12. Where a complaint alleging different wages is filed by or on behalf of an identifiable occupational group, the group must be predominantly of one sex and the group to which the comparison is made must be predominantly of the other sex.

13. For the purpose of section 12, an occupational group is composed predominantly of one sex where the number of members of that sex constituted, for the year immediately preceding the day on which the complaint is filed, at least

• (a) 70 per cent of the occupational group, if the group has less than 100 members;

• (b) 60 per cent of the occupational group, if the group has from 100 to 500 members; and

• (c) 55 per cent of the occupational group, if the group has more than 500 members.

14. Where a comparison is made between the occupational group that filed a complaint alleging a difference in wages and other occupational groups, those other groups are deemed to be one group.

• 15. (1) Where a complaint alleging a difference in wages between an occupational group and any other occupational group is filed and a direct comparison of the value of the work performed and the wages received by employees of the occupational groups cannot be made, for the purposes of section 11 of the Act, the work performed and the wages received by the employees of each occupational group may be compared indirectly.

• (2) For the purposes of comparing wages received by employees of the occupational groups referred to in subsection (1), the wage curve of the other occupational group referred to in that subsection shall be used to establish the difference in wages, if any, between the employees of the occupational group on behalf of which the complaint is made and the other occupational group.

16. For the purpose of subsection 11(3) of the Act, a difference in wages between male and female employees performing work of equal value in an establishment is justified by

• (a) different performance ratings, where employees are subject to a formal system of performance appraisal that has been brought to their attention;

• (b) seniority, where a system of remuneration that applies to the employees provides that they receive periodic increases in wages based on their length of service with the employer;

• (c) a re-evaluation and downgrading of the position of an employee, where the wages of that employee are temporarily fixed, or the increases in the wages of that employee are temporarily curtailed, until the wages appropriate to the downgraded position are equivalent to or higher than the wages of that employee;

• (d) a rehabilitation assignment, where an employer pays to an employee wages that are higher than justified by the value of the work performed by that employee during recuperation of limited duration from an injury or illness;

• (e) a demotion procedure, where the employer, without decreasing the employee’s wages, reassigns an employee to a position at a lower level as a result of the unsatisfactory work performance of the employee caused by factors beyond the employee’s control, such as the increasing complexity of the job or the impaired health or partial disability of the employee, or as a result of an internal labour force surplus that necessitates the reassignment;

• (f) a procedure of gradually reducing wages for any of the reasons set out in paragraph (e);

• (g) a temporary training position, where, for the purposes of an employee development program that is equally available to male and female employees and leads to the career advancement of the employees who take part in the program, an employee temporarily assigned to the position receives wages at a different level than an employee working in such a position on a permanent basis;

• (h) the existence of an internal labour shortage in a particular job classification;

• (i) a reclassification of a position to a lower level, where the incumbent continues to receive wages on the scale established for the former higher classification; and

• (j) regional rates of wages, where the wage scale that applies to the employees provides for different rates of wages for the same job depending on the defined geographic area of the workplace.