PSAC Pay Equity Bulletin

August 11, 2006

Treasury Board trying again to derail PSAC’s pay equity claim against separate employers

Treasury Board is continuing to try to block our pay equity claim against separate employers from ever going to court.  The government has filed some preliminary pre-trial motions in yet another attempt to derail the complaint.

October 27, 2006 has been set as the date in the Federal Court (Trial Division) to hear their pre-trial motions.  This latest tactic will push the case actually being heard at trial by at least six months.

One of the government’s tactics has been to try to disqualify the union as a party to the complaint.  As a result, a number of union members will actually be named in the complaint in order to eliminate this line of attack.

The government’s tactics come as no surprise but are nevertheless reprehensible.  It’s just one more example of the overwhelming need for a federal proactive pay equity law that will put the onus on employers to prove they are paying equal pay for work of equal value.

Updates on this case will continue to be posted as information becomes available.

The Statement of Claim was filed in November 2000 on behalf of current and former PSAC members working for a number of separate employers. The case has been repeatedly delayed due to government tactics, including a series of unsuccessful legal challenges to have the case dismissed. The separate employers included in the complaint and the Statement of Claim, under Part II of the PSSRA, are: the Auditor General, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, the Communications Security Establishment, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions, Statistical Survey Operations, and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (formerly the Medical Research Council).