About 800 full- and part-time employees working for the Toronto Public Library in 1990 won a $31-million (Canadian) pay-equity suit against the city in an out-of-court settlement announced May 9.
The victory will result in immediate hourly raises from a $3-million settlement pool, ranging from $1.90 to $4.31 an hour. Some $28 million in retroactive lump-sum payments could range from a few thousand dollars to as much as $80,000 for a full-time senior librarian working at TPL throughout those 10 years, according to the May 18 Toronto Star.
Calling the settlement “fair,” Deputy Mayor Case Ootes said it won’t impact taxes because money has been budgeted to cover it.
The settlement did not include interest payments but Patricia O’Sullivan of the library workers’ bargaining unit, Local 416 of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, said the union didn’t want to drag out the case any longer, noting it took civil service employees 15 years to win $1 billion in interest in a similar case.
Posted May 22, 2000.