Court File and Parties
PEHT Case No: 3483-14-PE
Pay Equity Office, Applicant v Excel Employment International Limited, Respondent
PEHT Case No: 3768-14-PE
Excel Employment International Limited, Applicant
BEFORE: Patrick Kelly, Vice-Chair, Carol Phillips and Carla Zabek, Members
DECISION OF THE TRIBUNAL: August 7, 2015
Decision
[1]. Tribunal Case No. 3768-14-PE is an application under subsection 24(6) of the Pay Equity Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. P.7, as amended (“the Act”) brought by Excel Employment International Limited (“Excel”) with respect to a Review Officer’s Order dated February 4, 2015 (“the Order”). We terminated this application in a decision dated July 8, 2015 (“the Decision”).
[2]. Tribunal Case No. 3483-14-PE is a reference under subsection 24(5.2) of the Act, in which the Pay Equity Office (“the PEO”) seeks enforcement of the Order. We shall refer to it as “the PEO application”. In respect of this matter, we stated the following at paragraphs 5 to 7 of the Decision:
This leaves remaining the PEO application. Subsection 24(5.2) states that, on a reference under subsection 24(5), the Tribunal shall not consider the merits of the order that is the subject of the reference. The only issue, therefore, in a reference to the Tribunal is whether or not there has been compliance with an order.
Excel never claimed to have complied with the Order. Excel’s defense to the Order is that, as an employer with ten or fewer employees, it was not subject to the Act, and therefore not obligated to comply with the Order.
In these circumstances, the PEO appears to be entitled to the remedies it requested in Schedule C of the PEO application. Excel shall have until July 17, 2015 to provide the Tribunal and the PEO with any written submissions it may wish to make concerning why the Tribunal should not grant the remedies requested in the PEO application. Should Excel fail to file timely submissions in response to this decision, the Tribunal will issue a further decision granting the requested remedies in the PEO application.
[3]. The Tribunal received no submissions from Excel.
[4]. Accordingly, the PEO application is granted. We confirm the Order’s finding that Excel has failed to take any steps to implement pay equity, and we order Excel to:
(i) within two days of the date of this decision, post a copy of this decision in a prominent place in the workplace that is accessible to all employees and forward a copy of this decision by mail to any former employees who worked in a female job class at any time after March 1, 2008;
(ii) within seven days of the date of this decision provide documentation to the Review Officer who issued the Order confirming that this decision was posted in the workplace as required under subparagraph (i) above;
(iii) within 30 days of the date of this decision, identify the female job classes and potential male comparators that existed in the establishment since March 1, 2008, and distribute a questionnaire or collect job information for each of the female job classes and potential comparators and provide in writing the identified job classes, and copies of the questionnaires and/or the collected job information in respect of all the identified job classes to the Review Officer;
(iv) within 40 days of the date of this decision, evaluate each of the job classes for which information was collected using skill, effort, responsibility and working conditions in a gender neutral manner and provide the Review Officer with the results of the evaluations in writing;
(v) within 50 days of the date of this decision, compare each of the female job classes using the job-to-job or proportional value methods of comparison and provide the Review Officer with the results of the comparisons in writing;
(vi) within 60 days of this decision, calculate the differences in the job rate, if any, for each of the female job classes and their male comparators from March 1, 2008, to the date of this decision and provide the calculations to the Review Officer in writing; and
(vii) within 70 days of the date of this decision, pay any and all outstanding pay equity adjustments and interest owed to all current and former employees of the company who worked in a female job class at any time on or after March 1, 2008, and provide the Review Officer with documented proof of payment.
Dated at Toronto, Ontario this 7th day of August, 2015.
"Patrick Kelly" Patrick Kelly, Vice-Chair "Carol Phillips" Carol Phillips, Member "Carla Zabek" Carla Zabek, Member