Pay Equity Hearings Tribunal
PEHT Case No: 3156-19-PE Applicant: Pay Equity Office Respondents: Unifor, Local 1359 - Service Unit, Office Clerical Unit, and Sault Area Hospital
PEHT Case No: 3350-19-PE Applicant: Sault Area Hospital Respondents: Unifor, Local 1359 - Service Unit, Office Clerical Unit, and Pay Equity Office
Before: M. David Ross, Chair Decision of the Tribunal: May 29, 2020
PEHT Case No. 3156-19-PE is an application filed pursuant section 24(5) of the Pay Equity Act, R.S.O. 1990, c.P.7 as amended (“the Act”). This application was filed on February 11, 2020.
PEHT Case No. 3350-19-PE is an application filed under the Act which requests an order varying the Review Officer’s order dated May 28, 2019 to extend the timelines set out in that order. No responses were filed.
I convened a video conference call on May 29, 2020 with the parties.
On the conference call, counsel for the Sault Area Hospital (“the hospital”) proposed a five-step timeline to finalize its plan and make any payments. Especially given the fact that the employer in these matters is a hospital, I find that the timeline proposed to be entirely reasonable.
Accordingly, the timeline for each step of the job evaluation process and making pay equity adjustments, if any, shall be:
Job Evaluations: October 2, 2020
Joint Steering Committee: November 6, 2020
Appeal Process: December 4, 2020
Calculating Affected Employees’ Entitlements: February 1, 2021
Payments Made: April 2, 2021
The Sault Area Hospital shall file with the Tribunal a statement confirming that this process has been completed by no later than April 9, 2021. The Sault Area Hospital shall also provide a copy of the completed plan to the Pay Equity Office at the same time.
If the process is completed as proposed, it will be presumed that the remedies sought by the Pay Equity Office in PEHT Case No. 3156-19-PE are satisfied and/or moot. If, after reviewing the materials provided by the Sault Area Hospital, the Pay Equity Office believes that there remain live issues in PEHT Case No. 3156-19-PE, it shall identify what those are in writing with the Tribunal by no later than April 16, 2021. If the Tribunal receives nothing from the Pay Equity Office by this time, the Tribunal will deem PEHT Case No. 3156-19-PE to have been resolved.
The timelines set out above assume that we are not faced with a second wave of COVID-19 cases in Ontario. In the unfortunate event that this does occur, the hospital is directed to write to the Tribunal to propose a revised timeline based on its best estimates.
Lastly, if for some reason unrelated to COVID-19, the timeline set out above cannot be met, the hospital is directed to write to the Tribunal forthwith and set out the reasons why. The Tribunal will schedule another video conference call to address any issues raised in such submissions.
These applications are adjourned sine die. All meeting and hearing dates are cancelled.
"M. David Ross"
M. David Ross, Chair