Doug Ashbury
Northern News Services

NNSL (Aug 24/98) - There's more money for pay equity, says the GNWT's top accountant.

But because the GNWT is still negotiating the issue with the Union of Northern Workers, the amount has not been disclosed.

"We're prepared to propose amendments (to the May 8 final offer) that will mean more money on the table," Lew Voytilla, territorial government's financial management board secretary, said.

So far, government has earmarked $40 million to resolve its pay equity dispute with the UNW.

That's the only figure the GNWT has ever publicly released on the cost of pay equity.

Asked where the additional money would come from and if job cuts might result, Voytilla said, "We don't envision any restraint or reduction."

But he added, "This means less money for other things. The money has to come from the same pot."

Voytilla's made the comments Wednesday, a day after the GNWT revealed it would ask the NWT Supreme Court to appoint a mediator to get the government and the union back to the bargaining table.

"We've asked the courts to deal with (appointing a mediator), on Sept. 4," the governments lead negotiator Herb Hunt said.

But a mediator's recommendations are not binding.

Before a mediator can be appointed, the NWT Supreme Court must deal with the union's allegation that the government is bargaining in bad faith, UNW president Jackie Simpson said.

The GNWT claims the bad faith bargaining complaint is unfounded and it appears unaffected by the move.

The GNWT tabled its final settlement offer May 8. Aside from the pay equity controversy, the union appears to approve of the deal.

The union does not want pay equity included in collective bargaining.

But the GNWT sees pay equity and a collective agreement as similar issues which can be solved together.

The GNWT's method of implementing pay equity is one-third more costly than the method used in the recent Canadian Human Rights Tribunal decision favoring the Public Service Alliance of Canada in their case against the federal government, Voytilla also said.

The GNWT is proposing a method -- known as line-to-line -- which it says raises all female dominated positions to pay levels equal to jobs of the same value held predominantly by males. Value of the job, regardless of whether it's male or female dominated, is determined by a point system.

The different methods used to graph and compare female dominated jobs to male dominated jobs can be complicated. The GNWT says by using a line-to-line comparison it is adopting a more statistically accurate approach than was used in the federal government-PSAC decision.

GNWT manager of compensation and equal pay, Shaleen Woodward, said there is no one simple formula which you can plug in numbers and get equal pay.

She estimates over 5,000 current and former GNWT employees are affected by pay equity negotiations - the split between current and former is about half and half.

On legal costs, Voytilla said if the matter goes to a Canadian Human Rights Tribunal, it will cost the GNWT over $1 million a year in lawyers fees.

The UNW's legal costs could, and likely would be, about the same.

The matter is scheduled to be before a tribunal next month.