MONTREAL -- Unions in Quebec have just won another round in their long battle over pay equity for women workers, but not yet on the merits.
The Quebec Court of Appeal confirmed the decision rendered by the Superior Court last June regarding the challenge to the Pay Equity Act.
The case goes back to a 2018 Supreme Court of Canada decision that struck down several sections of the Pay Equity Act as violating the Charter of Rights.
The Quebec government, therefore, had to introduce legislation to comply with the Supreme Court ruling.
However, many unions quickly challenged the constitutionality of this new law, arguing that it did not respect the meaning of the Supreme Court ruling.
The various unions filed five appeals. From the outset, the Attorney General and the Ministry of Labour asked the court to reject the unions' appeals, or at least to suspend them.
The Attorney General and ministry argued that it was first up to the CNESST (Commission des normes, de l'équité, de la santé et de la sécurité du travail) to carry out its role in pay equity, and then up to the Labour Administrative Tribunal to decide any resulting dispute.
The unions claimed that Quebec was trying to buy time by dragging out the process to avoid paying out millions of dollars to workers. Pay equity complaints date back to 2010 and 2015.
Last June, the Superior Court rejected the government's Quebec. The Court of Appeal has now rejected the appeal. The case can therefore be heard on the merits unless there is another appeal.
Pay equity is intended to correct wage gaps caused by gender discrimination against people in female-dominated jobs.
-- this report by The Canadian Press was first published March 24, 2021.
