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“It really is an outrageous decision,” said Mary Cornish, a pay-equity law specialist who represented two CUPE locals in the case.

“Women didn’t make the same at the start of the grid or as they moved along the grid. The only place they did make the same was at the end of the grid and the court said that was OK.”

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The union said the discrepancy meant workers at hospitals and schools in female-classified jobs, such as clerical where most workers are female, made about $3,000 less over three years than male- classified jobs, such as janitorial.

Court heard that a Health Records Clerk, a female job class, would earn $3,924 less over the first two years of employment than the Storekeeper Helper position, which is a male job class.

“The whole structure of these unequal grids is a feature of systemic discrimination,” said Ms. Cornish.

At issue were two appeals against Lakeridge Health Corporation, one of province’s largest community hospitals with sites in Oshawa, Whitby, Bowmanville and Port Perry, and the York Region District School Board, which runs schools north of Toronto.

At the hospitals, the discrepancy was between the largely female clerical unit and the largely male service unit; at the schools, it was clerical and technical units, which are mostly women, and the custodial unit, which is mostly men.

“Service unit employees move more quickly through the job grid than clerical unit employees,” the court agreed. It took nine months in the male field and 24 months in the female at the hospitals.