COSWL Cause

”We are going to have a number of part-time jobs that are going to be converted to full-time jobs over the life of Collective Agreement," said Bargaining committee chair, Maureen O'Reilly," we have a new three-year Collective Agreement which will now expire at Dec. 31, 2011 and we were able to get some significant improvement in benefits to our part-time workers.”

More full-time jobs and better parental leave are part of a tentative agreement between Toronto Public Library and its 2,400 unionized workers--Toronto Public Library Workers Union (TPLWU) CUPE 4948.
The settlement was reached Wednesday, heading off a strike or lockout that could have started Nov. 9.

Details of the agreement between the library and the Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 4948 weren't released before a ratification vote, which will be held some time next week.

Bargaining committee chair Maureen O'Reilly said relying on part-time workers and automated checkouts compromises service for both library workers and patrons. Following the lead of the Good Jobs campaign this summer by the LCBO union, the library union's approach focused on job quality for the female-dominated workforce.

CAUT Policy Statement on Advancing Women’s Human Rights.

Action should be taken to achieve and secure equity for women in Canadian universities and colleges, eliminating the current socio-economic and professional disparities between women and men.

The employer and the academic staff association should acknowledge and/or reaffirm that advancing women’s human rights is required for universities and colleges to fulfill their mandate and to fully serve the public good.

The employer and the academic staff association should take active measures to ensure that women working in universities and colleges are not over-represented in contract positions, and that the numbers of women employed at all levels are in the same proportion as they are in the duly qualified population, with equitable opportunities for career advancement.1

To achieve the above, the employer must:

1. Ensure that the rights of all women in the academic community, particularly Aboriginal women, women with disabilities, women of colour, transgendered women, and lesbians, and including academic staff, support staff, and students, as well as visitors to campus, are respected and promoted;

2. Encourage equitable participation of women and men students and academic staff in all academic disciplines;

3. Rectify the current imbalance between men and women in senior administrative posts;

4. Redress inequities identified by part-time and contract academic staff;

5. Encourage research, teaching, and scholarly work by women and about issues of concern to women;

6. Recognize and fairly reward the community service of academic staff who work as public intellectuals and human rights activists both on campus and in the community;

7. Maintain a qualified equity officer and enforce clearly specified equity programs;

8. Conduct regular pay equity reviews and redress unfair anomalies;

9. Develop family-friendly policies, including those affecting recruitment, hiring, retention, tenure, and promotion;

10. Ensure access to affordable and convenient child care on or near campus; and

11. Guarantee pension equity.

Academic staff associations must negotiate appropriate amendments to their collective agreements or terms and conditions of employment to ensure equal pay for work of equal value, maternity leave, parental leave, compassionate care leave, equitable pensions, reasonable accommodation for people with disabilities, freedom from harassment, childcare access, equitable policies on contract academic staff and on part-time and limited-term appointments, and non-discrimination in employment practices, hiring, promotion, and working conditions.

Approved by the CAUT Women’s Committee, September 2006;
approved by Council, November 2006.

Sisters, our own Michele Leber is Chair of the National Committee on Pay Equity.

Please consider supporting the Paycheck Fairness Act by signing onto the Women's Law Center petition AND supporting Equal Pay Day by wearing RED on Tuesday, April 28.
Paycheck Fairness Act.

The emphasis for Equal Pay Day next Tuesday is the Paycheck Fairness Act, passed by the House of Representatives on January 9 and awating action in the Senate.

Read more at ALA Connect.

[Michele M. Leber served for ALA on: Mitch Freedman Better Salaries/Pay Equity Task Force; ALA Committee on Pay Equity; ALA Committee on Pay Equity; Task Force on the Status of Librarians].

Did you see this?

----------------

Congress sends fair pay bill to Obama
Tuesday, January 27, 2009 4:27 PM EST
The Associated Press
By JIM ABRAMS Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — Congress sent the White House Tuesday what is expected to be the first legislation that President Barack Obama signs into law, a bill that makes it easier for women and others to sue for pay discrimination, even if the discrimination has prevailed for years, even decades.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Obama would sign the bill, a top priority for labor and women's rights groups, Thursday during a public ceremony in the East Room.

The bill is a response to a 2007 Supreme Court ruling that said a person must file a claim of discrimination within 180 days of a company's initial decision to pay a worker less than it pays another worker doing the same job. Under the bill, every new discriminatory paycheck would extend the statute of limitations for another 180 days.

The measure, said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi after receiving a congratulatory phone call from Obama, is "a bold step to move away from that parsimonious interpretation" of the Supreme Court.

The plaintiff in the case, Lilly Ledbetter, argued that she did not become aware of the pay discrepancy until near the end of her 19-year career at a Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. plant in Gadsden, Ala.

The Bush White House and Senate Republicans blocked the legislation in the last session of Congress, but Obama strongly supports it and the Democratic-controlled Congress moved it to the top of the agenda for the new session that opened this month.

The House on Tuesday passed it on a 250-177 vote.

"What a difference a new Congress and a president make," said Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., sponsor of the bill and chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee.

Obama invited Ledbetter, for whom the bill is named, to accompany him on his train trip to the inauguration ceremony in Washington. After the Senate vote last week, the 70-year-old retiree said Obama "has assured me that he would see me in the White House when they sign the bill."

"By swiftly passing this legislation, Congress sets a new tone for employment rights," said ACLU legislative counsel Deborah J. Vagins. "The Ledbetter legislation restores a clear, bright-line rule for determining the timeliness of claims."

Having succeeded with the Ledbetter bill, labor rights advocates can turn to tougher issues, including a controversial measure, expected to come up later this year, that would take away a company's right to demand a secret ballot when workers are deciding whether to join a union.

The Ledbetter bill focuses on pay and other workplace discrimination against women: The Census Bureau last year estimated that women still only receive about 78 cents for every dollar that men get for doing equivalent jobs. But the measure, which amends the Civil Rights Act of 1964, also applies to discrimination based on factors such as race, religion, national origin, disability or age.

Supporters argued that the 5-4 Supreme Court decision throwing out Ledbetter's claim was unrealistic for most work environments in which employees are unaware of, or even barred from talking about, the salaries of their co-workers.

They said it rewards companies that manage to keep wage discrimination secret for more than six months.

Opponents contended that the legislation would gut the statute of limitations, encourage lawsuits and be a boon to trial lawyers. They also argued that employees could wait to file claims in hopes of reaping larger damage awards.

"Enriching trial lawyers is simply the wrong way to ensure a fairer, more just workplace," said Rep. Howard "Buck" McKeon of California, top Republican on the House Education and Labor Committee.

But backers pointed out that the bill does not change current law limiting back pay for claimants to two years, so there would be no incentive to wait to file a claim.

The House first passed the bill on Jan. 9, just days after convening the new session of Congress. The Senate approved it last week by 61-36, with all 16 female senators, including four Republicans, voting for it.

The House had to vote again because it originally coupled the bill with another labor measure making it easier to receive damage awards for discrimination. The Senate separated the two, putting off the second bill, which faced more opposition, for later in the year.

———

The bill is S.181.

———

On the Net:

Congress: thomas.loc.gov