A ruling from Ontario's Pay Equity Commission could cost the City of Windsor tens of thousands of dollars.
Mayor Drew Dilkens says a facility attendant at the downtown aquatic centre is demanding retroactive pay, dating back to 2012, when the corporation dropped wages for current employees coming to work at the new facility. "We believe, and council also believes, that we need to appeal this decision," explains Dilkens. "We had a binding agreement between the employer and the union (CUPE), and the Pay Equity Commission is actually over-reaching their jurisdiction trying to overturn a decision that was made."
There are about 300 employees at the Windsor International Aquatic and Training Centre, but only some of them worked for the city before the 2012 CUPE agreement.
City staff are already going through individual records of each employee to see who would qualify to get retroactive payments, and how much money the city could owe, if the appeal fails.
