Financial emergency trumps pay equity.

• Author: Mitchell, Teresa
• Position: Bench press - Newfoundland (Treasury Board - Brief Article

The government of Newfoundland signed a pay equity agreement with female health care workers in 1988 but wiped out arrears under the agreement by passing the Public Sector Restraint Act in 1991 .The government argued that it faced an unprecedented fiscal crisis and could not afford to meet its pay equity obligation. The workers took the matter to court citing the equality provisions of the Charter of Rights. The Supreme Court of Canada agreed that their Charter rights were infringed but ruled that the infringement was justified. The Court wrote, "The need to address the fiscal crisis was a pressing and substantial legislative objective in the spring of 1991. The crisis was severe. The cost of putting pay equity into effect according to the original timetable was a major...