On November 2nd, the Bargaining Committee made a special presentation to the VPL Board about pay equity and a new gender-neutral job evaluation system for our Local. A second presentation will happen in December when the bargaining Committee will talk to the Board about issues of particular importance to our auxiliary and part-time members.
As demonstrated through the bargaining survey results, pay equity and a gender-neutral job evaluation system still rank high among our Local’s concerns. However, it is also important to acknowledge that a few of our members have rightly indicated their concerns over how pay equity was addressed in the last round of negotiations, particularly the distribution of special wage adjustments. Rest assured that this bargaining committee is aware of these concerns and is preparing proposals that address pay equity with a strategic approach.
The full text of the presentation from November 2nd can be found by following this link but the essential elements of the presentation included the fact that there is still a significant gender gap in women’s wages in Canada and that our Local has never benefited from any kind of pay equity program or assessment. We pointed out that in other jurisdictions where pay equity is established through legislation, library workers frequently see higher wages and we want our employer to acknowledge this fact and do an evaluation of our wages. Additionally, we attempted to educate our Board on other methods of addressing the gender wage gap including the fair use of special wage adjustments, flat rate increases and removing increments in our pay scales.
In Solidarity,
Laura Safarian
Co-chair CUPE391 Bargaining Committee