Important Notice to All Pay Equity Recipients

Since April 2000, the Government of Canada has been issuing pay equity adjustments to recipients under the Pay Equity Agreement between the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) and Treasury Board (TB).

Before implementing the October 1999 agreement, both Treasury Board Secretariat and PSAC agreed that it was important to get payments out to recipients as quickly as possible.

As a result, an automated payment process was developed to expedite payments. This permitted departments to process cheques quickly, and also included financial management measures to allow them a thorough verification of amounts owed before issuing the final interest cheque to current and former employees.

Section 9.5 of the Pay Equity Agreement requires each department to manually recalculate any promotion, acting or overtime situation that some recipients may have been in, as of April 1,1994.

This recalculation process is well under way. It will ensure that recipients receive all monies that they are owed under the order of the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal.

As recalculations are being finalized, departmental records may indicate that a portion of the payments some recipients have received throughout the year exceeds the total amount of their entitlement.

Most recalculations will not result in a recovery situation. Where this situation exists, in most cases, the interest payment will be more than sufficient to offset any pending recoveries and will still provide a further payment to recipients.

There may be exceptional circumstances where a recovery must be made that exceeds the pay equity interest payment. In such cases, departments will work with the individual to identify a repayment plan that takes into account the person's ability to pay.

Note: If you have any questions on this matter, please refer to the questions and answers posted on the TBS Website.

You may also contact, the last department where you were employed to receive more information.