Lawyers square off in union battle

At stake is the right to represent some or all federal lawyers

TORONTO — Lawyers within the federal Justice Department will be pitted against each other as an unprecedented union certification hearing begins today in Ottawa. The 2,600 lawyers employed by the Justice Department are permitted to unionize for the first time as a result of the Public Service Modernization Act, which became law earlier this year.

Three groups are asking a Public Service Labour Relations Board panel to certify them as the bargaining unit for some or all of the lawyers, at a hearing that is expected to be largely about a contentious policy known as the “ Toronto differential.”

Justice Department lawyers in Toronto have been paid about 15 per cent more annually since 1990, as a result of a retention and recruitment strategy put into place by the federal government.

Salaries for federal lawyers range from an entry level rate of $ 52,000 to a top figure of $ 137,000 for senior counsel, according to information released by the Treasury Board

The “ Toronto differential” policy has been criticized by other Justice Department lawyers, most notably in British Columbia. Several lawyers in the Vancouver office launched a court action and argued it was a violation of their employment contract to pay higher salaries to staff in Toronto.

B.C. Supreme Court Justice Lynn Smith ruled this spring that the federal government was not prohibited from paying different salaries although she noted that the policy resulted in a “downward spiral in the morale” in the Vancouver office.

The labour board hearing is scheduled to begin with submissions from a group known as the Federal Law Off icers of the Crown, which is seeking a separate bargaining unit for about 300 Justice Department lawyers who work in the greater Toronto area.

The Association of Justice Counsel (AJC) and the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada are both asking the board to certify them as the only bargaining representative for all federal government lawyers.

“ We are not opposed to the AJC’s application for the rest of the country,” said Donald Eady, a lawyer representing the Toronto group. He explained that his clients believe they need their own unit because they make up only 12 per cent of all Justice Department counsel and would not be properly represented by a national group.

Patrick Jette, a Montreal-based prosecutor and president of the AJC, said his group would negotiate a “ single rate of pay across the country that is higher than what Toronto gets.”

The labour board panel is expected to hold six- days of hearings and then resume next month for final arguments.

CanWest News Service