re

rt a phe so

Te en 1 a! phiag ¥ie Bk p ae thet

CANADA

Ont. Liberals restrict equal pay to dampen corporate protests

By KERRY McCUAIG

The Ontario Liberals are expected to introduce new legislation in the coming month which will add an extra $70-mil- lion to the government payroll to help close the male-female wage gap.

The bill, to be introduced by labor minister Bill Wrye, covers the 68,000 members of the Ontario Civil Service and is intended to be a first step to im- plementing full equal pay for work of equal value for the province’s almost two million working women.

According to the Liberal-New Demo- cratic Party Accord which permitted Premier David Peterson to form the government, equal pay legislation for

. both the public and private sector was to

have been tabled in the first session of the legislature. Peterson’s throne speech last July

Skirted the Accord and called for a

**staged approach’’, initiating pay equity first in the public then in the private sec- tor. A Green (discussion) Paper was an- nounced along with hearings which are

’ scheduled to commence next month.

Premier Back-tracks

The resulting criticism was swift, the Equal Pay Coalition embarrassed the premier by releasing a series of his statements made while in opposition and

__during the election campaign when he

argued equal pay had been studied suf- ficiently and the time had come for action.

The coalition charged the Liberals with buckling under to the business community which has fiercely fought the concept. The Canadian Federation of Independent Business and the Canadian Manufacturers Association alleged that pay equity would hurt the province’s “investment climate’’ and ‘‘competitive edge’’. The wage gap, they said, is not due to discrimination but because women choose to work in low-paying

The coalition counters that the only reason “‘women’s jobs’ are so badly paid is because women do them.

While welcoming the extra $70-million for its members, the Ontario Public Ser-

Women’s groups reject ‘stay home’ calls

vice Employees Union says the gov- ernment is about $30-million short of seriously closing up the wage gap.

It also queried why the legislation was taking such a narrow definition of the public sector, restricting it only to the civil service. When the Public Sector Re- straint Act was passed in 1983, all pro- vincial and municipal workers had their wages restricted.,

The Canadian Union of Public Employees, also called for a broader interpretation of ‘“‘public sector’’. Now in negotiations with 62 hospitals, it has asked for an extra $18-million to assist the hospitals in raising the wages of its large female workforce. The health ministry refused.

Both the coalition and the Ontario: Federation of Labor have called for one bill to cover both the private and public sector immediately. Private sector work- ers, they demonstrate are most in need of protection. Public sector workers are more highly unionized and whereas the average wage gap in the province is 38 per cent, it is 22 per cent in the public sector and 50 per cent in private industry.

Coalition sources are also concerned that the two-tiered approach could be an attempt to split private and public sector workers on the issue. There is a chance the public sector could be “‘neutralized”’ by being offered better legislation.

Handbook for Subversion

Although not publicly condemning the Green Paper, coalition members have privately called it ‘‘an employers’ handbook for subversion’.

‘It is obvious the government is out for window dressing on this issue’’, one long standing member commented. “‘It is going to take a fight to make sure we don’t get stuck with a paper tiger’.

A paper tiger may well be what the Liberals have in mind for pay equity. It hired the Nesbitt Consulting Firm and in an effort to woo the corporate sector, invited chief executives to sit on an ad- visory body to work out an implementa- tion system.

The Peterson strategy appears to be to get business to back away from its vocal

WHAT DO YOU WANT. TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP 7 GIRLS CAN BE ANYTHING THEY WANT TO BE K

THESE DANS..

BRAIN SURGEON. ..COLLEGE PROFESSOR: ... PRESIDENT... YOU SHOULD DREAM THE IMPOSSIBLE ~ DRE x fis

HOW ABOUT PAID EQUALLY 7

YOu'VE GOTTA BE REALISTIC...

Era AULAAE FOmr WORT Qumt -TELEGRam WEA. 70

condemnation of equal pay in return for enough loopholes to make the legislation virtually ineffective.

Crucial here is the number of employees ina firm to have it covered by the legislation. Key ministers, including the premier, have stated it should apply to only large companies. The Green Paper suggests 500 employees. However even if only 20 workers was the cut off, one-third of the female workforce in the private sector would be excluded.

Other areas of concern include what the legislation will consider a ‘‘job ghet- to’’. The paper suggests a sliding scale

- corresponding to the size of the firm. One

figure advanced is that there would have to be at least 70 per cent women in a job in order for a comparison to be made.

It is worth noting that all of the federal complaints that have succeeded have not met the 70 per cent requirement. Even the Green Paper remarks that this figure would exclude most hospital and other institutional workers.

The paper also hints that the legislation may not apply to jobs which are done almost exclusively by women, such as primarily school teachers, day care

workers, nurses etc., because comp able male occupations could not found. vi The paper then lists a number of ‘a, lowable exemptions’, including mep pay, regional pay differences, lab

shortages and technological change. Q; the exemptions listed the coalition co tends that only ‘‘seniority”’ is valid ‘*

long as it is not used in a discriminatoy manner’.

Only a Step

Equal pay for work of equal value been on the agenda since 1919 whe was included as one of the founding p ciples of the League of Nations. O considered a cure-all for womer economic woes, the 10 year fight by t coalition has led it to the conclusion th equal pay “‘is not a panacea and is onh one, albeit a major step, in achievin economic equality for women.”

In its response to the Green Pape called on government to act quickl address wage discrimination thro mandatory affirmative action, better care, and retraining opportunities higher minimum wage and easier ac to unionization.

By ANNE McGRATH

would invite Mr. Diachuk to ente

EDMONTON — The dis- covery of Brenda McClenaghan’s body on January 22 followed a two-week search for the young Edmonton woman who disap- peared after leaving a southside bar to drive to her parents’ home. Brenda, who would have been 21 the day after her body was dis- covered, was a hairdressing stu- dent at the Northern Alberta In- stitute of Technology (NAIT).

Her disappearance from the parking lot of the Pink Panther Lounge on January 12 sparked a major search by Edmonton police, the RCMP and citizens.

An atmosphere of hysteria was cultivated by the appearance of several media articles per day re- minding women of the con- sequences of assuming that they

8 e PACIFIC TRIBUNE, FEBRUARY 12, 1986

Rape/murder raises media hysteria

are free to walk at night unpro- tected. The local police and media circulated dire warnings about the dangers of women walking alone at night and urged caution.

Brenda’s partially clad body, tied to a tree by an orange ex- tension cord was found on an acreage in southeast Edmonton The incident has shocked and angered the women’s community here. A candlelight vigil, or- ganized by the Alberta Status of Women Action Committee (AS- WAC) and the Sexual Assault Centre of Edmonton mourned the loss of the woman and expressed outrage against a society that terrorizes women.

Lisa Walter, an ASWAC board

“movement felt,

the women’s ‘‘compelled to speak out at the brutal ways of one man who abducted, tortured and took the life of one woman. We also speak out now at these same brutal ways that this man has affected other women’s lives — rape is never a single event.”’

A poem read by Sheryl Acker- man, a local school teacher and ASWAC member, included a litany of women’s names who have been abducted and mur- dered in Edmonton over the last few years.

member said

A report in the Edmonton .

Journal stated that Brenda had everything going for her, ‘*But she made one fatal mistake. She

decided to walk to her car alone after a few drinks ... She never made it home.”’

Women’s groups spoke out against the archaic attitude typi- fied by the article which. implies the victim shares the blame with her attacker or that women should take the responsibility for their own protection by staying off the streets.

Tory politicians have also come under fire for their comments on the case. Alberta health minis- ter Bill Diachuk suggested women should learn from Brenda McClenaghan’s murder not to go out alone at night. ASWAC office

manager Amanda Le Rougetel - was angered by his statements. *‘I

the 20th century, in which mos people believe that all peo have the right to walk on streets.

“*Tf Diachuk thinks we are s ‘staying at home, I invite him t any of the shelters in Edmontoi and Alberta that help women wh have been physically and sexu abused by their husbands or friends.”

According to the Sexual Ai sault Centre in Edmonton S50 pe cent of sexual assaults take p during the day, many in wom homes. Jane Karstaedt, dire of the Sexual Assault Centre, sai that the solution is to, ‘‘strive fot society where women are not di prived of the right to walk on 1 th streets and to be safe in EEXORR