NEWS STORIES
The fight for pay equity for 2300 Bell Canada
telephone operators is headed back to court, said Communications, Energy and
Paperworkers Union President Fred Pomeroy following today's announcement that
CEP members have voted 54% to reject their employer's settlement offer.
``Our members have spoken,'' says Pomeroy. ``And they have clearly
indicated they want to go through the Human Rights Tribunal process, with
whatever time frame that might take, rather than agree to a settlement at this
stage.''
Twenty-thousand Bell Canada employees are rolling up their sleeves and
going back to the battlefield.
The mostly female employees have rejected a tentative out-of-court
pay-equity settlement of $59-million.
The deal would have ended a five-year pay-equity struggle. The
employees were seeking $100 million in back pay and raises of 11-to-20
per cent to put female workers on par with technical workers, who are
mostly male.
Under the $59-million agreement, the payments would have worked out
to an average of $10,000 each for the 5,000 people represented by the
Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada.
The 15,000 workers represented by the Canadian Telephone Employees
Association would have received between $1,500 and $2,000 each.
The Conseil des relations interculturelles wants to set down, with this
report, the basic terms for a broad public debate that it intends to pursue
during a conference on employment equity that will be held on Friday, November
12, 1999 at the Radisson Montr�al Centre Hotel.
The Public Service Alliance of Canada and the Treasury Board Secretariat announced today that
they have agreed to meet to discuss what the implementation of the 1998 Canadian Human Rights Tribunal
ruling on pay equity would mean.
FEDERAL WORKERS:
Liberal stalling tactic costly to women NDP says
PROVINCIAL WORKERS:
Union ready to negotiate But only if GNWT removes pay equity complaint
Air Canada and Canadian Airlines are being taken
to court by their flight attendants and the Canadian Human
Rights Commission over the issue of pay equity.
The case is using as a precedent this week's $5 billion court
ruling against the federal government.
Local 80052 - Government Services Union
A component of the Public Service Alliance of Canada. Representing federal civil servants in the Halifax Regional Municipality and other small satellite office locations in Nova Scotia,
Canada. Formerly the Union of Public Works Employees, and the Supply and Services Union.
When Christine Collins heard the news, she ran into the employee cafeteria
of federal government's office Tower C on Queen Street and trumpeted,
"We won!" Then she headed upstairs to the 22nd floor, where she works,
and told everybody again and again, "We won! We won! They have to give
it to us now."
For the most part, however, the cheering stopped there.
Even though a federal court ruling yesterday means 200,000 past and
present federal workers stand to get a total of about $5 billion in retroactive
pay-equity compensation, most of them celebrated with their fingers crossed.
Thousands of federal workers across Canada are awaiting a Federal Court
decision today that could either end the largest and longest-running
pay-equity case in North America or become another step in a 14-year legal
battle.
After four months of deliberations, Justice John Evans is releasing his
decision on the Chretien government's appeal of a controversial pay-equity
ruling that could cost taxpayers billions of dollars. The ruling will affect nearly
200,000 current and former public servants.
A move by health employers to appeal a major pay equity ruling will delay justice
for tens of thousands of health care workers, says B.C.'s largest union of women,
and could signal renewed employer efforts to thwart a decades-long struggle to
erase gender-based wage discrimination.
Bell Canada and its unions may have finally
settled a five-year old pay equity dispute. The two sides have
reached a tentative agreement worth $59 million.
The deal covers 20,000 employees at the telecommunications
giant, most of them women.
YWCA Supports Pay Equity
At this point one wonders, how is this government in any way
representative or protective of its women constituents? Is pay equity not a
basic human right? Has the Liberal government become so secure of its
popularity and so arrogant that it is ready to dismiss human rights with a
flick of the wrist?
In the Federal Court on Monday, Ottawa and its
largest union begin fighting over pay equity.
At the heart of the battle is an equity payout that could cost
the federal government as much as $5 billion in back pay for
some 200,000 civil servants and former employees.
A single judge from the Federal Court (Trial Division) will start hearing the government�s appeal of the Tribunal decision on
Monday May 31 and continue until June 11. Treasury Board is apparently pulling out all the stops in the high tech department
with graphs and charts to try to impress the Federal Court Judge with their case. They may try to look like Star Wars, but we
doubt the "Force" is going to be with them.
The Federal Court of Appeal today came down
clearly on the side of CEP and its 4,000 members who are telephone operators
in a pay equity dispute with Bell Canada.
``The court has sent a clear message to Bell and to other employers that
it's time to do the right thing,'' says CEP President Fred Pomeroy.
``The decision, released today, is unanimous and completely in our
favour, he says. ``It re-instates the case to the Human Rights Tribunal,
where it was before Bell Canada took it off the rails with legal
technicalities, which the Federal Court of Appeal has now dismissed.''
The Muldoon decision, which CEP appealed, not only impacts on the more
than 22,000 victims of gender discrimination at Bell Canada, but also on the
thousands of federal public service employees who are currently in a pay
equity dispute with their employer.
Nobody in Ottawa pays much attention to the New Democratic Party
leader these days, and they're not normally missing anything, but this
time she is absolutely right. Right for the wrong reasons, as we will see,
but right nonetheless.
The Liberal government's approach to pay equity, as Ms. McDonough
said on Tuesday, is bovine-source fertilizer of appelation control�e
quality. Or as she put it, "pure, unadulterated bullshit." Through all the
confusion and bafflegab, that's probably the most accurate thing that
can be said about the Liberals' handling of this issue.
The Canadian Human Rights Tribunal has the authority to
investigate and adjudicate pay equity cases, the Federal Court of Appeal says in
a judgment that could ultimately cost the federal treasury billions of dollars.
The appeal court unanimously overturned an earlier judgment which dealt with a
specific dispute between Bell Canada and 4,000 telephone operators.
That now-discredited judgment, in turn, had been cited by the federal
government in its court appeal of a tribunal decision granting more than $4 billion
in pay equity to 200,000 past and present public servants.
Canadians view equal pay for female public servants as a
lesser priority when stacked against unemployment, the deficit and other issues,
the federal Treasury Board was advised last year.
In addition, pollsters working for the department responsible for the public
service reported finding a "have versus have-nots split" in how the public
perceived what federal public servants should be paid.
"The younger, lower income, less educated, non-unionized the respondents are,
the more negative their perception," said analytical notes on a survey by EKOS
Research in July 1997.
Leaders of Canadian working women will challenge
the federal government's recent decision to appeal the pay equity ruling and
it's record on equality issues during an October 5th Town Hall meeting in
Ottawa.
Representatives of the federal Liberal Government will participate in the
meeting on women's equality and pay equity. The decision of the Liberal
Government to appeal the pay equity ruling of the Canadian Human Rights
Tribunal which granted equal pay to women in the public sector provoked this
discussion.Canadian women leaders who will lead the discussion with the Liberal MPs
and Senators are:
Nancy Riche, Executive Vice-President, Canadian Labour Congress
Nycole Turmel, Executive Vice-President, Public Service Alliance of
Canada
Judy Darcy, President, Canadian Union of Public Employees
Trish Blackstaffe, Assistant to the President, Communications, Energy and
Paperworkers Union
Huguette LeBlanc, Vice-President, Canadian Union of Postal Workers
Peggy Nash, Assistant to the President, Canadian Auto Workers
Joan Grant-Cummings, President, National Action Committee on the Status
of Women.
The Town Hall meeting on Women's Equality and Pay Equity will take place
at the Museum of Nature Auditorium, 240 McLeod Street (at Metcalfe) at 7 p.m.,
October 5th in Ottawa.
The federal government's largest union, smarting over a
futile bargaining session on pay equity, released a letter Wednesday from
Jean Chretien to Mary Anne Wry that supports the policy of back pay.
The letter was found in Wry's desk after she died.
"Mr. Chretien, how many more workers -- current, former, and retired --
will die before seeing their pay equity cheques?" NDP MP Angela Vautour
demanded at a news conference.
"How many letters did you send these people?"
Chretien was Opposition leader in 1992 when he wrote Wry, condemning
the pay equity policies of the Conservative government of the day and its
failure to retroactively settle.
VANCOUVER (CP) -- Civil servants coming to work today at a federal
government office tower in Vancouver were greeted by a pay-equity sit-in.
Ten members of the Public Service Alliance of Canada camped out
overnight Monday night in the lobby of Library Square.
The protesters, who eventually left the building, sang songs and waved a
large banner as their colleagues streamed into the building.
They're upset with a government decision to appeal a human rights tribunal
ruling that federal workers should be paid billions of dollars in back pay.
A union spokesman said there would likely be an escalation in protests in
the coming days and weeks, leading up to a possible strike vote.
More than 90,000 federal public servants are preparing for a
strike vote after contract talks broke down Sunday over pay equity. A
conciliator called off talks Sunday night between representatives from the
Treasury Board and a mostly clerical unit of the Public Service Alliance of
Canada after deeming the two sides were too far apart.
VANCOUVER (CP) -- Members of the Public Service Alliance of
Canada took over the lobby of a downtown building Monday to protest
the Liberal government's appeal of a pay equity decision.
Female alliance members occupied the lobby of the Federal government
tower at Library Square in the city.
The women want the federal government to provide female civil servants
with back pay to equalize the disparity between men and women's salaries,
in accordance with a July ruling by the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal.
Ottawa, union sit down to talk pay equity
The federal government and its largest union are preparing to
sit down for the first time in a year to try to work out a pay-equity settlement, but
it appears they could be headed for an impasse. The two sides will attempt the
difficult task of trying to work out a deal at the same time they are embroiled in a
bitter battle in the courts.
Federal workers continue protests
over pay equity
The union representing federal government workers
held more demonstrations across the country Friday
against the government's decision to appeal a pay
equity ruling, but with varying success.
Uncivil civil servants
Cries of "shame" and demands for equal pay from angry federal
workers rang out beneath federal Justice Minister Anne
McLellan's Edmonton office yesterday afternoon.
The 150 or so Public Service Alliance of Canada members and
supporters were rallying in front of Canada Place along Jasper
Avenue to demand what they say is their due - billions of dollars
in back pay for female workers.
STRIKE CLOSER PUBLIC SERVANTS TALK TOUGH
Union leaders raised the spectre of a nationwide strike by civil
servants if the federal government refuses to budge on pay
equity. "We're headed for some kind of confrontation this fall," said
Dave Jackson, a Public Service Alliance of Canada rep in
Calgary. "In October we could be in a legal position to strike."
Government to fight pay equity in
court--Furious workers walk off the job in protest---
Furious federal employees from
Calgary to Cape Breton walked off the job Thursday
after hearing the government will go to court to fight
a pay-equity decision ordering Ottawa to ante up
billions of dollars in backpay to public servants.
The federal government, as expected, announced it
will appeal a human rights tribunal ruling last month
that followed the longest and largest human rights
case in Canadian history.
SAD DAY FOR CANADA
``It's a sad day for a country when the
government refuses to abide by its own laws.''
Those were the words of Fred Pomeroy, President of the Communications,
Energy and Paperworkers union, upon learning that the federal government has
decided to appeal the recent decision by the Human Rights Tribunal on pay
equity among the government's employees.
Chretien hanged in effigy over pay
equity
A battle for pay equity turned into a personal attack on Prime
Minister Jean Chretien Wednesday when he was hung in effigy and called a
promise-breaker.
But Chretien, apparently undeterred, sent his strongest signal yet that his Liberal
government plans to appeal a human rights tribunal ruling that ordered an
estimated $4 billion in backpay to mainly female civil servants.
The government is expected to announce by Friday's deadline whether it will
challenge the ruling in the Federal Court.
Chretien, cabinet silent on pay
equity
Prime Minister Jean Chretien
continued to balk at spending billions of dollars on a
pay equity settlement for federal employees after his
cabinet met Tuesday to decide whether to appeal the
human rights ruling.
Several cabinet ministers refused to comment on
whether the government will take the case to the
Federal Court, saying an announcement will be made
by Friday's deadline.
Feds to appeal pay-equity ruling
The federal cabinet will give the OK
today to an appeal of a multibillion-dollar human rights ruling on
civil service pay equity, government insiders say.
Prime Minister Jean Chretien, who flew home last night from a
trip to B.C. and Alberta, meets cabinet to discuss the
controversial ruling by the Canadian Human Rights Commission.
Cabinet to make pay equity
decision
The Canadian Human Rights Commission is appealing to
Prime Minister Jean Chretien and his cabinet to pay up instead of appealing a
recent ruling that ordered a huge pay equity settlement for federal public
servants.
Cabinet appointments receive $15,000
performance bonuses
The federal government might be wary of whether it
can afford backpay owed to about 200,000 civil servants, but CTV News
reported Sunday many of Ottawa's patronage appointees have received
healthy bonuses.
CTV News reported Sunday that about 160 cabinet appointees have
shared $2.5 million in performance bonuses over the past two years.
We can't afford the pay-equity decision
Editorial From the Montreal Gazette
Chretien, Liberals seem cool to pay equity ruling
Prime Minister Jean Chretien,
acknowledging he once promised to pay up when it came to pay
equity, suggested Monday it would cost too much. "There's only
so much money unless you increase taxes, so you have to decide
what are the priorities," said Chretien, who dropped in on MPs
and senators debating whether to appeal a recent human rights
ruling that would give billions of dollars in backpay to federal
female employees.
Pay-equity protest greets Liberals caucus
Civil servants angered
by Ottawa's plans to appeal $4-billion award
Protesters implore Liberals to
make good on pay equity ruling
The airplane flying over Prime Minister Jean
Chretien's riding Sunday carried a simple message: "Stop fooling around. Pay
and negotiate."
Workers protest Ottawa's possible appeal of
pay equity ruling
Federal Ministers at odds over Pay Equity appeal
Ottawa plans pay-equity appeal
Officials say cabinet favours strategy of fighting
$4-billion decision while offering new talks with union
Pay equity if necessary, but not necessarily
pay equity
OTTAWA - A poll commissioned by the federal government has found that
Canadians support the principle of pay equity in the public service but don't
want to pay for it through higher taxes.
C'mon, folks, a little common sense
Commentary from Globe & Mail (whine whine whine .ep)
Pay equity letter haunts Chretien
Just months before the 1993 election, Jean Chretien wrote to the
Public Service Alliance of Canada that a future Liberal government would
"abide by" a tribunal ruling on the pay equity complaint of thousands of public
servants.
That promise has come back to haunt the Prime Minister after last week's
landmark decision that could cost taxpayers up to $7 billion to implement.
A Canadian Human Rights Tribunal ruled the government owes nearly
200,000 former and existing workers up to 13 years in back pay, plus interest,
to wipe out the wage gap between female- and male-dominated jobs in the
public service.
Ottawa to study pay equity ruling
Special Feature and Backgrounder on the Pay Equity Decision From the Edmonton Journal
Pay Equity Victory for Federal Workers after 14 Years!
A federal court ordered the Canadian
government on Wednesday to make back payments to 200,000 federal
workers, most of them women, in the biggest pay equity case in
Canadian and possibly world history.
Pay Equity 1:14-year legal fight comes to a head
Wednesday
Pay Equity 2:Employment equity ruling could cost Ottawa
billions
Federal Government Must Respect Human Rights And Pay
Equity Law Says The CLC's Riche
A rift continues to exist between the Union
of Northern Workers and the territorial government over
contract negotiations.
Union says Harris should pay up on pay
equity
Ontario: Pay equity workers deliver Harris bill for $230 million
Premier Harris�Take the Pay
Equity Challenge Fraser Institute Right Wing Think Tank opposes pay equity ( well duh.
PRIVATE SECTOR:
TD Bank changes its mandatory drug-test policy
Banks on carpet over hiring
Rights commission says they broke deal on jobs for disabled, wants RCMP to check
Overpaid males need to put more women in
the boardroom
Ontario Network for Human Rights
Providing updates on employment discrimination cases
Eatons - a large department store chain in Canada- is a systemically racist company that
violates employees rights with impunity, while the Ontario Human Rights Commission and
the powers that be continue to sit on the fence and/or cheer Eatons on.
Page design � Copyright 1999 Eugene W. Plawiuk.
Contents are � Copyright the individual authors, or original sources that have been linked.
