Others at similar salary, classifications received stipend
The Ontario Grievance Settlement Board has dismissed a complaint from a management-level provincial employee claiming extra pandemic pay because such pay wasn’t part of the employee’s terms and conditions of employment.
Kevin Shkuratoff worked as a coordinator for maintenance services at the Brookside Youth Centre, a youth justice facility in Cobourg, Ont., operated by the Ontario Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services. His job duties included maintenance and monitoring of facility systems as well as construction and renovation projects. He supervised various tradespersons, housekeeping staff, and maintenance workers throughout the facility and his role was managerial in nature, so he wasn’t part of the facility’s collective bargaining unit.
Shkuratoff’s office was located within the secure area of the facility. Other managers had offices outside of the secure area and most of the other offices inside were for youth service managers (YSMs), who supervised youth service officers who worked directly with clients. Shkuratoff was at the same level of pay and classification as YSMs.
On April 28, 2020, the ministry sent a memo announcing that frontline YSMs would be entitled to “Institutional COVID-19 Response Pay” of up to $890 per month until Aug. 13. This pandemic bonus was “in recognition of the dedication, long hours and increased risk of working to contain the COVID-19 outbreak.”
On May 29, the Ontario legislature passed a regulation identifying employees in the public service who were eligible for extra pandemic pay. Retroactive to April 24, the regulation applied to “eligible full-time, part-time and casual employees” in particular workplaces. It stated that management employees were not eligible.
Shkuratoff eventually learned that he was the only person working within the secure area who wasn’t receiving any enhanced pay, with the exception of the health care manager — who was allowed to claim overtime pay during the temporary period when normally they weren’t.
He filed a complaint with the board, pointing out that all staff and operational managers working within the security fence at Brookside were receiving the enhanced pay except for himself. He pointed out that he was the same classification and pay level as YSMs, but they received pandemic pay and he didn’t. He argued that he regularly assisted his staff and performed similar duties within the secure area, so there was no basis for distinguishing him from those who received the extra money.
Shkuratoff requested that he be “treated fairly and equally the same as every other employee in the secure section of the facility,” pointing to the correctional service’s statement of ethical principles requiring fair and equitable treatment, as well as legislation that provided for equal pay for equal work.
The board found that the Ontario Employment Standards Act, 2000, requires equal pay for equal work, unless the pay difference is on the basis of “any other factor other than sex.” Similarly, the correctional service’s statement of ethical principles addressed workplace harassment and discrimination, so it didn’t apply in these circumstances, said the board.
The board also found that the regulation expressly excluded management employees, of which Shkuratoff was one. As for the Institutional COVID-19 Response Pay from the ministry, it wasn’t part of the existing terms and conditions of Shkuratoff’s employment and therefore not an issue the board had jurisdiction over.
“In order for a valid complaint to be filed, the particular compensation complained about must form part of the existing terms and conditions of employment of the complaint,” said the board. “This complaint does not identify a breach of an existing term of employment. Rather, [Shkuratoff] is seeking to have a term of employment added to his contract of employment.”
With no term or condition of employment entitling Shkuratoff to pandemic pay, either under the regulation or the institutional pay for YSMs introduced by the ministry, the board dismissed his complaint.
