Client: A Medium-Sized County

Situation

A mid-sized Ontario county was not maintaining its pay equity plan. One of the county’s unions put pressure on the organization to update its plan. Without external expertise, the county began negotiations with the union to revise the current job evaluations and develop a pay equity plan. The county discovered that it would cost over $1.5 million in retroactive pay to comply with legislation. At this point, the Ontario Pay Equity Commission got involved because the union filed a complaint.

Challenge

Since we weren’t involved in the process from the beginning nor were we involved in initial negotiations with the union, it made it more difficult to go back and reevaluate the work that had been performed.

Actions

Our team went into the organization and conducted negotiations with the union and met with the Pay Equity Review Officer. We offered an alternative interpretation of the pay equity requirements for the jobs that were evaluated and negotiated an effective settlement.

Results

Although we were not involved from the beginning, our negotiation skills combined with experience dealing with review officers helped the County avoid $700,000 in retroactive pay.

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