News release

April 20, 2006

PSAC wins pay equity for workers at Museum of Nature

OTTAWA – The Public Service Alliance of Canada has won another pay equity victory, this time at the Canadian Museum of Nature.

"We have negotiated a settlement of our pay equity complaint with Museum management," says PSAC National President Nycole Turmel. "We have won what was owed to our members without their having to wait through what would likely have been a prolonged Tribunal process."

The settlement is based on the pay equity adjustments achieved by the PSAC in 1999 in its settlement with Treasury Board. Although the Museum became a Crown Corporation in 1990, it inherited the classification and compensation systems used in the federal public service.

"A significant feature of the settlement is the inclusion of our current and former members in the CR category at the Museum," says Turmel. "This group was not included in the original complaint because at the time they did not meet the numerical criterion to be considered a female-dominated group."

The PSAC filed the pay equity complaint with the Canadian Human Rights Commission (CHRC) in July, 1994. The settlement is retroactive to July, 1993, one year before the complaint was filed, and covers the period up to June 14, 1999 when PSAC negotiated the implementation of a gender-neutral job evaluation plan. At that time, members received a major salary increase.

The settlement applies to all current and former permanent full-time, permanent part-time and temporary employees in the CR, ST and LS groups and is worth approximately $600,000. The payments will affect severance, pension and other benefits. Employees on paid maternity leave will be considered as having been at work for the purpose of calculating the adjustments.

Over the years, there were numerous attempts to settle the case. A tentative agreement, reached in 2000 was never signed and was subsequently rejected by the employer after a change of management at the Museum. Mediation by the Human Rights Commission in January 2003 failed to produce a settlement. A little over two years later, the CHRC referred the complaint to a Human Rights Tribunal which was scheduled to start hearings this spring.

The last step in the process is the submission of the settlement to the Human Rights Commission.

For information:
Louise Laporte, PSAC Communications
(613) 560-4287 or (613) 558-4975 (cell)

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