Paediatricians file injunction against FMSQ for pay inequity

Two doctors look at an x-ray. (Credit: Gustavo Fring/pexels.com)

Pay inequity persists in medical fields where women are in the majority, and to put an end to the issue, the Association des pédiatres du Québec (APQ) filed an injunction with the Superior Court on Thursday against the Fédération des médecins spécialistes du Québec (FMSQ).

The news, first reported by La Presse, was confirmed by The Canadian Press, which consulted the court documents.

The plaintiffs are the APQ and its president, Marie-Claude Roy, who has been practising paediatrics since 2008. They are asking the court to impose a series of orders to put an end to inequities in the remuneration of Quebec paediatricians.

The APQ argues that paediatricians are victims of a lack of representation within the FMSQ. It is asking the Superior Court to declare that “the FMSQ has failed in its duty of fair and equitable representation of the APQ, and that it has violated its members’ right to pay equity, all in contravention of sections 10, 16 and 17 of the Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms [...] and of the contract of association that governs the relationship between the APQ and the FMSQ.”

The APQ stresses that these labour relations principles ensure that people working in female-dominated professions “will not be affected by arbitrary differences in remuneration resulting from gender-based prejudices or historical privileges.”

Eight medical specialties are predominantly female, including geriatrics, dermatology, endocrinology, obstetrics and gynaecology, and psychiatry. These fields are paid around 30 per cent less than the eight male-dominated medical specialties.

After obstetrics and gynaecology, paediatrics is the second medical speciality with the highest proportion of women. According to FMSQ data, 129 men practise obstetrics and gynaecology, compared with 407 women. In paediatrics, the ratio is 216 men to 567 women.

It is not yet known whether other female-dominated specialties will join the APQ’s movement, but that is not the paediatricians' goal. Their first priority is to correct the pay inequity they suffer, they said. 

This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French Dec. 13, 2024.