Helen Breslauer Pay Equity Audio Clip

Helen Breslauer Pay Equity Audio Clip

"Now how did I get involved in the pay equity case in 2001. I was in the south of France on a holiday in some little town, whose name I don’t remember, not far from Montpellier. Every once in a while, I would go into a phone booth in the middle of the town, and I would call my home phone to pick up messages. One of the messages on the phone was from Mary Eberts...So there was this message saying could you call me please. So, in this phone booth in the south of France, I called her, and she said I have this fascinating case. Its these retired women who have been underpaid for years and they are going to sue the University of Toronto. Oh good I said, that sounds wonderful. I'd love to talk about it, that would be great. And, I don’t remember the timing, but when I got back, I immediately contacted Mary and she hired me...How did I contribute to it? I was the witness who brought up all the evidence. When we had to go for a class action, as I remember it, that meant arguing in front of a judge. Well as you know we won. We won and it was incredibly important...Why was the pay equity case so important? Because pay equity leads directly to pension, eligibility to all kinds of benefits. So here you have four women...They had been underpaid for years and years and years. Being underpaid that long had huge repercussions…And it had ramifications for the way they could live, while they were earning these lesser amounts of money. But it also huge repercussions for when they retired. Your pension is based on your earnings. So, this was going to severely influence the money they had for the rest of their lives. And it wasn’t only them. The reason that we wanted it certified as a class action, is that it also affected all kinds of retired female, female retirees, from the professorial. I believe, I’ve been trying to revisit old pieces in preparation for today. I believe it was sixty people that got settlements from those four. That was good. That was very good."