03/06/08
This case involves the Canadian Post office. In 1983 the Public Service Alliance, which represented the workers at the post office, filed a human rights complaint against the post office corporation, alleging that the post office paid its mostly female employees in the clerical section less than the mostly male employees in the operations section. The damages requested? Back pay of $300 million or so to approximately 6,000 workers.
This set in motion a long and tortuous legal saga. There were 10 years of investigations; then the hearings began — 12 years' worth before the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal. Finally, in 2005 — 22 years after the complaint was filed, the Human Rights Tribunal upheld the discrimination complaint but only gave the workers half of what they asked for.
But wait, we aren't done yet! Canada Post appealed to the Federal Court, which on February 21 of this year overturned the Human Rights Tribunal decision. That's 25 years this case has gone on, if you are counting.
The judge on the Federal Court had some harsh words for the Human Rights Tribunal, pointing out the obvious fact that 23 years is probably not a reasonable length for a case. He even went to Charles Dickens to illustrate his displeasure, citing Dickens's
Bleak House and the trial in that book over the Jarndyce estate. The novel mentions that the trial went on for generations and consumed the entire estate in legal fees.
The Court also pointed out that many of the original complainants are likely dead now. The case is not yet over, perhaps, as the Public Service Alliance is pondering an appeal. No one knows how many of the original 6,000 women still work at Canada Post.
