2010 pay equity audit: CNESST sends notices of decisions
April 17, 2023
Members who have maintained their individual complaints under the 2010 pay equity audit are currently receiving notices of decisions that will be handed down by the CNESST (the Québec Commission on standards, equity, and occupational health and safety) as a result of the Commission’s investigation of their complaints.
The CNESST process for complaints and investigation is not the same as the process for a grievance that goes to arbitration, which you may be familiar with. When a complaint is made to the CNESST, neither party makes its case in the presence of the other party. Instead, each party submits its arguments to the Commission, and the Commission then investigates the complaint. The Commission may question the complainant, ask the employer or the union to state their version of the facts and their arguments, and widen its investigation to make sure it has all the information needed to reach a decision.
The process does not enable the parties to access all the information gathered by the Commission. For this reason, the Commission sends them a notice of decision to make sure they have the information.
Because the notice may contain information that the parties were not previously aware of, the Commission provides them with an opportunity to submit any new element which, in their view, might influence the decision.
If you believe that you have this kind of information, you should send it to the Commission before the deadline indicated in the letter accompanying the notice of decision.
Given that a settlement was reached for some union complaints associated with the 2010 pay equity audit, we cannot send the Commission any new information regarding the job titles covered by that settlement. Complaints that have not yet been settled are those for physiotherapists, assistant head physiotherapists, and clinical lecturers (physiotherapy). We are currently analyzing the decision to see what arguments we can put forward for these job titles.
Only when the deadline for new information is past, and all new information has been analyzed, will the Commission hand down a final and enforceable decision that will replace all of the notices sent so far.
The APTS Pay Equity and Salary Relativity Sector
