On March 19, the Treasury Board released the second posting of the results of its 2020 pay equity assessment for the parapublic sector program. This posting covers a 60-day period during which employees and union organizations can submit a complaint to the Commission des normes, de l’équité, de la santé et de la sécurité du travail (CNESST) to challenge the exercise carried out by the employer alone. The FEESP is currently conducting a rigorous analysis to determine which elements of the Treasury Board’s 2020 maintenance plan will be contested by May 18, 2024.
What is pay equity maintenance?
Under the Pay Equity Act, the Treasury Board must conduct a pay equity maintenance exercise every five years for the parapublic sector program that covers employees in the health and social services and education networks. In the case of the 2020 maintenance assessment, the period covered runs from December 21, 2015 to December 20, 2020. The purpose of this exercise is to identify whether events in the networks have created pay gaps between equivalent female-dominated and male-dominated job categories and, if so, to determine what adjustments are required. Some examples of events that could lead to pay equity gaps include:
- Creation, elimination or merger of predominantly female or male job categories;
- Significant change in the duties or requirements of a job category that may affect a job’s value;
- Change in the sexual predominance of a job category;
- Change in the remuneration of job categories.
An assessment that authorizes no salary adjustment
Review the final results of the Treasury Board’s 2020 pay equity maintenance assessment here (in French only):
tresor.gouv.qc.ca/fileadmin/PDF/info_equite/maintien/francais/parassns_3b.pdf
For the Treasury Board, no event generated a salary adjustment and, consequently, none of the 200 predominantly female job categories in the program are entitled to a salary adjustment. Therefore despite observations and comments provided by FEESP and employees, the Treasury Board did not deem it necessary to change the overview of its first posting issued on December 20, 2023.
In addition to these results, the posting also contains a summary of the questions and critical observations filed following the first posting, as well as information on potential recourse and deadlines for exercising it.
Filing complaints
Since the Treasury Board conducted the 2020 maintenance assessment alone, this triggers the possibility for employees and union organizations to file recourse if they feel the work does not comply with the Pay Equity Act. We have until May 18, 2024 inclusively to file complaints and submit forms to the CNESST (in French only):
At the time of writing, FEESP is continuing to analyze the results of the 2020 maintenance exercise to determine which aspects may be the subject of a complaint. We are focusing our arguments on the identification of job categories, the sexual predominance of categories according to the criteria of the Act, the evaluation of job categories and the new method the Treasury Board uses to calculate gap estimates. We continue to collect all relevant information that can help us in our analyses and are still waiting for important information from the Treasury Board, which will allow us to better interpret its approach.