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The House

Midweek podcast: Pay equity and jurors' mental health

This week on the midweek podcast, Labour Minister Patty Hajdu walks us through the government's pay equity legislation and we talk to a former juror about a new mental health bill aimed at the justice system.
CBC Radio ·
Employment, Workforce Development and Labour Minister Patricia Hajdu says employers will have to identify job classes, evaluate work, and compare compensation associated with similar jobs dominated by men and women respectively. (Adrian Wyld/Canadian Press)

Patty Hajdu, minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Labour, isn't denying pay equity will be a tough for employers.

This week the Liberal government introduced its pay equity legislation.

If the bill passes, employers in federally-regulated workplaces would need to review their pay practices to make sure women and men receive equal pay for work of equal value.

It requires employers to establish a pay equity plan within three years of the legislation coming into force and would apply to employers with 10 or more workers.

"It reflects the work that organizations will have to do," Hajdu told The House.

"In the end this is good for the economy, it's good for women."

Employers would have to identify job classes, evaluate work, and compare compensation associated with similar jobs dominated by men and women respectively.

"This pay equity piece is really about valuing work that is considered female in the same way that we value work that is male."

Federally regulated workplaces cover banks, telecommunications and transport industries, Crown corporations and all federal public service employees.

Help for jurors 

Mark Farrant says he suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder after serving jury duty in a brutal murder case. (CBC)

A jury-foreman-turned-activist is applauding a private members' bill that would help jurors deal with the mental health fallout of following gruesome trials. 

Mark Farrant says he's suffered from PTSD and depression after serving on the jury of the first-degree murder trial of 31-year-old Farshad Badakhshan.

In April 2014, Badakhshan was found guilty of second-degree murder in the death of his girlfriend. Four years earlier, Badakshsan had slit her throat and stabbed her repeatedly before setting their rooming house in Toronto's Annex area on fire.

This week Conservative MP Michael Cooper introduced a bill that would amend the Criminal Code to allow jurors to discuss aspects of deliberation with a medical clinician post-trial.

"It's a great step and I think it's moving in the right direction," Farrant told host Chris Hall. 

He said when he first sought help he was told "over and over" that he wasn't legally allowed to talk about deliberations. 

"It allows the juror to talk abut trial experiences openly with a licensed medical practitioner — a psychiatrist, psychologist whoever —  ​without fear that they are breaking the law," he said.

"For the most part Canadians go through the jury duty unscathed, but we know many have not, especially on difficult and lengthy trials."

Earlier this year the commons's justice committee studied the impact of jury duty on mental health to determine what specialized services, funding and new policies could be required.