The federal Treasury Board will have three more years to develop a pay equity plan for central government employees.
The Pay Equity Commissioner has indeed granted him this extension, at his request. He will therefore have until August 31, 2027 to do so.
In a statement released Tuesday, the Treasury Board said developing pay equity plans is “a complex undertaking” that requires reaching consensus at every stage of the process with representatives of the workers concerned.
“For the country’s largest employer and service provider, implementing pay equity for more than 270,000 APC civil servants [administration publique centrale]including 21,000 RCMP members [Gendarmerie royale du Canada]constitutes an exceptional and unprecedented effort to tackle the wage gap,” says the Treasury Board Secretariat.
At the beginning of July, the Pay Equity Commissioner also granted an 18-month extension to the Treasury Board to develop its pay equity plan for regular and civilian members of the RCMP. It will therefore have until February 28, 2026 to do so.
The Treasury Board assures that this is not a strategy to gain time, save on potential amounts to be paid or evade its responsibilities.
“The government is determined to support the Pay Equity Act and the Pay Equity Regulations which came into effect in 2021. Consequently, civil servants who could be entitled to an increase in their remuneration under the latest pay equity plans will receive this increase, as well as interest on this amount, retroactive to the initial deadline of September 4, 2024,” he is careful to point out.
At the federal level, the Pay Equity Act provides that equity plans must be developed within three years of the law coming into force, i.e. August 31, 2021. However, employers can request an extension if they feel they need more time to complete everything.
The process behind pay equity involves comparing the pay of each predominantly female job class to the pay of predominantly male job classes. The goal is to ensure that predominantly female job classes receive equal pay for work of equal or comparable value.