PAY EQUITY HEARINGS TRIBUNAL
0736-02 Pioneer Youth Services o/a PYS Associates Ltd. Applicant v Canadian National Federation of Independent Unions, John Baird, Ministry of Community and Social Services, Chris Stockwell, Ministry of Labour, Irene Mitchell, Sylvia Groh, Torsten Huhse, Laura MacNicol Adam, Lynda Nydam, Diane Gartner, Tanya Haggerty, Mark Williams, Christa Streicher, Chuck DaSilva, Jennifer DiPaolo, Patti Rocco, Amber Collins, Lisa Henderson, Glory To, Cheri Chowan, Cosimo Pazzano, Michelle Crozier, Kelly Stewart, Fiona Toso, Respondents
Before: Mary Ellen Cummings, Chair and Members Margaret Kvetan and Pauline R. Seville
Cite as: Pioneer Youth Services o/a PYS Associates Ltd.
(September 13, 2002) 0736-02 (P.E.H.T.)
DECISION OF THE TRIBUNAL, SEPTEMBER 13, 2002
Pioneer Youth Services, operated by PYS Associates Ltd., (“the Applicant” or “the Employer”) has applied to the Tribunal with respect to an Order of a Review Officer dated January 17, 2002. The Review Officer determined that when the Applicant negotiated a pay equity plan in 1992 with the bargaining agent representing its employees, the Association for Residential Treatment Concepts, the parties agreed that the job class Educational Assistant was a gender neutral job class within the meaning of the Pay Equity Act R.S.O. 1990, c. P-7 (the “Act”). It appears from the pay equity plan attached to the Application, that after determining the gender dominance of the job classes in the establishment, a simple ranking of jobs was performed. It is not clear if the Applicant was required to make pay equity adjustments as a result of that exercise.
It seems that once the proxy method of comparison was introduced into the Act, Pioneer Youth Services, like many other employers in the Province, was required to review its workplace and determine if there were female job classes that had not found a male comparator using the job-to-job method. In an Order dated February 2, 1999, a Review Officer determined the following:
As required by subsections 16(1) and 23(1), I have investigated the matter and have confirmed that one or more female job classes within the Employer’s