A Pay Equity Saga: The Public Service Alliance of Canada vs. The Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat
George T. Sulzner
DOI: 10.2190/YYUV-73B4-Y017-AFHV
Abstract
This article deals with a nearly fifteen-year pay equity dispute between the Public Service Alliance of Canada (the largest union of Federal government employees) and the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat (the employer of Federal government employees). The positions of the parties were articulated and litigated in numerous official arenas during that period finally culminating on October 29, 1999 in a settlement likely to affect 230,000 current and former federal employees and involving a retroactive payout with interest, of approximately 3.6 billion dollars. As such, it was the longest lasting pay equity complaint and largest pay equity payment in history and its telling raises fundamental questions about labor relations, administrative, judicial, and political processes.
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