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This article was published 20/2/2009 (4239 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA -- A group of nurses who work for the federal government say they never would have achieved a pay-equity settlement if the government's legislation barring the human rights commission from getting involved had already been in effect.

The nurses -- designated medical adjudicators by the government -- decide on Canada Pension Plan disability claims. Although they have for years done virtually identical work as a small group of doctors who work in the same department, the nurses are not recognized as health professionals, are paid about half as much as the doctors and receive substantially different benefits and training allowances.

One of the nurses, who spoke to the Free Press only on condition of anonymity, fearing retribution, said that in their fight for fair compensation, the nurses were first ignored by the government, then their union, and then were turned down by the Public Service Labour Relations Board.

So the group -- about 430 nurses in all, 95 per cent of whom are women -- hired a lawyer and filed a complaint with the Canadian Human Rights Commission.

In December 2007, the commission found in their favour, determining the nurses had been unfairly classified and discriminated against. The nurses will receive compensation going back to 1978, the year the Canadian Human Rights Act took effect. No exact settlement figure has been reached yet.

These nurses say they won their fight, but fear if the new Public Sector Equitable Compensation Act makes it through Parliament, anyone else in their situation will be stuck.

"I don't think (the legislation) will affect our situation," the nurse said, "but for all those people who are coming behind us we are speaking up."

The legislation, introduced by Manitoba MP and Treasury Board President Vic Toews, requires pay-equity complaints to be addressed by unions and the government during the bargaining process. He has said repeatedly his government wants to stop the lengthy process that has dragged some pay-equity cases through the courts for more than 20 years.

If the employees don't feel the bargained pay- equity settlement is fair, they can appeal to the labour relations board. But they can no longer take pay- equity complaints to the Human Rights Commission.

mia.rabson@freepress.mb.ca