The federal government has been discriminating against a group of federal nurses on the basis of their gender for more than three decades, the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal has ruled.
The ruling could potentially expose the government to hundreds of millions of dollars of liability for back wages and compensation, according to the lawyer for most of the nurses.
"And the principles it endorses could apply to other employee groups as well," said Philippe Dufresne, senior counsel for the Canadian Human Rights Commission.
The human rights tribunal found that the nurses, who determine the eligibility of applicants for CPP disability benefits, perform essentially the same core functions as government doctors who are paid about twice as much.
The group of nurses, called medical adjudicators, is 95 percent female, while the doctors' group, known as medical advisers, is 80 percent male.
Under the Canadian Human Rights Act, it is illegal to treat a female-dominated group differently from a male-dominated group when both perform the same or substantially similar work.
In its ruling, the tribunal ordered the government to cease the discriminatory practice. It also said the nurses are entitled to compensation for lost wages and pain and suffering. But rather than make an award, the tribunal gave the parties three months to negotiate a settlement. If they fail to do so, the tribunal will impose a remedy.
Though the disparity between CPP nurses and doctors has existed since 1972, the ruling applies only to the period since 1978, the year the Canadian Human Rights Act came into force.
The ruling is binding on the government, though the government has 30 days to decide whether to apply for a judicial review that could, if successful, overturn it.
The decision is a personal triumph for Ruth Walden, a 50-year-old Ottawa nurse who has worked as a CPP medical adjudicator since 1993.
It was Ms. Walden who filed the first human rights complaint in 2004.
Before long, 430 of her colleagues from across Canada followed suit, representing virtually all the federal nurses who determine disability pension eligibility.
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