The Pay Equity Promise

The promise was made in a letter of understanding attached to the 1991-1992 collective agreement. For those of you who really love to read legal documents, the version from the 1996 agreement is given below.

This is a copy of those parts of the 1996-2000 Collective Agreement pertaining to Pay Equity and Job Evaluation. Any errors or omissions should be resolved by referring to the original documents.

It is substantially the same as the original agreement in the 1991-2003 agreement, but extended for another two years as the committees had not yet all scored their jurisdiction's jobs when the 1994 agreement was made.

Letter of Understanding #8

BETWEEN

THE GREATER VICTORIA PUBLIC LIBRARY BOARD

(Hereinafter referred to as the "Employer")

AND

THE CANADIAN UNION OF PUBLIC EMPLOYEES, LOCAL NO. 410

(Hereinafter referred to as the "Union")

Job Evaluation and Pay Equity

  1. Each of the Employers agrees to enter into a Joint Gender Neutral Job Evaluation and Pay Equity (equal pay for work of equal value) Project with its respective Union.
  2. The parties shall jointly develop a Gender Neutral Job Evaluation Plan capable of evaluating all jobs within the jurisdiction of each Employer and its Union.
  3. Pay Equity shall include all jobs within the jurisdiction of each bargaining unit of each Employer.
  4. A mutually agreeable job evaluation/pay equity consultant shall be selected by the Employers and the Unions. All costs of the consultant shall be borne by the Employers.
  5. A Steering Committee to oversee this project shall be established and shall be comprised of one representative from each bargaining unit and one representative from each Employer.
  6. There shall be established three distinct Working Committees as set out below and such Working Committees shall, with agreement of their Employers, schedule their responsibilities according to the need of executing the plan(s).
    Committee # Location Union Employer
    Committee #1 Esquimalt 2 2
    North Saanich 1 1
    Sidney 1 1
    Oak Bay 2 2
    Committee #2 Library 2 2
    Committee #3 Capital Regional District 3 3
  7. The parties shall endeavour to achieve "gender balance" of appointees to the Working Committees.
  8. Any one (1) of the Working Committees (Union or Employer) or the consultant may request a meeting of the Steering Committee.
  9. The GVLRA and CUPE Locals 333, 374,410, and 1978 agree to develop terms of reference for the project within sixty (60) days of the ratification of the memorandums of settlement.
  10. To avoid repetition and for efficiency purposes the parties may combine some/or all Steering and Working Committee members in training.
  11. Where appropriate, common benchmark positions will be utilized. Additional benchmark positions may also be utilized within each jurisdiction.
  12. Documentation developed in the City of Victoria project may be made available to other Working Committees for their use, as they deem appropriate.
  13. When the Working Committee has completed its work, the Committee shall present its report and recommendation to the Steering Committee for review.
  14. Upon satisfactory review by the Steering Committee, the parties agree to recommend a schedule and methodology for implementation of the Joint Gender Neutral Job Evaluation and Pay Equity through their respective collective bargaining agents.
  15. Implementation of the Joint Job Evaluation and Pay Equity shall be negotiated by the parties to this agreement.
  16. Each Employer shall establish a Job Evaluation/Pay equity Adjustment Account for the funding of wage adjustments with effective date for wage adjustments
    • for the City of Victoria being January 1, 1993, and
    • for the Library, the Capital Regional District, and Esquimalt being April 1, 1993.
  17. The Job Evaluation/Pay Equity Adjustment Account shall provide funding as follows:
    • one percent (1%) of the 1991 straight time CUPE payroll, plus
    • one percent (1%) of the 1992 straight time CUPE payroll, plus
    • one percent (1%) of the 1994 straight time CUPE payroll, with an adjustment date of January 1, 1994, plus
    • one percent (1%) of the 1995 straight time CUPE payroll, with an adjustment date of January 1, 1995.
  18. It is understood that "frozen reclassification" requests (point 20 of this Letter of Understanding) which may result in up-grades shall not be paid from the Adjustment Account established in clause 16 above.
  19. 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.
  20. The Employers and the Unions agree that requests for reclassification initiated before October 1, 1991 that have been accepted pursuant to the terms of the Collective Agreements and are not satisfactorily resolved, shall be frozen and reviewed upon implementation of the Job Evaluation Plan with maintenance of any retroactivity pursuant to the terms of the Collective Agreements. The Employer agrees to process new requests for reclassification pursuant to the Collective Agreements where it is shown that a job has been significantly changed by the Employer since October 1, 1991. If increases occur as a result of pay equity and not for reasons stated in the request for reclassification, the retroactivity will be as negotiated between the parties for the job evaluation study.

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