Siobhan Coady, Minister of Finance and Treasury Board
Province of Newfoundland and Labrador
P.O. Box 8700
Confederation Building
St. John’s, NL A1B 4J6
January 23, 2024
Dear Minister Coady,
I am writing to you today to express my concerns about the Job Evaluation System (JES).
The Association of Allied Health Professionals (AAHP) stated that they have experienced pay inequities since the implementation of JES in 2015. They stated to media that even though the job class Prosthetist/Orthotis I is classified at 811 points, it makes less $/hour than health care jobs that are classed lower. It raises questions for the AAHP, along with the NDP Caucus, about how effective and transparent this system is.
In terms of Gender Pay Equity, we understand that the JES is meant to facilitate gender-blind job evaluations and assure employees’ salaries are not impacted by their genders. Yet, we know from an Information Note for Women and Gender Equality written on July 19, 2021, that even with the HAY Management Classification System and the JES in place, (1) we still do not have a full understanding of the status of pay equity in the public service, and (2) an evaluation must be done to determine whether gender pay-inequity exists within the public service. This evaluation is required to affirm your assertion that JES achieves pay equity.
It is clear that the JES is leaving many workers in this province confused, given the inequities they perceive. Therefore, we request that you commission an independent review of the JES system to ensure that any problems are detected and addressed. As the AAHP notes, this system has not been reevaluated since 2015, and it is vital to verify that it is working as it should.
Part of this review should be a true, gender-based, independent review of the civil service pay scales to confirm that pay equity has been achieved and that JES is working as government believes it is. If government is confident that the JES system is working to achieve pay equity, it shouldn’t be a problem to do an evaluation to determine whether male-dominated professions within the public sector are compensated higher than female-dominated professions.
Workers’ in this province deserve transparency about the JES and we want to make sure that workers questions and concerns with the systems we use are answered, as it impacts their livelihoods.
I look forward to continuing the discussions with you on this.
Lela Evans, M.H.A.
District of Torngat Mountains