Pay Equity Commission

We are pleased to welcome Barbara Duckitt as Director of the Pay Equity Office (PEO). Barbara is the successor to Beverly Rosser, who led the PEO for seven years and was one of the recipients of a team GEM (Going the Extra Mile) award in 2006 for the Commission's e-learning initiative.

Qualified as a lawyer in Ontario, England and Wales, Barbara joins the Pay Equity Office from the Employment and Labour Policy Branch of the Ministry of Labour (MOL) where as Manager of Broader Public Sector Labour Relations, she worked on issues that included pay equity. In that capacity, Barbara was the MOL management lead on a number of challenging and high profile government initiatives including the elimination of mandatory retirement, amendments to the Labour Relations Act, 1995, the restoration of successor rights to OPS employees and issues relating to the Pay Equity Act. Prior to this, Barbara worked as a policy advisor in the Workplace Safety and Insurance Policy Branch.

Before joining the Ontario Public Service, Barbara held management positions in legal publishing, municipal government, and a poverty law clinic specializing in employment law, including pay equity and race and sex discrimination complaints. She began her career in legal practice with an emphasis on art law, before moving on to a general civil practice and, ultimately, the non-profit and government sectors.

The Pay Equity Office has issued a newsletter containing information about its office operations. Read about:

A New Intake Process for All Applications, where "All applications are now being processed through an Intake Committee, which will allow the Office to have better ..."

An Update for bargaining agents and employers, where "In cases where there is a claim that there is a change in circumstance which renders the existing pay equity plan inappropriate for the bargaining unit and/or; ..."

On Agreements, where "In general, there is no requirement in the Pay Equity Act for parties in a unionized environment to have a Maintenance Agreement. While such an agreement is beneficial..."

Read the newsletter >

The Pay Equity Office is mandated to administer the Act and as part of its mandate, randomly monitors the preparation and implementation of pay equity plans.

In 2008, the PEO will be monitoring the retail and hotel/motel sectors in the Peel Region for compliance with the Pay Equity Act.

The Pay Equity office has a number of resources available on their website for employers and employees to assist them in delivering their obligation and rights under the Act, including a self-audit tool: "Compliance Self-Audit / Checklist and Responses (Private Sector)". The office has also scheduled educational seminars in the Hamilton area. You may also want to access the self learning modules that allow employers to develop a pay equity process for their workplace.

Welcome to the launch of the Pay Equity Office's newest educational program.

E-LEARN

what you want
when you want

We're launching our newest model of information delivery - online e-learning. This first series of training modules is targeted to small private sector employers. This set contains 15 training modules and a build-your-own interactive job comparison tool.

These 15 interactive modules are accessible from the Commission's website, within the e-learning section. Links to downloads, tools and resources are also available here.

The 15 modules contain topics that range from helping employers determine if they are covered by the Act or not, and explaining the concept and application of gender neutrality and pay equity. Each of the modules contains links to worksheets, notes and publications as well as to resources on the site. Our trainers also deliver tips and instructions, either from the presenter pane in the modules, or as standalone demonstrations.

Full day seminars

The Pay Equity Office offers free seminars to help you understand the pay equity process. Our full day seminars are held in Toronto only. To register, view the seminar schedule for more information.

Overviews

We also offer offer overview sessions on achieving and maintaining pay equity as well as info sessions on job evaluation. These overviews are delivered via teleconferencing, thereby helping our clients who cannot travel or who have specific questions or issues they would prefer to discuss in a shorter session. Check available dates on the seminar schedule page.

Speakers on demand

We have speakers who can address your group or present at your conference. Please contact us if you would like a member of the Pay Equity Office to speak at your function.

Our reorganized library

Not only have we reorganized our library to reflect the groups that access specific information, most notably employees, employers, bargaining agents and other professionals, but we've also added these eight new titles this month:

Multilingual info

The publication "Pay Equity: An Overview for Employees" is now available in 21 languages. These publications are available in PDF format: however, we are currently working to make these documents more accessible online. Visit the multilingual info page for more information.

Keep up to date on pay equity

Add your e-mail address to our web update e-list to be notified when we upload new publications or prepare a new seminar schedule.

Welcome to our new Director!

Information update: Office procedures regarding applications

Monitoring program