Pay Equity: Quebec’s Pay Equity Commission Loses Appeal

On May 24, the Quebec Court of Appeal ruled in favour of SSQ Vie in a dispute with the province's pay equity commission, the Commission de l'équité salariale (Commission).¹

Background

The dispute stemmed from a complaint by SSQ Vie's actuarial technicians that their job class had not been properly evaluated. The Commission dispatched an investigator who determined that the job class had, in fact, been evaluated correctly.

Despite the investigator's findings, the Commission decided to conduct a comprehensive review of SSQ Vie's pay equity plan. It found that the pay equity committee had grouped its job classes in ten salary classes with unequal point intervals: the point intervals ranged from 43 points to 199 points, depending on the salary class.