Pay Equity and Salary
Relativity
APTS
LOGOTYPE
BLEU-PANTONE 287
NEWSLETTER
Issue 5 / December 2016
I
am pleased to present our latest Pay
Equity and Salary Relativity Newsletter in
its new format. If your job title is under
review, the adjoining index of job titles
will point you to the latest developments outlined in this newsletter.
In this issue, we want to share with you
our aspirations for the discussions we’re
engaged in with the Treasury Board on pay
equity audits, and the arguments we’ve
been putting forward to counter the
employer’s resistance. For the past 20
years, the APTS has been on the front line
in the battle for pay equity in the public
health and social services system. We’ve
invested a lot of time and energy and our
efforts have paid off, garnering considerable gains for our members and unique
expertise for the APTS. I would like to
highlight the remarkable work of the
current team working full-time on these
issues – Jonathan Fortin and Marie-Josée
Leroux – and the generous contribution of
all the members we’ve consulted. Without
their input and clarifications on the
particularities of their work, we wouldn’t
have succeeded in making the gains that
are a source of pride to us today, and that
fuel our hopes of making further advances.
We’re nonetheless aware of the major challenges that still have to be addressed
before the Pay Equity Act is fully satisfactory to all our groups.
You’ll also find news on the evaluation of
“gender-neutral” job classes (i.e., not
predominantly male or female) and ones
that are predominantly male; the new
salary structure that will come into force in
April 2019; the implications of the settlement in medical imaging and radiation
oncology; and the follow-up to arbitration
in the case of biomedical engineering
technical co-ordinators.
In keeping with your expectations, we
plan to build on this work and create six
info-sheets on jobs that feature specific
issues. These info-sheets will be circulated
in January 2017 and will focus on the
following jobs: lawyer, community organizer, dietitian/nutritionist, physiotherapist,
audiologist or speech-language pathologist, and psychologist.
Martine Robert
1st Vice President responsible for the bargaining
and pay equity sector
Index of job titles
Hearing impairment training officer
Behaviour modification agent Assistant head of archives / Medical records archivist (team leader) Assistant chief physiotherapist / Assistant head physiotherapist
Assistant chief medical electro-physiology technician
Assistant chief medical technologist / Assistant chief
graduate medical laboratory technician Assistant chief radiology technologist
Pathology assistant Lawyer Bacteriologist Biochemist Clinical lecturer (physiotherapy) Work adaptability counsellor
Ethics advisor* Genetics counsellor Professional guidance counsellor or Counsellor in supportive relations
Health promotion counsellor
Technical co-ordinator (radiology) Technical co-ordinator (medical electro-physiology)
Biomedical engineering technical co-ordinator
Criminologist
Dietitian / Nutritionist
Physical educator / Kinesiologist
Dental hygienist Occupational hygienist Biomedical engineer
Clinical instructor (radiology) Spiritual care worker Dispensing optician* Community organizer Speech-language pathologist or audiologist
Orthoptist
Physiotherapist
Psycho-educator
Recreologist
Case reviewer* Clinical specialist in laboratory medicine
Rehabilitation specialist for the visually impaired
Specialist in biological and physical sciences in health
Dental technician* Clinical cytogenetics technician* Electrodynamics technician
Medical electro-physiology technician Biomedical engineering technician
Hemodynamics technologist Horticulture technician Occupational hygiene technician
Orthotics-prosthetics technician Safety technician Animal health technician Certified** ultrasound technologist
Specialized radiology technologist
Specialized radiation oncology technologist
Social worker
All job titles for Class 4 personnel A, H, I
A, H, I
A
A
A
E
D
H, J
H, I
H, J
H, J
A
H, J
A
A
A, H, I
A
D
A
A, F,
A, H, I
A
A, H, J
A
H, J
A, H, J
D
H, J
A
A, H, I
A
A
A
A
A, H, I
A
A
A
A, H, I
A
A
H, J
A
H, J
H, J
A, H, I
H, J
A, H, I
H, J
A
D
D
D
A
B, C, K
* Job title created by the MSSS in 2008, which was the subject of an agreement on its valuation under the terms
of Article 36 of the APTS collective agreement in 2013-2014
* * Translator’s note: this preliminary APTS translation of the job title Technologue spécialisé en échographie pratique autonome refers to certification of competence to perform the work autonomously.
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Application of
the Pay Equity Act
A 2010 pay equity audit
The conciliation process is still on-going
for complaints filed by the APTS in 2011
contesting the results of the government’s
pay equity audit. We maintain that the
Treasury Board did not accurately evaluate the changes that occurred between
2001 and 2010 in various job classes. The
complaint conciliation process is overseen
by the Pay Equity Commission, which is
now part of the Commission des normes,
de l’équité, de la santé et de la sécurité du
travail (CNESST). The rumour that the
unions have withdrawn their complaints
contesting the 2010 pay equity audit is
false. What is true, however, is that in the
spring of 2016, the Treasury Board refused
to pursue talks with the unions until all had
signed their respective collective agreements. Once the collective agreements
were signed, the Commission’s conciliation
department renewed the process, and
meetings have been held.
The APTS still hopes to arrive at a
settlement. As soon as the results of the
2010 pay equity audit were posted by the
Treasury Board, we worked with APTS
members to develop our arguments, listing
the changes that had
occurred in members’ work
and demonstrating the
impact of those changes on
the evaluation ratings. As
the union representing the
most members of Class 4
personnel, the APTS sent
its arguments to the other
labour organizations that
also filed complaints. Most
of our arguments served as
the basis for the final union
arguments that were presented to the employer side
and to conciliators from the
CNESST, as well as for the
many representations made subsequently.
On December 12, we held an inter-union
conciliation session to take stock of the
situation with the conciliators from the
Commission (CNESST). We firmly restated
our wish to have a prompt response from
the employer side. In the following weeks,
the Commission did everything it could to
pressure the employer to give a response
before the year ended. Unfortunately the
Treasury Board was not able to see us before January. At that point, we’ll assess the
answers we get at that meeting.
If the situation doesn’t change, the APTS
will have no choice but to consider other
avenues to settle this key issue for our
members.
b Contesting Bill 25:
three’s the charm?
On October 12, the court of appeal once
again sided with the unions and reiterated
that the changes made to the Pay Equity Act
in 2009, which eliminated any possibility
of retroactive application or review for a
five-year period, were unconstitutional and
invalid. The APTS was one of the first unions
to contest these changes and is particularly
proud of this ruling. In confirming that wage
discrimination against women cannot be
tolerated, it constitutes a major victory for all
working women in Québec.
At a recent event to mark the 20-year anniversary of the Pay Equity Act, APTS president
Carolle Dubé took advantage of this meeting
with the Labour Minister to urge her not to
initiate a third round of legal challenges.
Against all logic, the government instead
decided to appeal the ruling. As the Supreme
Court of Canada will be involved this time,
the government is required to ask permission
to submit its legal challenge. To arrive at its
decision, the Supreme Court will take certain
criteria into account (such as the national
interest).
And now? We have to wait to see if the
Supreme Court of Canada agrees to hear
the government, which could take several
months. In the meantime, the Court of
Appeal’s ruling is suspended and doesn’t yet
apply.
If the Supreme Court agrees to hear the
government’s request for appeal, it could take
a few years before we have a final decision.
If the court denies the government’s request,
the Court of Appeal’s ruling is final and
enforceable, and the government will have to
rewrite some of the sections of the Pay Equity
Act to bring them in line with the ruling.
We may be called before the Supreme
Court of Canada to once again present our
position that women’s right to pay equity
must be continuously respected. Hopefully
we’ll obtain a favourable ruling − once and
for all.
c 2015 pay equity audit
It may seem strange to bring up the 2015
pay equity audit when the 2010 audit still
hasn’t been settled six years after we
1 The
only other union complainants were the
FIQ and the FTQ.
PAY EQU I TY AN D S AL AR Y R E L ATI VI TY N E WSLE TTE R | I ssue 5 / D ecem ber 20 16 3
filed our complaints. We don’t expect the
Commission (CNESST) to address these
complaints until the conciliation process
for the 2010 complaints has been completed. But given our conviction that the
Treasury Board failed to properly evaluate
the changes that occurred in our members’ jobs between 2011 and 2015, after
the results of the 2015 audit were posted
by the Treasury Board we filed a general
complaint in May 2016 that covers all the
job classes we represent.
We think, in fact, that major changes
(such as Bill 21) occurred in Class 4 jobs
during this period, and we want to make
sure that the evaluation properly reflects
these changes, in accordance with the
Pay Equity Act. To document this, we first
circulated a questionnaire in 2015, so that
you could inform us about the changes
you’ve experienced in your work during the
reference period. We also did various types
of verifications and set up four working
committees. Meetings were held last fall
and the fact-checking work continued in
early 2017. All the information we collected
will be analysed to determine whether the
changes are significant enough to alter the
evaluation of certain job classes. If they are,
we’ll have in hand the necessary arguments
to present our case before the CNESST. .
20th anniversary of the Pay Equity Act
As 1st Vice President responsible
for bargaining and pay equity on
the APTS executive committee,
Martine Robert was one of the
signatories who pledged on-going
action to obtain due recognition
of the value of women’s work in
Québec society.
At the event celebrating the 20th anniversary of
the Pay Equity Act, members of the APTS team
who‘ve been pushing this issue forward since
the very beginning joined Louise Harel,
the minister responsible at the time.
APTS expertise in pay equity, past and present… From left to right:
Martine Robert, Luce Leblanc, Jonathan Fortin, Carolle Dubé,
Marie-Claude Raynault and Marie-Josée Leroux.
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d Follow-up to the settlement in medical imaging
and radiation oncology
The agreement reached between the APTS
and the Treasury Board in early March
2016, which was incorporated in our
2016-2020 collective agreement (in Letter
of Agreement No. 33), will have major
repercussions by raising the salary scales
of more than 2,000 Québec technologists
on April 2, 2018. This agreement is the
fruit of a number of years’ work, members’
mobilization and action, and our determination to have a large number of specialties
recognized as having “value added.”
The settlement stipulates:
1- raising the salary ranking:
- from ranking 16 to 17 for job title #2212,
specialized radiology technician, which
will be revised to include the following
specialities:
•angiography
•sonography
•hemodynamics
•magnetic resonance imaging
•double contrast barium enema
•mammography
•CT scan
- from ranking 17 to 18 for job titles #2213,
technical co-ordinator, and #2214, clinical
instructor
- from ranking 18 to 19 for job title #2219,
assistant chief (radiology technologist)
2- the creation of two job titles:
- specialized radiation oncology technologist in ranking 17, which will include the
following specialties:
•blocks and accessories
•brachytherapy (or Curietherapy)
•dosimetry
•simulation and planning
- certified* ultrasound technologist in
ranking 18 (*Translator’s note: this
preliminary APTS translation of Technologue spécialisé en échographie en pratique
autonome refers to certification of competence to perform the work autonomously)
Discussions are currently underway
between APTS representatives and the
employer side (i.e., the Treasury Board and
the MSSS) to finalize the evaluation work
as stipulated in Letter of Agreement No.
33 (Regarding rankings of the job titles
of specialized radiology technologist and
other categories in radiology).
Other work will be conducted in 2017 to:
- create a job description for the new job
titles (specialized radiation oncology
technologist and certified ultrasound
technologist);
- revise the job description of specialized
radiology technologist and other existing
job titles, if applicable.
The APTS obtained a commitment from
the employer side to conduct this work
jointly as well, in order to be able to set up
the new job structure that will ensue. This
operation will be supervised by the team of
APTS labour relations counsellors. .
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Application of article 36
of the collective agreement
e Unilateral changes
made to the List of job
titles by the MSSS
The MSSS is required to consult union
organizations when it modifies the List of
job titles. On September 23, it sent a circular to employers in public health and social services indicating that it wanted to
abolish a number of job titles and split the
job title of assistant chief medical technologist / graduate medical laboratory
technician to remove the assistant chief
graduate medical laboratory technician
part. The intention of the MSSS is to create a new job title with the same duties
but that doesn’t require membership in
the Ordre professionnel des technologistes
médicaux du Québec (OPTMQ).
Given that the MSSS didn’t conduct
the preliminary consultations specified
in Article 36 of the collective agreement,
the APTS, like other unions, sent it a letter
calling for the employer to respect this
clause. To safeguard our members’ rights,
we filed a grievance to ensure that the collective agreement would be observed in
its entirety and that the MSSS September
bulletin would be cancelled and declared
null and void. Not all the unions deemed
it necessary to do as much. Just recently,
we took part in a meeting with representatives from the MSSS to discuss this
disagreement. We arrived at a common
understanding of the application of this
clause. Further discussions will enable us
to settle problems caused by this directive.
If you’ve seen job postings for the position of assistant chief graduate medical
laboratory technician since September,
please inform the APTS union counsellor
for your institution.
f Arbitration following
a grievance contesting
the valuation of the
job of biomedical
engineering technical
co-ordinator
It is important to note that this job title
was created by the MSSS in 2008, and the
employer side estimated the value of this
job class at ranking 17, whereas the APTS
evaluated it at ranking 18.
Only one arbitration ruling of this
type has been handed down since the
inclusion of Article 36 in the collective
agreements in 2010. It involved a case
in which the ranking of the job class of
dental technician was contested. In that
instance, the arbitrator sided with us. The
case was prepared by the APTS and our
union partners, and the APTS presented
the arguments in arbitration.
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g Committee to review
the List of job titles:
Letter of Agreement
No. 22 of the APTS
2016-2020 collective
agreement
Before the last round of negotiations, the
MSSS had invited the APTS and other
union organizations to review the requirements stipulated in the job descriptions
in the List of job titles. Work started up in
2014 but was suspended with the intensification of talks at the bargaining table.
Through those contract talks, we
were able to include a provincial interunion working committee in Letter of
Agreement No. 22 of the APTS collective
agreement. That committee will resume
work in 2017. .
h Salary
relativity
pleted in 2007, the APTS repeatedly called
on the government to begin discussions.
The Treasury Board refused to start the work
until we obtained a letter of intent in the 2010
round of negotiations, which was included in
the 2011-2015 collective agreement.
This letter of intent stipulated evaluating
gender-neutral job classes first. It was in the
next round of talks in 2015-2016 that the
salary relativity work was finally concluded,
that is, the evaluation of gender-neutral jobs
and the inclusion of predominantly male job
classes and gender-neutral job classes in the
salary structure.
Developments concerning these job
classes are found below.
All employers who respect their employees should pay the same salary for jobs of
equivalent value, regardless of whether the
jobs are in a predominantly male or female
job class. This is what it means to apply a
salary relativity plan. Given that there’s no
law making it compulsory to do so, the government has only agreed to conduct a salary
relativity exercise under on-going pressure
from the APTS.
In the health and social services and education sectors, not until April 2, 2019 will all
job classes in the government’s “enterprise”
(whether predominantly female, male or
gender-neutral) obtain remuneration based
on their value. That’s nearly 18 years after
creating the 2001 profile of jobs that helped
create the pay equity plan in 2006!
When the 2005 decree was imposed (Law
43), the employer indicated: “After completion of a pay equity plan in accordance with
the Pay Equity Act, the parties must begin
talks to agree on solutions regarding internal
pay relativities.”
As soon as the pay equity work was com-
i Valuation of
gender-neutral jobs
The APTS and the other unions that signed
the letter of intent succeeded in initiating talks
on salary relativity in 2011 with the employer
side. Discussions on the evaluation of the 33
gender-neutral job classes began in 2013.
In 2015, in the context of Common Front
negotiations, the Treasury Board and the
unions came to an agreement on the valuation of the gender-neutral jobs, except for two
job titles in Class 4 personnel:
•lawyer
•community organizer.
In the context of negotiations, no agreement was reached on five job classes in
health and social services and education. As
stipulated in the Letter of Agreement No. 29
of the 2016-2020 APTS collective agreement,
regarding the implementation of salary relativity on April 2, 2019, these job classes will
be discussed by the joint working committee.
2 To
find out the salary rate for gender-neutral
job classes when integrated in the new salary
structure on April 2, 2019, consult the salary
projection tool available on the APTS website:
www.aptsq.com/fr/relativites-salariales-2019.aspx
The APTS will take part in this work and
continue to demonstrate the proper valuation
of these job classes.
j Integration of
predominantly male job
classes in the new salary
structure
The question of predominantly male job
classes is different, as they have had
their value determined since 2001, unlike
gender-neutral job classes, which were evaluated only in 2015. In fact, about 140 predominantly male job classes were evaluated
when the pay equity plan for the parapublic
sector was implemented, and served as comparators in determining discriminatory wage
gaps vis-à-vis female jobs.
All that’s needed in order for these job
classes to receive the salary commensurate
with their value is the employer’s commitment to grant the same salary for all such
jobs. Unfortunately, the employer has not
been heading in that direction.
In the 2010 negotiations, the APTS was
the only union organization that demanded
a temporary salary scale for certain predominantly male job classes situated below
the salary curve. The employer side refused
to agree to such a measure. With persistent
effort, the APTS nonetheless managed to
pull off a major gain: an “attraction/retention premium” for the job titles of biomedical engineering technician and occupational hygiene technician.
k New salary structure
In discussions on a new salary
structure, the Common Front achieved
its objectives of:
•resolving the many problems associ-
PAY EQU I TY AN D S AL AR Y R E L ATI VI TY N E WSLE TTE R | I ssue 5 / D ecem ber 20 16 7
ated with inconsistencies in the salary
scales;
•ensuring that the Pay Equity Act is observed and that the value of all jobs is
protected;
•reducing pay discrepancies in the public sector;
•refusing any downward pay adjustments that would lower salaries.
In addition, the Common Front succeeded in obtaining:
•an injection of 2.5% of the total payroll
on April 2, 2019, in addition to the statutory general pay raises agreed to from
2016 to 2018 inclusively;
•the principle of establishing a form of
advancement on the scale that narrows
the gap between echelons, thereby
bringing the entry-level salary closer
to the top salary, which has positive
effects on overall career earnings and
on attracting and retaining personnel;
•preserving the status quo in the
collective agreements for clauses on
“red-circled” employees (off the rates
or off the scale).
The team in charge of pay equity and salary relativity issues at the APTS: Marie-Josée Leroux,
Martine Robert and Jonathan Fortin.
Professionals and technicians in health and social services who are represented by the
APTS can draw on the expertise of a union devoted entirely to Class 4 personnel to
defend their rights. This is a major advantage in obtaining due recognition of the value
of jobs in their job class.
The issues we address, as you can see from this newsletter, are instrumental in
leveraging fair recognition of the value of your jobs from the government.
This is what we’ve always defended and will steadfastly continue to defend. Your input
and support are at the heart of all our accomplishments. .
The new salary structure for the health and
social services sector and the education
sector will come into force on April 2, 2019.
From then on, it will contain only one scale
per ranking. All job classes, whether predominantly male or female or gender-neutral, will be integrated into the pay ranking
obtained on that date.
3 To
find out the salary rate for your job title
when integrated in the new salary structure on
April 2, 2019, consult the salary projection tool
available on the APTS website:
www.aptsq.com/fr/relativites-salariales-2019.aspx
8 PAY EQ UITY A ND S AL AR Y REL AT IV IT Y N EWSL ET T ER | Is s u e 5 / Dec em ber 2 0 1 6
“We pledge to pursue our
actions to promote fair
recognition of the value of
women’s work in Québec
society and ensure that pay
equity continues to be a
fundamental component of
equality between women
and men.”