Daniel MacIsaac
Northern News Services

NNSL (Jan 29/99) - The GNWT warned this week that any settlement of the ongoing pay-equity dispute with government workers through the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal may take years to achieve.

Following a two-day preliminary hearing in Ottawa last week, Herb Hunt, director of Equal Pay and Negotiations for the GNWT's Financial Management Board, said Tuesday that the tribunal has scheduled more than 200 days to hear testimony, beginning Aug. 23 and stretching over the next four years.

The tribunal will hear evidence on a class-action suit filed by the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) on behalf of the Union of Northern Workers over the decade-long, pay-equity dispute.

Charges of time-wasting that the unions have levied against the GNWT were countered by Hunt on Wednesday.

He said the extensive hearing period, which doesn't include appeals, is not the most efficient way to settle the matter. Hunt said the unions have been unresponsive to recent GNWT offers to negotiate or settle and appear determined to go through the lengthy tribunal procedure.

Addressing UNW charges that the GNWT is simply afraid of a tribunal ruling, Hunt agreed.

"The government is afraid, not to the extent of correct and proper application of the law, but because there is a particular interest group working with the Canadian Human Rights Commission to expand the power of unions," he said, adding, "this is not a hidden agenda; it is known."

Hunt said a powerplay is the major reason why "the union has no intention of sitting down and negotiating a settlement."

Hunt said there is no question the dispute has had an adverse effect on worker morale. And he said the unions have an easier time rallying workers through such methods as resorting to rhetoric or personal attacks.

"One of the difficulties is that the government always has to make sure all the information is correct," he said.

Hunt also questioned the tribunal's position on the venue for the hearings. He said the unions are content to have the bulk of them in Ottawa because many pay-equity lobbies are based there and because it gives the hearings a national platform. Hunt argued that the matter is territorial and the tribunal should sit exclusively in the NWT.

"Can you imagine what the reaction would be in Quebec if the government was told to come to Ottawa over a provincial matter?" he said.

Roy Erasmus, MLA for Yellowknife North, seconded Hunt on the venue debate in his own Tuesday news release.

"The Union of Northern Workers and the Canadian Human Rights Commission are placing an enormous financial burden on the territorial government and Northeners by taking this position," he said. "Costly GNWT trips to Ottawa for a complaint about Northern issues doesn't make sense."

Hunt said two of the preliminary objections to be addressed by the tribunal in Yellowknife in March involve the unions themselves: "Whether PSAC can legally file a complaint because it negotiated the wages that it is now complaining about," and "Whether the UNW and/or the PSAC are legally liable if the wages they negotiated with the GNWT do not comply with their joint legal obligations under the Canadian Human Rights Act."

With both sides gearing up for an extensive legal battle, the tribunal will have to address these and many other issues.