Supreme Court opens door to Air Canada pay-equity investigation
Last Updated Thu, 26 Jan 2006 12:19:36 EST
CBC News
Canada's top court has given the country's human rights commission the go-ahead to investigate whether flight attendants should be paid the same as pilots and airline mechanics.
The case involving Air Canada employees dates back 15 years.
The commission had never analyzed pay rates because the dispute got hung up on the legal question of whether flight attendants, who are mostly women, and pilots and mechanics, who are mostly men, worked in the same "establishment."
The top court has now concluded that they do, clearing the way for the commission to start its investigation.
The Canadian Union of Public Employees began the case in 1991, arguing that the airline discriminated because it paid attendants differently "for what it argued was equally valuable work performed by mechanical personnel and pilots."
