Pay Equity for Women in

the Federal Public Service

(City Council on October 28, 29 and 30, 1998, deferred consideration of this Clause to the next regular meeting of City Council to be held on November 25, 1998.)

The Corporate Services Committee recommends the adoption of the Recommendation of the Committee on the Status of Women, embodied in the following communication (September25, 1998) from the Committee Administrator, Committee on the Status of Women:

Recommendation:

It is recommended that City Council endorse the position of the Committee on the Status of Women as outlined in the attached communication to the Prime Minister of Canada.

Comments:

At its meeting on September 17, 1998, the Committee on the Status of Women reaffirmed its decision to write to the Prime Minister of Canada urging that the government not appeal the decision of the human rights tribunal regarding pay equity for women in the federal public service. A copy of the letter to the Prime Minister of Canada is attached.

The Committee also decided to ask City Council to endorse its action.

(Communication dated August 27, 1998 addressed to The

Right Honourable Jean Chretien, Prime Minister of Canada

from the Chair, Committee on the Status of Women.)

I am writing on behalf of the members of the Committee on the Status of Women for the City of Toronto to urge that you do not appeal the decision of the human rights tribunal regarding pay equity for women in the federal public service.

The City's Committee on the Status of Women originated from the recommendation of the Report of the Royal Commission on the Status of Women that municipalities establish advisory bodies on the status of women. In 1973, former Mayor Crombie established a Task Force on Women's Issues.

One of the first activities of that Task Force was a review of the employment conditions of women in the civic work force. The Task Force survey identified a wage gap of 21.5% between the men and women workers of our City. The City responded by establishing a rigorous job evaluation program which is based on the principle of equal pay for work on equal value through which the job content of any job could be evaluated without regard to the gender or personal characteristic of the person holding the job.

In the City's 1986 brief to the Province of Ontario, Mayor Eggleton noted that between 1973 and 1986, that wage gap was successfully reduced to less than 4 percent between men and women workers. The set up cost between 1977 and 1979 was one percent (1%) of payroll. Between 1980 and 1984, during maintenance, the cost was less than one quarter of a percent of payroll. After that the estimated ongoing cost was less than one tenth of one percent of payroll.

Clearly, there are strategies for paying women what they have earned. We are requesting that you do not appeal the decision of the tribunal and that you commit to establishing a percent of federal payroll to recover the estimated $4b which your employees deserve.

The Corporate Services Committee reports, for the information of Council, having also had before it a communication (August 19, 1998) from the Acting President, CUPE Local 79, addressed to the Prime Minister of Canada, advising the Federal Government that Local 79 is dismayed by the Government's apparent interest in appealing the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal's decision to the Federal Court in an attempt to lower the amount awarded to current and former federal government employees; and urging the Federal Government to accept the decision of the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal to live up to its principled commitment to pay women and men equally.