On May 31, 2024, Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat (TBS) filed an application to extend the deadline for posting its final pay equity plan under section 57(1) of the Pay Equity Act (Act) with the Pay Equity Commissioner. TBS requested and received a three-year extension until August 31, 2027. Note that this decision is separate from, and unrelated to, ACFO-ACAF’s CT-FIN Joint Pay Equity Study, which is currently underway.
While employee representatives from the pay equity committee, including co-chair Helen Berry of ACFO-ACAF, recognize an extension is needed, they oppose TBS’s request for a three-year extension, which they view as unreasonable in these circumstances. In their materials, they argued that TBS is responsible for the delay and has not justified the length of the extension, as well as presented risks with a three-year extension. Instead, they proposed an 18-month extension and provided a workplan outlining how they envision the remaining work to be completed in that timeline. Unfortunately, the proposal was unsuccessful.
However, if a gendered wage gap is identified within the three-year period, meaning similarly-valued female-predominant jobs receive lower wages than those in male-predominant comparator positions with the same value but higher wages, as per section 62 of the Act, TBS will have to pay interest from the date the Pay Equity Plan was set to be finalized (September 3, 2024) to the date they complete the final Plan. This will hopefully incentivize TBS to act and lead to a finalized Plan sooner than August 2027.
Despite our disagreement with this decision, we will continue to work with TBS on realizing gender pay equity in the federal public service.
For any questions, please contact Helen Berry at hberry@acfo-acaf.com.
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