Niagara Health to disburse $20M in pay equity deal for thousands of current, former hospital workers

Niagara Health will pay out thousands of hospital workers a total of $20 million after striking a decades-in-the-making agreement with the union.

The pay equity agreement was reached on Dec. 23 and will apply to about 2,000 current employees in 26 job classes, from registered practical nurses to personal support workers to clerical staff, says the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Healthcare. 

Former staff will also be eligible, but Niagara Health is still tallying up that number, said SEIU's director of research, Matt Cathmoir. 

"We're thinking about ways to spread the word to those former employees, encouraging retirees to tell anyone they used to work with so they can claim what they're owed," said Cathmoir in an interview.

The $20 million will cover wage adjustments dating back to 2009, Niagara Health, a regional health-care provider in Ontario, told CBC Hamilton in an emailed statement this week. 

"We appreciate the patience and collaboration of our staff and SEIU throughout this process, and we remain committed to maintaining pay equity in the years ahead," Niagara Health said.

Retired registered practical nurse (RPN) Sandra Commerford has been waiting for a decision on her request for a raise since 1998 — when she worked at the hospital in St. Catharines. 

Back then, the SEIU and her employer delayed a decision until after a number of hospitals in the area amalgamated to form Niagara Health in 2000 and then were set to develop a new pay equity agreement. 

CBC Hamilton covered her story in early December when — 24 years later — no agreement had been reached.

Public-sector employers like hospitals must follow the province's Pay Equity Act, which came into force in 1988, to avoid gender discrimination when setting wages for employees. Private-sector employers with more than 10 workers are also required to follow the act.

Pay equity supposed to 'eliminate' gender wage gap

A pay equity agreement requires employers to review the wages of workers in jobs dominated by women — like practical nursing — to the wages of workers in jobs dominated by men with similar qualifications and responsibilities.

If the female-dominated sector earns less, the employer is required to increase those workers' compensation. 

"The Pay Equity Act is intended to eliminate the wage gap that exists due to the undervaluation of what is typically thought of as 'women's work,'" says the province's interpretation of the act.

This week's news that the two sides had finally concluded the process but will be providing pay retroactively only to 2009 — not a decade earlier when Commerford first raised the issue — has left her disappointed. 

"The hospital and union have ignored their obligations, and just supported and blatantly participated in gender wage discrimination," Commerford said. 

In her view, the agreement hasn't properly adjusted RPN's wages to account for their level of skills and training. She said she plans to appeal the agreement to the Pay Equity Office — the province's regulatory body. 

"This agreement is an insult to the RPNs," Commerford said. "Our job has changed exponentially every year for the last 25 years and we've never been [fully] compensated for that change."

Workers have 6 months to claim what they're owed

Cathmoir said the agreement goes back only to 2009 because that's when job data — which informed how pay equity was calculated for each position — was collected.

"It was the best deal we felt we could get through this process," he said. 

He acknowledged the adjustment RPNs received was small, but it was based on decisions made through arbitration in 2022. 

When asked if the new agreement was fair to all job classes, like RPNs, for example, Cathmoir said "not at all."

"We would've liked to have seen a better outcome from the arbitration that would've seen a better adjustment for certain classifications," sad Cathmoir. "But we intend to fight hard ... to find further improvements." 

He said the decades-long delays were because of a flawed system. Every time Niagara Health and the union tried to resolve a disagreement through a tribunal or arbitration, it would take years for a decision.  

Niagara Health and SEIU said they'll contact eligible current and former employees about the pay adjustment process and they have six months to claim what they're owed.