Day One: Tuesday, December 3, 2024
10:00 EST
15 min
Welcome and Opening Remarks from the Chair
10:15 EST
75 min
Action Plans: Mitigate The Consequences Of Missed Deadlines!
Special Morning Session: Action Plans For Federal Employers Who Have (Or Will) Miss Important Deadlines
If you are a federally regulated organization in Canada and you have missed, or are about to miss, the deadlines for achieving pay equity there are consequences! Administrative monetary penalties and fines, compliance orders, commission audits, investigations, reviews, imposed timelines, reputational damage, legal actions from employees who file complaints, ongoing monitoring by the Commission.
The deadline for posting a draft pay equity plan for employee comment is July 5, 2024.
The deadline for posting your final plan is 60 days later, September 3, 2024.
Compensation adjustments must be made immediately unless an employer qualifies for phased-in increases, or obtains extra time to increase compensation.
This all -new timely, Infonex morning session will provide specific guidance and information on communicating with the Commission to minimize potential serious negative repercussions and consequences and negotiate realistic new deadlines.
Topics Will Include:
What To Do If You Need Additional Time To Finalize And Post Your Pay Equity Plan
- Applying to the Pay Equity Commissioner for an extension of time to post a pay equity plan.
- Criteria the Commissioner will use to assess your request.
You Need More Time To Phase In Increases In Compensation
- Applying for an extension of time to phase in increases in compensation.
- Demonstrating extreme financial hardship is a high threshold to cross.
11:30 EST
45 minImpact of the Move from Reactive to Proactive Pay Equity - on Just About Everything You Do
This session will highlight the dramatic ricochet effect of the new proactive pay equity regime on everything you do – from the way you identify job classes and value work, to the way you calculate total compensation and select your job evaluation methodology, to the way you approach collective bargaining and more. It will include:
- Fundamental changes in the way you approach compensation issues.
- The need to see the big picture to understand how to perform every step in the pay equity process.
- Impact on employer obligation to produce and post a pay equity plan.
- The information that must be included and the information that must be shared in the design and creation of the plan.
- The challenges ahead.
- Impact on how employers and unions will negotiate in this new space.
12:15 EST
60 minBreak
13:15 EST
45 minImportant New Philosophy, Principles and Foundations of Proactive Federal Pay Equity
This session will provide you with a deep and fundamental understanding of the new philosophy, principles and foundations that underpin the federal Pay Equity Act. This understanding will guide and help you with implementation.
- What the Pay Equity Act attempts to achieve, over and above Human Rights Code Compliance.
- Why the move to proactive pay equity?
- What has changed?
- New philosophy.
- Historical developments crucial to your basic understanding of the new regime.
- The pay equity exercise: Who and what is involved?
- Deadlines and considerations for developing a plan to meet statutory obligations.
- The thorny question of determining who is an employee.
- When are you part of a “group of employers”?
- Establishing committees and determining who can be on a committee.
- Key considerations in planning and analyzing compliance with the Pay Equity Act.
14:45 EST
45 minWhat You Have to Calculate: Total Compensation in Dollars per Hour for Each of the Job Classes (Including Pensions, Benefits and More)
- What must be included?
- What can be excluded?
- Unique considerations for public and private sectors and family-owned business.
15:30 EST
45 minPermission to Have More Than One Plan? Don’t Count on It!
You only get one chance to make your case and the recent denial of Treasury Board Secretariat’s application to the Commission for authorization to have more than one pay equity plan underscores the fact that this will be an uphill battle. Reasons why Treasury Board’s application and other submissions have been denied.
- Lessons learned.
- Arguments that failed and why.
- What might work?
16:15 EST
End of Day One
Day Two: Wednesday, December 4, 2024
10:00 EST
15 min
Welcome and Opening Remarks from the Chair
10:15 EST
60 minCoordinating Pay Equity with Your Job Evaluation and Compensation-Setting Systems (Including Collective Bargaining)
- How to manage the impact of pay equity on your job evaluation system.
- How to coordinate two compensation-setting mechanisms, pay equity and collective bargaining.
11:15 EST
45 minMeet the Challenges of Preparing and Communicating the Contents of the Pay Equity Plan
The final piece of implementation is the preparation and posting of a pay equity plan. This session will focus not only on what you have to prepare, but on how to effectively and efficiently communicate important content with the workforce:
- Finalizing the pay equity plan.
- Content of the plan.
- Posting requirements related to increases in compensation.
- Meeting communication challenges.
12:00 EST
60 minBreak
13:00 EST
90 minComparing Compensation to Determine Whether There Are Any Differences in Compensation Between Job Classes of Equal Value
The wage gap methodologies in the Act are very different than was the case under previous models or in provincial legislation. This session will focus on explaining the models – how they work and considerations for selecting a model that redresses systemic wage discrimination without unduly disrupting existing compensation models and strategies. Key areas of focus include:
- Equal average.
- Wage lines.
- Sum of differences.
14:30 EST
60 minTBA
15:15 EST
45 min
Policy Capturing: The Faster Method of Valuing Work With Deadlines Looming
The policy capturing method is an alternative method to implement pay equity that can accelerate the process for medium and large organisations.
- What is the “policy capturing” method?
- What does it involve?
- Is it acceptable?
- Who does it apply to?
- How do you apply it?
16:00 EST
45 min
Wrap Up and Q & A
16:45 EST
End of Day Two