What is the Public Service Job Evaluation Plan (PSJEP)?

What is PSJEP? 

PSJEP is the Public Service Job Evaluation Plan (PSJEP). 

This system determines the grid level and corresponding pay rate for positions by evaluating the complexity of their work according to a series of benchmarks. 

• In our collective agreement, jobs aren’t classified based on comparisons to the outside labour market 
• Instead, PSJEP is based on awarding points for types of work or tasks that the job performs. Tasks are rated on 13 factors that earn points for placement on the grid
• Benchmarked positions (positions that had point ratings agreed to by the union) are used to assist with determining factor ratings. Many of the benchmarked positions utilized by the plan have substantially changed or refer to work no longer performed in the public service.  
• PSJEP was created to address gender pay equity in the 1990s. At the time, women were doing work of the same complexity as men, but they were being paid less.

Why should PSJEP be dismantled?

Because it hasn’t been updated, PSJEP is out of date and suppresses wages. Its scoring system isn’t designed for the work we do today. 

• The benchmarks still include jobs like clerk stenographer, clerk typist and word processing clerk
• The system hasn’t been updated in years, it’s self-referential, and fails to capture the complexity of the work 

The system is now broken.  

• It’s too slow – appeals can take years. There is an active appeal that is over nine years old! 
• It creates a false sense of hope for members. It’s very difficult to reclassify jobs that have changed significantly. 
• It increasingly relies on Temporary Market Adjustments (TMAs) to address positions where PSJEP doesn’t come close to market rates. 
• These adjustments are anything but “temporary” – some have been around since the late 90s. 
• These workarounds only complicate the system and create confusion.  

Market forces: 

• Losing the market forces on a consistent basis 
• Pressure of pulling positions up higher than we can negotiating 
• Folks at low end need higher increases to keep up with the cost of living 
• Puts a lot of the power back in the employer’s hands 
• Vacancies end up downloading complexity onto lower paid positions, and then hard to reclassify 
• This system has had a disproportionate impact on administrative professionals. This has resulted in the work normally performed by women being de-valued and had had the opposite intended effect of gender pay equality
• The two-tier retail aspect disproportionately impacts members in the LDB

What should PSJEP be replaced with? 

BCGEU members working in the public service have overwhelmingly indicated support for efforts to replace the PSJEP with a modernized classification system. An improved appeal process would help ensure members’ jobs are more accurately classified.