Substituting one discriminatory pay plan for another discriminatory pay plan is unlikely to satisfy the commission. Our research indicates there is a good chance the commission would reject the settlement currently on the table. The Canadian Human Rights Act prohibits settling a pay equity problem by lowering the salaries of those employees who did not suffer discrimination to compensate those who did. The answer is yes, as it seems to be the offer is illegal. For these reasons the union cannot agree to mixing bargaining and pay equity.
Legal concerns make it impossible for the union to put the package out for ratification.
The government should not use this badly flawed, likely illegal, pay equity offer to hold the union hostage and promote anti-union animosity. In any other Canadian jurisdiction, the recent GNWT propaganda tactics would violate basic Canadian labour law. We want to vote on a collective agreement now. Pay equity can be resolved through the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal. The two issues need to be separated and dealt with properly.