Ontario Pay Equity Hearings Tribunal

PEHT Case No: 1763-17-PE

Bonnie E. MacLeod, Irene Hutton, and Linda Gemmell, Applicants v Brockville General Hospital, and CUPE 5666, Respondents

BEFORE: Roslyn McGilvery, Vice-Chair, William Cook and Shannon McManus, Members

DECISION OF THE TRIBUNAL: September 14, 2018

[1]. This is an application under the Pay Equity Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. P.7, as amended (the "Act").

[2]. The respondent Brockville General Hospital (the "Employer") asked the Tribunal to dismiss this application on a prima facie basis. As such, the Tribunal directed the applicants to file written submissions in response to the request to dismiss and the applicants have done so.

[3]. The applicants allege, inter alia, that in evaluating their job classification of ER Clerk, the Employer and CUPE 5666 (the "Union") did not consider certain admitting and switchboard duties that had been added to their job classification. The applicants therefore assert that the job evaluation fell short of the requirements of the Act.

[4]. The question to be answered in this case is whether the Employer and Union violated the Act by failing to properly evaluate the work in question in light of the four criteria set out in section 5 of the Act. In Group of Employees v. Ontario Public Service Employees Union and Crown in Right of Ontario (Management Board Secretariat), [1993] O.P.E.D. No. 47 (QL) (October 7, 1993), the Tribunal commented as follows respecting how to assess whether an applicant has pleaded a prima facie breach of section 5 (paragraph 44):

44...If the parties have made a reasonable effort to accurately capture the job content, then the Tribunal will not inquire further. Therefore, if on the face of the Application, it is clear that the system ignored one of the criteria, or failed to apply these criteria, or unreasonably excluded important job information related to any of the four criteria, then the Tribunal should proceed to hear the merits of the Application.

[5]. It appears that the applicants are challenging whether the evaluation system "unreasonably excluded important job information related to the four criteria." Therefore, we decline to dismiss this application on a prima facie basis at this time. However, because the applicants have filed additional particulars since the Employer filed its response to the application, the Employer shall have an opportunity to respond to these additional particulars as set out in the applicants' correspondence of May 11, 2018. The Employer shall have 10 business days to deliver and file any such submissions.

[6]. The Registrar is requested to process this application in the normal course.

Dated at Toronto this 14th day of September, 2018.

"Roslyn McGilvery" ____

Roslyn McGilvery, Vice-Chair

"William Cook" ____

William Cook, Member

"Shannon McManus" ___

Shannon McManus, Member