, Bill C-86 makes a variety of changes to the federal labour standards. In our opinion, these changes are overdue and much needed. Since the comprehensive Arthurs commission report was published in 2006, the federal labour standards have lagged behind provincial improvements. Many improvements have failed to keep up with significant changes in work and the world of employment.
We're pleased that the victims of family violence will now be entitled to five paid days for domestic violence leave. We welcome the prohibition on pay discrimination on the basis of employment status. Equal treatment protections in the code will reinforce the new pay equity legislation. They will benefit low-income workers, women of colour and newcomers to Canada who are more likely to be employed in part-time, temporary, casual or seasonal work. Temporary agency workers will also be entitled to equal treatment.
We also welcome the onus on employers to prove that they are not misqualifying employees as self-employed workers or independent contractors. These changes help bring the federal labour standards into the 21st century.
I do want to say that Canada's unions are not satisfied with the provision to end contract flipping at airports and federal workplaces. Bill C-86 provides some protection for non-unionized workers in contract retendering; however, we feel the government missed the chance to stop employers from terminating bargaining rights and cutting the wages and benefits of unionized workers by flipping contracts. We urge the government to take steps to ensure that all workers are treated fairly in such a situation.
I want to thank the committee for the opportunity to present here today. We'll take any questions you may have in regard to my presentation.