Unions and employers are regularly engaged in collective bargaining. Much of this negotiation is salary and benefits related. For purposes of the Act, the main responsibility of union and employer is to ensure that the results of their compensation bargaining do not have the effect of contravening the Act [7] by making arrangements that do not meet the minimum requirements of Part I of the Act.

Where the employer is subject to Part II of the Act, and the workplace was unionized at the date of implementation, the law imposes a joint obligation on the employer and the existing bargaining agent to negotiate in good faith and endeavour to agree upon aspects of the pay equity process for the bargaining unit plan [14. (2) – (3)], including:

• the gender neutral comparison system;
• the pay equity plan for unionized employees;
• the definition of the establishment which may include two or more geographic divisions;
• the gender of job classes (female, male, gender neutral);
• the value of the job classes;
• the representative group of male job classes for proportional value;
• the calculation of job rate; and,
• the amount and distribution of pay equity adjustments.