It was a mixed bag of emotions for Maggie Wakeford, despite a massive pay equity win for workers at the Canadian Mental Health Association Cochrane-Timiskaming branch.

Around 170 workers will receive pay equity adjustments—23 years after a pay equity plan was first negotiated in 1994.

The employer owes workers approximately $1.6 million in retroactive pay equity.

A first payment of $1,164,333 will be paid out by September 30th. The remaining adjustments will be made in equal installments in May 2018 and May 2019.

The OPSEU Local 631 President says with a new contract coming up, they “simply refused to bargain until the pay equity issue had been settled once and for all.”

“With their back against the wall, the employer finally had to get serious on pay equity.”

“One reason I decided to get the branch unionized was pay equity,” she stated in a release, “The payments just stopped in 2005, when our past CEO left the branch. In 2008, the current CEO got wind that I was trying to unionize, and announced he was looking into pay equity adjustments. However, when our local unionized, he said he had to ‘revisit and evaluate’ the existing plan – and basically blamed the union.”

She notes if the employer kept the plan going post-2005, “they wouldn’t be in the boat they’re in right now.”

“In the end, it’s the employer’s responsibility to keep up with pay equity,” Wakeford adds, “They didn’t do it.”

But now, she says this victory is coming at a cost.

Wakeford says now, the employer is looking at offloading their “Violence Against Women” program, a 32-year old program that includes a shelter in Matheson called Tranquility House and 12 staff.

Wakeford thinks it’s an attempt by the employer to save costs.

“They’re saying ‘It’s not our core business, our core business is mental health,'” she says, “But seriously, women that enter the shelter suffer from PTSD, depression, suicidal ideation because of the abuse and there’s a very strong correlation between the two, so they do belong with us.”

They’ve written to the board to stop the process.

What it means for the future of the Tranquility House, Wakeford says she’s not sure.

“It’s tight-lipped,” she said, “My employer is saying that they’re going to try to get someone else to take the program over but who knows what’s going to happen. That’s the scary part.”

OPSEU President Warren (Smokey) Thomas said it was about time workers got their pay equity – without cutting programs or staffing.

“The province passed the Pay Equity Act in 1987,” he said in a release, “Thirty years later, some employers still haven’t complied with the law. And when they finally do, some victimize clients and workers. This employer wants to offload services for vulnerable women to the lowest bidder, instead of picking up the phone and telling Kathleen Wynne they need money for pay equity. It’s as simple as that.”

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