At least a dozen departments are expected to deliver hundreds of notices to employees Wednesday and Thursday before the summer vacation season swings into high gear. The notices will tell employees they are either losing their jobs or the work that they do is being affected as departments manage the cuts.
Some of the departments issuing notices are Transport Canada, Infrastructure Canada, National Defence, Fisheries and Oceans, Justice Canada, Environment Canada, Public Works and Government Services Canada, Industry Canada and Human Resources and Social Development Canada.
Some say the major round of notices issued this week will be the last until the fall. But Gary Corbett, president of the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada, said Canada Revenue Agency, the biggest department with 45,000 people, has yet to inform any employees and that cuts there will have to come before the fall.
Since Finance Minister Jim Flaherty unveiled his March budget calling for $5.2 billion in annual spending reductions and the elimination of 19,200 jobs by 2015, federal departments have sent out more than 18,200 notices in three waves. So far, about 2,200 people are facing layoffs and another 915 are in jobs that have been declared surplus but have been promised a “reasonable job offer” by their senior bosses.
“I think we will see more before the end of the summer and it is going to be rock and roll when the politicians come back in the fall because people will start to find out what is being cut and will be asking questions,” Corbett said.
“I can just imagine how the morale is sinking with more of these notices, but this has been well-orchestrated so politicians can go on their summer holidays and go off and build gazebos and leave everyone else to deal with (the fallout).”
Departments are under pressure to sort out who’s going and who’s staying as quickly as possible. Their budgets have all been cut for the fiscal year and they have to get employees off the payroll to meet their savings targets. They also have to manage around the 120-day period all surplus employees are given to decide what they want to do: Employees can go on a surplus list for a year in the hopes of finding another job, or leave government with a buyout, pension penalty waiver or education allowance.
The unions had hoped those facing layoffs who want to continue working could swap jobs with employees who want to go.
But the unions have been feuding with Treasury Board and departments because they aren’t allowing job swaps or enforcing the practice, which is part of the layoff provisions enshrined in all unionized employees contracts.
The two largest unions, PIPSC and Public Service Alliance of Canada, recently filed a grievance against Treasury Board and 14 other departments for failing to enforce job-swaps. Unions met with Treasury Board on Monday to try and sort out their disagreement.
Unions claim there have been few swaps because departments aren’t participating or are refusing to take employees from other departments. What’s more, they say Treasury Board is doing little to encourage them.
It is estimated that between 70 and 80 surplus employees have found someone to swap jobs with since the budget — a far cry from what unions had hoped for to keep involuntary layoffs to a minimum.
“More than 2,000 people have already been declared surplus and there are so few matches. That tells me there is something really wrong with the system,” said Claude Poirier, president of the Canadian Association of Professional Employees.
The latest round of cuts comes on the heels of Parliamentary Budget Officer Kevin Page’s standoff with the government over its refusal to release details about the nature of the cuts. Only 18 departments had provided the details Page requested when Privy Council Clerk Wayne Wouters stepped in and told Page, on behalf of all departments, that the government couldn’t release any information because of contractual obligations with the unions.
Unions, however, strongly support Page’s efforts to get more details on cuts and many asked Treasury Board to release any information demanded other than the names of those losing their jobs.
Original Article
Source: ottawa citizen
Author: KATHRYN MAY
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