Law360 Canada ( May 10, 2018, 2:06 PM EDT) -- Appeal from a judgment of the Quebec Court of Appeal affirming a decision that the delayed access to pay equity resulting from s. 38 of the Pay Equity Act (Act) did not violate s. 15 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (Charter). The issue in this appeal was whether Quebec’s approach to implementing pay equity in workplaces without male comparator job classifications violated the equality rights protected by s. 15 of the Charter. The complaint was not with Quebec’s proposed methodology, but with the six-year legislated delay in implementation. At the time the Act came into force, there was no methodology for assessing pay equity adjustments where there was no male comparator. Regulatory authority was therefore given to the Pay Equity Commission under s. 114 to conduct the necessary research and to establish a methodology for identifying the appropriate male comparators. Access to pay equity under the Act for women in workplaces without male comparators was delayed, in accordance with s. 38, by two years beyond the length of time it took to enact a regulation under s. 114. By this time, almost six years had passed since women in workplaces that had male comparators first gained access to pay equity. This six-year legislatively delayed access to pay equity resulting from s. 38 of the Act was challenged by several unions, which argued that it amounted to a breach of s. 15(1) of the Charter for women in workplaces without male comparators. The trial judge found that the delay did not violate s. 15. In his view, a separate timeline did not engage s. 15 because the delayed access was not based on sex, but rather on the absence of a male comparator. The Court of Appeal of Quebec dismissed the appeal....