-- CTF Urges Federal Government to Appeal Pay Equity Ruling --

OTTAWA: The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) announced today that it would wholeheartedly support the Government of Canada if it appeals the recent Human Rights Tribunal ruling on the issue of pay equity.

"The ramifications of this decision are enormous, not only for taxpayers, but for other pay equity decisions working their way through the Human Rights Commission, the Tribunal, and the courts," said CTF federal director Walter Robinson. "Besides, pay equity is a nebulous and subjective concept that we do not support. Equal pay for equal work, yes, absolutely. Equal pay for work of equal 'value' - no, since only a bureaucrat in combination with an ivory-tower academic would ever think they could accurately determine and then set 'fair' wages."

"Risk, personal choice, historical trends, supply and demand, and collective bargaining all form part of how salaries are set. 'Pay equity' advocates can never hope to accurately measure all of these factors and at the end of the day, public sector salaries should be a function of what we can afford and what is a fair and equitable," added Robinson.

Robinson also called on the government to correct the source of this problem - Section 11 of the 1978 Canadian Human Rights Act - that refers to "equal value." Mr. Robinson said Section 11 should be re-written to compare job-to-job exact duty comparisons only.

"Section 11 is a blank cheque. It allows tribunals and courts the power to interpret what is a "fair" wage. It should never be up to bureaucrats and lawyers to set wages. The only fair comparison for a public sector wage is a private sector wage for the same job, period," concluded Robinson.