Client: Major Ontario Health Care Organization

Situation

Over a four-year period, a major health care organization tried unsuccessfully to develop a pay equity plan that complied with Ontario’s Pay Equity legislation. The new CEO wanted to establish a job evaluation system that created total internal equity. It needed to be acceptable to three bargaining units as well as employees, management, and the Board.

Challenge

The three union groups had competing interests. To ensure the project’s success, the unionized and non-unionized employee groups needed to be brought together to form a joint job evaluation process. This had never been done before in any organization.

Actions

Working with all parties – management, unions and non-unionized employees, our team facilitated the structure of the steering committee and the job evaluation committee through the development of the terms of reference. Through regular meetings, we guided the steering committee to come-up with recommended job evaluation factors to meet the needs of the organization. We developed a customized job evaluation tool to reflect the value of diverse jobs and responsibilities in the sector. We trained the job evaluation committee and facilitated the evaluation of all jobs.

Results

By balancing the specific needs of management and the unions, we were able to facilitate and produce a result that all parties agreed on. The organization is now compliant with the Pay Equity Act and has a process to maintain the pay structure for non-union groups and a basis to negotiate future collective agreements. In the process, we helped forge better relations and communication among all employee groups.

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