For Immediate Release
19 October, 2022
NL NDP Critic for Women and Gender Equality and MHA for Torngat Mountains said that her party had no option other than to vote against the government’s poor attempt at pay equity legislation.
“This was a lost opportunity. Nothing in this legislation brings confidence that it will address the underlying systemic issues of gender inequity women face in our province. We could not hold our nose and support the Liberal government’s hasty attempt to save face. We need to get this very important legislation right.” said Evans. “To introduce legislation meant to improve life for workers and not have the Federation of Labour, other labour and advocacy groups at the table tells us this is poorly thought out this legislation.”
The NL NDP believes government does not understand how pay equity is achieved. Fundamentally, the legislation as presented will not close pay gap. Evans is frustrated that the government’s main concern was not complicating things for employers, instead of advancing workers’ rights. The legislation does not establish meaningful safeguards to ensure that the regulations would result in standards and practices that eliminate systemic discrimination.
“It’s clear that they were more concerned about not creating red tape for businesses and instead of focusing on workers’ rights. That is truly disappointing,” said Evans. “The Liberals failed to create gender pay equity legislation for what it is intended to achieve, to eliminate systemic sex discrimination. When they present legislation that sincerely achieves that, we will review our vote.”
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For further information, contact Eddy St. Coeur, Director of Communications, NDP Caucus at 729-2137 (o), or eddystcoeur@gov.nl.ca