Pay Equity Office v Norwood Nursing Home Limited
PEHT Case No: 2684-16-PE
Applicant: Pay Equity Office Respondent: Norwood Nursing Home Limited
BEFORE: Mary Anne McKellar, Chair
DECISION OF THE TRIBUNAL: February 2, 2017
Decision
This is a referral by the Pay Equity Office (“the Office”) pursuant to section 24.5 of the Pay Equity Act (“the Act”) for enforcement of a Review Officer’s Order.
Section 4.2(1) of the Statutory Powers Procedure Act permits a panel of one to issue this decision.
The responding party employer (“the Employer”) has written to the Registrar of the Tribunal. It purports to seek an extension of time of an unspecified duration in which to file its response to this application. Other statements in this correspondence suggest to me that the Employer may not entirely understand the nature of a referral application.
There is one very narrow issue that is the proper subject of this referral. Section 24(5.2) of the Act precludes the Tribunal from considering the merits of the Order. The sole issue before the Tribunal is whether the Employer has complied with the Order, and the Employer bears the onus of proving that to be the case (section 24(5.3)). The Employer concedes in its correspondence that it has not complied, but asserts that it intends to.
It therefore appears to me that the Employer is seeking an extension of time, not to respond to this referral application, but in which to comply with the Order.
The Employer or its legal representative may wish to communicate directly with counsel for the Office to see if they can resolve this matter. I am prepared to allow a short period of time for such discussions to occur.
Unless the Registrar of the Tribunal is advised in the meantime that the parties have agreed to dispose of this application in some other way, the Employer shall have until February 17, 2017 by which to file its response to this application, which must set out the facts (if any) it relies on to establish that it has complied with the Order, as well as its position with respect to the specific remedial relief sought by the Office.
I am not seized.
Dated at Toronto, Ontario this 2nd day of February, 2017.
"Mary Anne McKellar" Mary Anne McKellar, Chair