Employers Under Federal Jurisdiction: Are You Ready for the New Pay Equity Requirements?

If you run a private business under federal jurisdiction and have 10 or more employees, your business will now be governed by the Pay Equity Act (the “Act”) which came into force on August 31, 2021, and by the Pay Equity Regulations (the “Regulations”).

Employers with 10 or more employees on the date the Act came into force must prepare a pay equity plan within three years according to these new provisions.

Notice by November 1^st, 2021

In addition, by November 1^st, 2021, these employers must post a notice stating, among other things, that they are required to implement a pay equity plan. Section 7(1) of the Regulation requires the employer to post such a notice “within 60 days after the day on which it becomes subject to the Act”.

However, should the employer also be required to set up a pay equity committee under the Act or should it voluntarily decide to set up such a committee under the Act, then the notice must state that the employer has a duty to do everything it reasonably can to form the pay equity committee. The notice must also outline the rules governing the membership of the committee, inform non-unionized employees that they can appoint members to represent them on the committee or, for unionized employees, that bargaining agents will select the members to represent them on the committee. See section 14 of the Act for further details.

More specifically, those who must set up a pay equity committee are employers with at least 100 employees, or with between 10 and 99 employees where all or some of those employees are unionized.

As per the Regulation’s requirements, the notice must state the date of posting and may be in either printed or electronic format, so it is available to all affected employees. If printed, it must be posted in a conspicuous place. For electronic notices, employees must be provided with the necessary information to access the notice.

The notice must be kept up until the final version of the pay equity plan is posted, until a new notice is required in the event that the employer is part of a group of employers or until the employer needs to prepare more than one pay equity plan, as the case may be.

These are just a few of the new obligations under the Act and the Regulation. Feel free to contact our labour law professionals to discuss your new obligations.