As the deadline to submit pay equity plans for most federally regulated employers approaches, more organizations continue to bring applications to the Commissioner of Pay Equity to deviate from those requirements.
The latest decision, Sogetel Inc. (Re), 2024 PEC 3, confirms what pay equity commissioner Lori Straznicky has already indicated with earlier decisions: the commission is going to hold employers, even some of the country’s largest organisations, to close interpretations of the Pay Equity Act.
“The legislators were undoubtedly alive to the challenges of creating one pay equity plan in large organizations. Yet, that is what is required by the legislation. Any exception to this requirement must be carefully applied… Establishing multiple plans is an exception to the rule under the act that an employer must create a single pay equity plan for its entire workforce,” wrote Straznicky in her decision.
