[LabComm] PRESS RELEASE: Sept. 4 re: CUPE hails Supreme Court decision on equal pay for women emergency dispatchers

[Harprit Khaira]

CUPE Communique

September 4, 2003

CUPE hails Supreme Court decision on equal pay for women emergency
dispatchers

BURNABY – It took 13 years but women emergency dispatchers may finally get
paid the same as their male counterparts based on a Supreme Court of British
Columbia decision released today.

The decision quashes an earlier ruling by the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal
that allowed the City of Vancouver to pay women police dispatchers, once
called communications operators, far less than male fire dispatchers.

The city had argued that the women worked for the Vancouver Police Board.
The tribunal agreed. This meant the city could continue to pay women
dispatchers an average $22,000 to $33,000 a year less than the male fire
dispatchers. Under the B.C. Human Rights Code you cannot compare wages paid
by two separate employers.

The Canadian Union of Public Employees appealed the decision through a
judicial review process. The Supreme Court agreed with the union’s
arguments. The court will send it back to the Human Rights Tribunal. It will
have to reconsider the issue.

“This is a great forward step for the dispatchers, for women workers and for
CUPE,” said Conni Kilfoil, a CUPE lawyer. The union funded much of the case.

There are major implications for five other municipalities as well.
Richmond, Coquitlam, Burnaby, New Westminster and North Vancouver all have
emergency dispatchers. All had filed human rights complaints that were
wrongly dismissed by the Human Rights Commission based on the City of
Vancouver decision.

“Hopefully this seals off any further attempts to try to evade paying women
equally using a spurious argument about who employs the dispatchers,“ said
Anita Braha, legal counsel to the emergency dispatchers and CUPE.  “It has
implications for municipalities with police boards but also for other
similar boards and commissions.”

“The previous decision does not stand any longer,” Braha said. “This is very
good news for all women workers.”

-30-

Contact: Conni Kilfoil, CUPE Legal and Legislative Representative,
604-585-1841; Ron Verzuh, CUPE Communications, 604-291-1940 or 828-7668.
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