A Prince George woman is set to receive thousands of dollars in back pay after a B.C. Supreme Court Justice upheld a B.C. Human Rights Tribunal ruling she received a lower wage because of her gender while working for a local drywall business.
In a reasons for judgment issued Friday, Justice William Grist agreed with the tribunal's June 2009 decision that Maria Pennock, 47, performed "a similar or reasonably similar function to the other workers," most of whom were men.
Grist also found Pennock worked 40 hours a week, albeit during afternoons, evenings and weekends, "and this variation in schedule cannot be said to distinguish her employment."
The tribunal found that while Pennock did receive wage increases, they did not come as quickly nor were they as great as those other employees received during the two years she worked at City Centre Drywall (CCD).
CCD's central argument was that Pennock was hired to perform entry-level work on a part-time basis and there was no need to train her on other tasks because there were other people doing the work.
"As time went on, however, it is clear she was able to complete more of the steps of the drywalling process," tribunal member Kurt Neuenfeldt wrote in the ruling. "The same can be said for some of the men working for CCD, who also began as novices.
"They started with little or no skill, but they too, over time, were able to complete more steps in the process. To put the job description in its simplest terms, Ms. Pennock and her co-workers were all drywall finishers but after several months, she was paid a lower rate for a substantially similar job as was being done by the other workers."
It was noted she did not use stilts on a regular basis, standing instead on upside-down buckets piled as much as three high and did not use a "tube" to apply mudding to inside corners, using her fingers instead.
Pennock's request to operate the "box," a heavy tool also used for mudding, was turned down because she was considered too small to run the equipment.
She did do taping once the drywall sheeting was installed, and applied metal corner bead, did masking and the final "light check" before the finished drywall is prepared for painting.
By the time she quit in Jan. 2007, Pennock was making $15 per hour and argued she deserved $20 per hour, adding up to a difference of $10,258 over the year before she left.
However, the tribunal found that while Pennock, who worked for full-time for CCD for two years, should have been paid more during her final year, the rate should still have fallen somewhere below $20 an hour and it appears Pennock is settling for roughly $8,000.
The highest paid workers were receiving $30 an hour at the time of the tribunal hearing.
Reached Tuesday, Pennock, who is five-foot-four-inches tall and weighs 115 pounds, said she's continuing to do the same work on her own and is getting plenty of jobs.
Also reached Tuesday, CCD owner Richard Kraska said he'll honour the ruling but maintained it was unjust.
"Pretty well everybody is afraid of Human Rights [Tribunal] and there you go," he said.
