A call from The New Brunswick Coalition for Pay Equity for the province to adopt pay equity legislation to cover employees in both the public and private sector.
The Coalition wants the provincial government to follow recommendations of an Economic and Social Inclusion Corporation committee on Living Wage and Pay Equity to model pay equity legislation after similar to Acts in Ontario and Quebec.
The Economic and Social Inclusion Corporation was created to develop, oversee, coordinate and implement initiatives to reduce poverty and assist people to become more self-sufficient.
The co-chairs and president are members of a board of directors representing government; business; community non-profit organizations; and persons having experienced poverty.
The final report of the Advisory Committee on Living Wage and Pay Equity calls for the adoption of comprehensive legislation modeled on the Acts of Ontario and Quebec, as well as the recommendations of the 2004 federal pay equity task force.
New Brunswick passed a 2009 Pay Equity Act for public sector employees, but ten years later, there remains no pay equity law governing the private sector.
Coalition Chair Frances LeBlanc says the committee recognizes pay equity as an important tool in the reduction of poverty.
“There have been efforts to try to educate the private sector as well as put voluntary measures in place that would motivate the private sector to take a similar course of action. However, we know that voluntary measures don’t work from a system point of view and that legislation is needed,” LeBlanc said Tuesday.
LeBlanc says jobs traditionally done by women are systematically underpaid and undervalued and legislation is needed as the report reflects.
“We don’t want to reinvent the wheel, it’s just the need for strong political will and leadership to ensure that New Brunswickers have the same protection, regardless if they work in the public or private sector.”
LeBlanc hopes the province can extend the same type of legislation to the private sector by the end of 2020.
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