When Sandra Commerford requested for a elevate from a St. Catharines, Ont., hospital in 1998, the registered sensible nurse (RPN) was assured she had a powerful, open and shut case.
Commerford and upwards of 100 different RPNs had began administering medicine to sufferers — a brand new accountability that required months of further coaching, reworked the job and will have translated to increased wages, Commerford mentioned.
Over 1 / 4 of a century later, she’s amongst dozens of different sensible nurses who’re nonetheless ready for compensation.
“I used to be a wonderful nurse and I cherished my job,” Commerford informed CBC Hamilton.
“However it was very tough figuring out daily we had been being denied equal pay.”
At age 71 and retired, Commerford mentioned she might be owed tens of 1000’s of {dollars} in again pay from her former employer, Niagara Well being.
Her case hinges on the very fact Niagara Well being and Service Staff Worldwide Union (SEIU) Healthcare have but to achieve a pay fairness settlement, as required below Ontario regulation.
Public-sector employers like hospitals should observe the province’s Pay Fairness Act, which got here into power in 1988, to keep away from gender discrimination when setting wages for workers. Personal-sector employers with greater than 10 employees are additionally required to observe the act.
The wages of as many as 1,000 SEIU members working for Niagara Well being are seemingly impacted, together with sensible nurses, private help employees, and housekeeping, hospitality and clerical workers, mentioned RPN Christine Peacock, 60, who used to sit down on the union’s pay fairness steering committee and works for the hospital system.
Commerford, proven holding her grandson in 2004, labored as a sensible nurse at Niagara Well being for 32 years. (Submitted by Sandra Commerford)
After a pay fairness settlement is about, an employer critiques the wages of employees in jobs dominated by girls — like sensible nursing — to the wages of employees in jobs dominated by males with related {qualifications} and obligations. If the female-dominated sector earns much less, the employer is required to extend these employees’ compensation.
“The Pay Fairness Act is meant to get rid of the wage hole that exists because of the undervaluation of what’s sometimes considered ‘girls’s work,'” says the province’s interpretation of the act.
Employers are additionally required to retroactively compensate present and former employees, and could also be ordered to pay curiosity, says the pay fairness workplace’s web site.
A gender pay hole persists throughout all jobs within the nation, with girls incomes 29 per cent lower than males yearly, based on Statistics Canada.
Niagara Well being, union say they’re engaged on it
For many years, the roles of SEIU members have not been reviewed to make sure RPNs are being paid pretty — a delay the Pay Fairness Tribunal described in 2023 as “unacceptable and inexcusable,” however that also persists.
Niagara Well being informed CBC Hamilton in a press release that it acknowledges its obligations and continues to work on an settlement with SEIU.
It declined to remark additional as a result of it is an “ongoing authorized matter.”
SEIU Healthcare mentioned its dedicated to reaching an settlement to shut all gender wage gaps and described the method as “flawed.” The laws lacks enforceable timelines to carry employers accountable, mentioned the union’s assertion to CBC Hamilton.
“Regardless of systemic delays and makes an attempt to disclaim health-care employees pay fairness, our union has by no means stopped advancing the work and we cannot cease till employees get what they’re owed.”
The assertion mentioned the union expects an settlement will likely be reached within the “close to future,” however retroactive to 2009 — not 1998 when Commerford first utilized for a elevate on behalf of all RPNs, or 2000 when Niagara Well being was fashioned.
Commerford reached out to CBC Hamilton this month out of frustration after one other setback, she mentioned. The 2 sides just lately cancelled arbitration listening to dates — set over a 12 months in the past — regardless of nonetheless not having an settlement in place.
She’s involved she’ll by no means see the elevate in her lifetime.
“I’ve a daughter and I’ve a granddaughter, and I do not need them to must battle this battle,” Commerford mentioned.
“It is ridiculous. It is simply completely absurd.”
Settlement might value tens of millions
Neither the union nor the hospital system answered CBC Hamilton’s questions on what number of workers might get a elevate via a brand new pay fairness settlement or the potential complete value. Nevertheless, the SEIU mentioned in a tribunal listening to doc in 2019 that Niagara Well being wished to finances $3 million, whereas the union estimated it will value greater than $20 million.
The Ontario Nurses’ Affiliation, representing registered nurses, can be nonetheless engaged on a separate pay fairness settlement with Niagara Well being, mentioned spokesperson Meg Shannon. She mentioned the union was “not in a position to enter specifics” about how lengthy the method has taken to this point and what number of staff might be impacted.
It is to the detriment of the entire group to have this factor hold going and going, and never pay staff what their abilities demand.- Audra Bowlus, labour research professor, Western College
The Ontario Public Service Staff Union (OPSEU), representing a spread of Niagara Well being employees, didn’t reply to a request for touch upon the standing of its settlement.
Pay fairness agreements, which contain each side agreeing to sophisticated matrixes, do usually take time, mentioned Audra Bowlus, a labour research professor with Western College in London.
However Bowlus mentioned she was “shocked” by the size of delay at Niagara Well being and is not conscious of another instances which have taken that lengthy.
“It [the lengthy delay] principally says you do not have to abide by the pay fairness laws,” she mentioned.
“It is to the detriment of the entire group to have this factor hold going and going, and never pay staff what their abilities demand.”
RPN wages have not saved up: affiliation
Peacock resigned from the SEIU’s pay fairness steering committee in 2019, saying it was as a consequence of an absence of progress and she or he felt the SEIU had let her and her colleagues down.
“I believed within the course of and wished to make sure all girls had been handled equally,” mentioned Peacock.
“I really feel let down, pissed off and disillusioned that it has taken 24 years.”
Sensible nurses in Ontario started administering medicines to sufferers intravenously within the late Nineties and early 2000s. (Matt Rourke/The Related Press)
Peacock labored with Commerford on the St. Catharines hospital within the Nineties after they had been skilled on administering drugs to sufferers.
Throughout that point, the function of RPNs throughout the province “tremendously modified,” requiring extra schooling and coaching than earlier than, mentioned Dianne Martin, CEO of Registered Sensible Nurses Affiliation of Ontario.
“Issues saved getting added however the accountability of giving medicines was very giant,” mentioned Martin, a former RPN herself.
Their pay, nevertheless, did not sustain, Martin mentioned.
Commerford and Peacock mentioned they had been by no means supplied a elevate, so Commerford made the request herself.
In response, the hospital and union signed an settlement in 1999 that acknowledged the job duties of sensible nurses had modified and their pay would should be reviewed — however after amalgamation.
Commerford offered a duplicate of the settlement to CBC Hamilton.
The 2 sides promised they’d resolve on a brand new pay fairness settlement, which might decide how a lot sensible nurses must be paid. Within the meantime, they got a elevate of $1 per hour.
Delay ‘not in spirit of the act,’ tribunal says
Commerford carried on along with her profession and raised two youngsters as a single guardian. However by 2018, she mentioned, her endurance wore out and she or he filed a criticism with the Ontario Pay Fairness Hearings Tribunal, which decides pay fairness disputes.
She argued SEIU and Niagara Well being had violated the act by not shifting with urgency to resolve pay “discrimination.”
SEIU backed Commerford’s place that her criticism be heard by the tribunal, however argued it wasn’t related as a result of they had been on monitor to achieve an settlement.
The tribunal dismissed Commerford’s software in 2023, siding with Niagara Well being that it was “untimely” as a result of a pay fairness settlement wasn’t but in place and due to this fact there was nothing to dispute.
Nevertheless, the tribunal was vital of the delay, outlining years of critiques and hearings for ever and ever.
As of January 2023, over 500 out of 1,050 “rankings” had been nonetheless in dispute, the tribunal famous. Rankings are the best degree of compensation for a job class, based on the pay fairness workplace.
“It shouldn’t be the case … that staff in feminine job courses must be involved that it’ll finally be their estates that may obtain any pay fairness changes,” the tribunal determination mentioned.
“The delay on this case is solely not compliant with the spirit or intent of the act.”
