NURSING HOMES ARE BACK UNDER THE GUN in Ontario, thanks to a multi-union legal action to force them to obey pay equity laws.

A group of 140 nursing homes in Ontario will no longer be able to slide on living up to the terms of a negotiated 2005 pay equity plan to cover the predominantly female care givers in their workforce.

Pay equity must keep pace

A recent Supreme Court of Canada ruling requires the nursing homes to continually monitor and update pay equity targets.

“The decision from the Supreme Court of Canada serves as the final straw for for-profit homes refusing to maintain pay equity,” said Jerry Dias, Unifor National President.

“I have a clear message to these employers: the court challenges end here. It's time to start paying our health care heroes the wages they deserve.”

The workers’ victory ends a five-year court battle launched by the Ontario Nurses Association and the Service Employees International Union, who each argued that the homes failed to maintain pay equity, after it was initially achieved in 2005.

Unifor, together with the Canadian Union of Public Employees, supported the Equal Pay Coalition’s intervention in the case in support of the unions.

Broad impact

“The majority of nursing home workers are not only women, but they are often immigrant women, and workers of colour. This win is a vital ruling in order to continue our fight for pay equity across these intersections,” said Naureen Rizvi, Unifor Ontario Regional Director.

Not only did the the nursing homes argue against any responsibility to maintain pay equity, they also held that they had no obligation to establish any pay equity at all. The Ontario Attorney General supported both positions.

The Supreme Court decision sets a precedent that will push even more women-dominated workplaces towards equity, by mandating that proxy pay equity is maintained through comparison to male work and wages using similar, but separate workplaces.

Workers in Ontario’s nursing homes have long raised the alarm about low pay and dangerous working conditions.

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