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The Syndicat des fonctionnaires municipaux de Montréal (CUPE) is proud to announce that members of the joint committee completed the Pay Equity Program ahead of schedule on December 23. This move was made following an intensive work period and in accordance with the Act, which gave them until December 31, 2010.

The union feels the accomplishment is cause for celebration since close to 4,500 white-collar workers will see salary adjustments ranging from 0.53 per cent to 120.03 per cent, in an extremely exceptional case, in other words, nearly 60 per cent of job categories identified as being predominately female out of a total of some 400 different jobs.

The unique pay equity program for Montreal’s white-collar workers has been nothing short of a saga since the Act took effect back in 1997. First it was subjected to mergers then demergers, followed by the adoption of amendments to the Act, in May 2009. This may very well be the end of an important chapter, however, the pay equity programs for the twelve municipalities that demerged on January 1, 2006 have yet to be completed.

We are more than pleased with the outcome, considering this process will put a stop to wage discrimination which affected many women in our ranks,” stated Monique Côté, union president and also union representative of the joint labour committee.

It’s even more gratifying knowing that these salary adjustments will affect a great deal of jobs that have faced discrimination for years—such as pool personnel, administrative support staff, as well as finance, recreation, and public safety workers. In the end, it guarantees that our members will receive equal compensation,” continued Monique Côté who also salutes the determination and hard work of the union members on the pay equity committee, not to mention the good faith shown by the members throughout all these years.

What we have just accomplished was a Herculean task. The impressive number of job categories (nearly 800) which needed to be analyzed and the complexity stemming from the number of legal amendments, just to name a few, and the municipal merger/demerger saga suggest that we have just completed the biggest pay equity program in Quebec,” stated Lise Simard, the union representative assigned to this file.