Status of Women committee  Thank you for the question, Ms. Minna. No, indeed, it does not tie the market force criteria into the legislation. The Ontario legislation is completely different from what's being proposed. It's within a human rights framework. It's a stand-alone, truly proactive piece of legis

Status of Women committee  If I might just add to that, it's important to remember that from 1983 and 1999, Treasury Board, as an employer, dragged its heels on the issue of pay equity until the complaint was finally settled. The federal government put up some resistance and while many women in the public

Status of Women committee  Certainly we have some concerns. This attack on public sector women is taking place at a time when this government has adopted policies that are detrimental to women in society as a whole. First, in 2006, federal funding for day cares was eliminated. Next, in the fall of 2006,

Status of Women committee  Yes, we think proactive legislation would resolve this issue, because you're addressing pay equity before a complaint. You're actually trying to encourage, if not force, the employer to do the pay equity exercise to evaluate the compensation practices. Quebec has similar legisla

Status of Women committee  The only similarity with Manitoba's pay equity law is that the law applies only to public sector workers. There has been a lot of misrepresentation about how this act resembles provincial legislation. In fact, PSAC has produced a two-page document on the differences between this

Status of Women committee  I'll be speaking. Thank you. The Public Service Alliance of Canada appreciates this opportunity to share our comments and recommendations in regard to Bill C-471, the Pay Equity Task Force Recommendations Act. We have provided you with our brief and supporting documentation in

Status of Women committee  I hope I'll be okay on the time. I will try to slow down a little. The pay equity task force calls for the adoption of a truly proactive pay equity law. That means placing positive obligations on employers to review compensation systems, to identify gender-based inequities, and

Status of Women committee  Yes, Madam Neville. I'm referring to the consultations that were organized by Treasury Board on the development of the regulations under the Public Sector Equitable Compensation Act. The legislation is not yet in force pending the adoption of these regulations. We participated

Status of Women committee  It's a bit premature to have a definite conclusion. We will be meeting again with Treasury Board representatives. We have just received an invitation to that effect, so perhaps subsequent to our written comments we sent them this summer they are going to take our concerns a bit m

Status of Women committee  Perhaps my colleague can pitch in, but I'll take the first point on why we consider this legislation not proactive. The pay equity task force--and I did bring this very heavy report with me just so the members can appreciate--

Status of Women committee  I'm not going to drop it and make a lot of noise, but it is a report of almost 600 pages report that has canvassed the issue in much detail. If you haven't read it, I would encourage you to take a look at it, because it really does answer a lot of the questions and points us in t

Status of Women committee  Yes, we did receive an invitation. We took part in consultations that lasted two days in April and two days in June. That said, the dates were unilaterally imposed, the documents were sent at the very last minute, the resource persons for the consultations seem to be clearly from

Status of Women committee  There are a number of things. We are worried that setting the bar for female-predominant job classes at 70% will reduce access to pay equity. It will disqualify half of the female-predominant groups in our union. Adding market forces to the evaluation criteria in determining whet

Status of Women committee  I would like to add to that. If an employer--in this case, Treasury Board--does have a pay equity readjustment to make, with this Public Sector Equitable Compensation Act the amount of the money for pay equity would go into the same envelope as the money for pay raises that year.

Status of Women committee  On top of it, too, the market forces will be used as leverage, perhaps to bring wages down. In the consultations, we have asked that we at least acknowledge that you can't use market forces to drag wages down, that if you're going to use them, at least it's only to drag it up. Th