Pay Equity Act Applied to Ministers' Offices

Summary#

These are proposed regulations called the Application of the Pay Equity Act to Ministers’ Offices Regulations. They would make the offices of federal ministers subject to the Pay Equity Act as a single, grouped employer and change how pay-equity rules apply to those offices. The Canada Gazette published the notice on February 10, 2024, and people have 30 days to send comments.

What it does#

• Treats the set of ministers’ offices identified in the Order Grouping Ministers’ Offices for the Purpose of a Pay Equity Plan as a single employer for the purposes of the Pay Equity Act. The grouping becomes subject to the Act on the day that Order comes into force.
• If a new Prime Minister is appointed, the grouping is treated as becoming subject to the Act on the date that new Prime Minister takes office.
• When a new Prime Minister is appointed, any posted pay equity plan for the grouping stops applying to the ministers in that grouping and the obligations tied to that posted plan also stop.
• If a new minister is appointed but the Prime Minister does not change, the grouping’s posted pay equity plan is treated as having been posted by the newly appointed minister, and that minister takes on the same obligations as the others.
• Certain parts of the Act (specified subsections) will not apply to this grouped set of ministers’ offices; the regulations describe specific “adaptations” and exclusions for how rules are applied during the transition.
• The regulations change how the number of employees is counted for the grouping: the test will be the sum of the averages of each employer’s employee counts to decide if the grouping has 100 or more employees.
• The deadline for posting a revised final pay equity plan is adapted so each employer in the grouping must post the final version no later than three years after the relevant earlier posting.
• The rules on lump-sum payments and on ranges of monetary penalties are adapted to use the grouping’s summed averages and the timing rules described in the regulations.

Who's affected#

• People who work in the offices of federal ministers — their pay-equity status and how plans are applied could change.
• Federal ministers whose offices are in the grouping — they will hold employer responsibilities under the grouped plan.
• The Pay Equity Commissioner, and unions or bargaining agents that represent employees in those offices, because the grouping and counting rules affect obligations, notices, and potential penalties.
• It’s not entirely clear from this notice alone which specific ministerial offices are in the grouping; that is set out in the related Order.

Why it matters#

• This would extend and clarify how federal pay-equity rules apply at the level of ministers’ offices. That can affect how pay differences are assessed and corrected for employees who work for ministers.
• The rules change when a posted pay equity plan stops or is reassigned — notably if a new Prime Minister is appointed — so turnover at the top can trigger changes in pay-equity obligations.
• The way employee numbers are counted (summing averages across offices) affects whether the grouping meets the 100-employee threshold, which changes which rules and deadlines apply.
• People or organizations that want to comment on the proposal had until 30 days from publication (February 10, 2024) to send representations to the department.