The Pay Equity Promise - The Promise and the Reality.

Pay Equity at the Greater Victoria Public Library

The Promise

The promise, made in 1992 as a part of the collective agreement between the Library and it's Employees was that Library Workers would achieve Pay Equity, and that for this purpose their jobs would be compared with equivalent jobs at Victoria City Hall.

The due date was 1994, extended by agreement to 1996.

More than a decade later, the promise is still overdue. Library workers are still paid much less than employees in equivalent jobs at Victoria City Hall.

In every other jurisdiction where Pay Equity was agreed to, the process has been completed, the funding was found, and women municipal workers throughout the lower Island now receive the same rates of pay as men doing equivalent work. Everywhere, except at the Greater Victoria Public Library that is.

That's the story in a nutshell. If you'd like to know more about what happened, keep reading...

The Pay Equity Timeline.

In the beginning...

1992

Workers at Victoria City Hall, the Library, several other municipalities and the C.R.D. take strike action to achieve Pay Equity - equal pay for work of equal value.
Pay Equity is agreed to - the strikes end.
At the Library it is agreed that "It is understood that positions in the Library which are equivalent to positions in the City of Victoria shall be compared for the purposes of Job Evaluation and Pay Equity".
That was because all the other workplaces had male dominated jobs to compare the female dominated jobs to. At the Library on the other hand, every job category had (and still has) a great majority of women employees. So there were no local male dominated jobs to compare with.
The Employers, including the Library, are to set aside 1% of their payroll for 1991-1992 to fund pay equity. They actually set aside a lower amount, on the advice of the Greater Victoria Labour Relations Association.
The promise (Pay Equity) has been made. Due date 1994.

And then...

1992 - 1996

A Pay Equity Plan is agreed to and all the municipalities begin to score all their jobs according to it.
As some jurisdictions have not yet completed their process, in the 1994/1995 agreement the delivery date is delayed by agreement to 1996.
New due date - 1996.
The Employers were to set aside 1% of their payroll for 1991-1992 and 1994-1995 to fund pay equity. Again they set aside a lower amount, including at the Library.

The due date arrives...

1996

The due date has arrived. An arbitration award supports the union position that the employers set aside much less than what they actually agreed to in 1996. But the employer doesn't have the money. The promise can't be kept.
Library workers, instead of striking for the full amount, agree to take what was set aside plus a few extra thousand dollars. It is enough to fund internal discrepancies, but not the comparability with City Hall originally agreed to.
As a result the comparability clause remains in the Library collective agreement, as it does to this day.
The promise (Pay Equity) is now overdue. But it is still a promise.

The interregnum...

1996-2000

In this period, funding is found by the municipality of Victoria to fully implement pay equity at the City. All the other locals involved in the original agreement achieve full funding and equal pay for work of equal value by 2004. But not for Library workers.
At the Library, just before a grievance on the subject goes to arbitration, arbitration is avoided when the parties agree to do a joint union/management study of the relationship of Library jobs to Victoria City jobs.
The study is published in 2000 and establishes a mutually agreed upon relationship between jobs at the Library and jobs at the City of Victoria.

Library Workers keep trying...

2000-2004

A new collective agreement provides small amounts to Library workers for funding pay equity. While the funding is small, it is at least not zero, and Library workers choose not to take job action for more. The comparability clause remains in the collective agreement.
In 2004 a two year extension to the current agreement is negotiated. The employer agrees to 1% in each added year to further fund pay equity, and the comparability clause remains in the collective agreement.
The parties have now established a bargaining relationship as regards pay equity. The employer, by the action of agreeing to continue providing funding, is effectively admitting that the pay equity promise hasn't yet been kept.

Today

2006/2007

The collective agreement expires on December 31, 2006.
Negotiations for a new collective agreement begin.
The original pay equity agreement was signed in 1992, fifteen years ago. Pay equity was scheduled to be fully implemented in 1996, eleven years ago.
Library workers have tried to achieve what was agreed to all those years ago without any job action. Why should they have to strike to achieve what they were promised in writing?
Everywhere but at the Library, pay equity has been achieved, and funding was found to implement it. Except for Library workers.
Enough delay! Library workers have a right to be paid equally for work of equal value. Will they be forced to take strike action to achieve what was already promised to them in a legal and binding contract?
Postscript

Alas, we now know the answer to the above question. We met with nothing but a total stonewall in bargaining and felt forced to take a strike vote, which came in at 90% in favour. On September seventh, 2007 our strike notice expired and we were in a position to legally strike, which we have so far done for short periods twice, and for a full day on September twenty-first.

The betrayal of Library workers has reached it's zenith.

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