PSAC Pay Equity Bulletin

No. 50                                                        February 4, 2002

The scoop on rumours about more pay equity cheques

There are some final pay equity cheques which are still outstanding which the PSAC understands will be issued later this year. For most members, the amount will be quite small - less than $10 in some cases, probably no more than $50 to $150 on average. A very few members may receive as much as $500 or more. These cheques represent the interest owed between April 1, 2000 and the date that the pay equity cheques (NOT the interest cheques) were actually printed. In many cases, this involved a period of only a week or so; hence the small amounts.

Thousands of members have filed Notices of Objection to the taxation of their interest payments. The PSAC has selected a test case which is being pursued in the Tax Court of Canada. As with many court proceedings, this is a lengthy process with many legal steps. It is unlikely the actual hearing in the Tax Court will take place until much later this year, at the earliest. The union will provide updates on the case as it proceeds. (More information on this issue can be found in pay equity bulletins #44 and #49).

The union strongly recommends that current and former members file a Notice of Objection, if they have not already done so, in order to be certain that their cases will be covered by the test case.

Back in March 2001, the PSAC had filed a Section 99 reference with the Public Service Staff Relations Board (PSSRB) asking the Board to declare that the pay equity adjustments were pay for all purposes for the entire retroactive period (i.e. back to March 8, 1985) and should be recalculated accordingly, except for a small number of situations covered in two specific sections of the pay equity agreement for which the payment of average entitlements was agreed upon, in the interest of getting cheques to members within a reasonable time frame. (Details on the S. 99 reference can be found in an earlier pay equity bulletin, #46.)

The case was heard in June, 2001. The PSSRB subsequently side-stepped the issue. The Board’s decision said that unless the parties could agree on the issues in dispute, they should go back to the Federal Court or to the Human Rights Tribunal.

The PSAC reviewed the PSSRB decision and has decided to appeal it to the Federal Court of Appeal. No date for the hearing has yet been set.