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Jorgensen case reinforces union demand for 1,000 rate
The decision of a three-person human rights board of inquiry to exonerate B.C. Ice and Cold Storage from charges of sex discrimination has forced the long-standing UFAWU demand fo a universal 1,000-hour rate for shoreworkers into the front rank
of union concerns in 1981 collective bargaining.
The ruling, handed down earlier this month, saw the human rights board split, with two men finding in favor of the company while the only woman on the board filed a minority report
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upholding the charges of sex discrimination.
UFAWU president Jack Nichol, who acted for the union during the board's prolonged hearings, told a shoreworkers' wage conference in Prince Rupert Feb. 21 that in his opinion, the question of equal pay for work of equal value could be a top priority in this year's negotiations.
Shoreworkers employed by Fisheries Association companies will bargain for a new agreement this year, as will B.C. Ice employees who are winding up a two-year agreement won after a prolonged strike in 1979.
Among the B.C. Ice workers is Susan Jorgensen, whose 1977 complaint to the human rights branch led to the long investigation of her employer's practices. Since B.C Ice hiring policies duplicate the discriminatory system used by Fisheries Association firms, her case gave many the hope that sex discrimination in the industry could be tackled without a contract confrontation.
But the Feb. 6 decision dashed that hope. Although the board ordered B.C. Ice to put Jorgensen in the group 1 category normally reserved for men, it did not order that she receive the 1,000-hour rate.
Jorgensen said in an interview last week that she was pleased the board had rejected the company's claim she was too weak to perform group 1 work but disappointed it had evaded the problem of discrimination.
Human rights branch lawyer J. J. Camp said he is seeking a new hearing of the board to establish damages the company must pay Jorgensen. Neither side has indicated whether it will appeal the decision.
The majority decision is remarkable for its complete rejection of evidence by a dozen UFAWU members who catalogued the company's systematic discrimination against women.
Specifically they testified about the company's policy of putting women in the lower-paid, supposedly less onerous group 2 jobs while men automatically were given heavier group 1 work. When women did work in group 1, they still received a lower rate of pay.
The majority decision noted that "no male has, at the time of hiring, applied for and been designated for the group 2 classification, nor has any female, at the time of hiring, applied for and been designated for group 1 classification."
Nonetheless, the two men could find no evidence of sex discrimination. Jorgensen had suffered because the company erroneously believed she was too weak for group 1, the majority decision said. They ordered B.C. Ice to give her the opportunity to do group 1 work, but gave the company the power to determine her ability to perform that work by a special assessment.
As dissenting board member Lynn Smith pointed out, the company claimed the segregation of men and women resulted from "a process of natural selection."
Smith noted that while men were automatically classified as group 1 workers, women had to perform special tests if they wanted to qualify. The only woman who tried, she said, was subjected to a "show trial."
Further evidence of the company's attitude was its failure to test men and its willingness to allow men with disabilities to continue receiving group 1 pay. All this "points to a view on the part of the company that group 2 work is 'women's work' only."
Smith recommended that the company pay group 2 workers the full 1,000-hour rate when they attempt to move into group 1, so long as they have achieved the 1,000-hour rate in group 2.
THE FISHERMAN — FEBRUARY 27, 1981/11
