ARCHIVED - Work Force Adjustment Directive

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Part I Roles and responsibilities

1.1 Departments

• 1.1.1 Since indeterminate employees who are affected by work force adjustment situations are not themselves responsible for such situations, it is the responsibility of departments to ensure that they are treated equitably and, whenever possible, given every reasonable opportunity to continue their careers as public service employees.
• 1.1.2 Departments shall carry out effective human resource planning to minimise the impact of work force adjustment situations on indeterminate employees, on the department, and on the public service.
• 1.1.3 Departments shall establish work force adjustment committees, where appropriate, to manage the work force adjustment situations within the department.
• 1.1.4 Departments shall, as the home department, cooperate with the PSC and appointing departments in joint efforts to redeploy or retrain for redeployment to appointing departments departmental surplus employees and laid-off persons.
• 1.1.5 Departments shall establish systems to facilitate redeployment or retraining of the department's affected employees, surplus employees, and laid-off persons.
• 1.1.6 When a deputy head determines that the services of an employee are no longer required beyond a specified date due to lack of work or discontinuance of a function, the deputy head shall advise the employee, in writing, that his or her services will no longer be required. A copy of this letter shall be sent forthwith to the PSC.
  • Such a communication shall also indicate if the employee:
    • is being provided a guarantee of a reasonable job offer from the deputy head and that the employee will be in surplus status from that date on,

      or

    • is an opting employee and has access to the Options of Section 6.3 of this directive because the employee is not in receipt of a guarantee of a reasonable job offer from the deputy head.
  • Where applicable, the communication should also provide the information relative to the employee's possible lay-off date.
• 1.1.7 Deputy heads will be expected to provide a guarantee of a reasonable job offer for those employees subject to work force adjustment for whom they know or can predict employment availability in the public service.
• 1.1.8 Where a deputy head cannot provide a guarantee of a reasonable job offer, the deputy head will provide 120 days to consider the three Options outlined in Part VI of this directive to all opting employees before a decision is required of them. If the employee fails to select an option, the employee will be deemed to have selected Option a), Twelve-month surplus priority period in which to secure a reasonable job offer.
• 1.1.9 The deputy head shall make a determination to either provide a guarantee of a reasonable job offer or access to the Options set out in 6.3 of this directive, upon request of any indeterminate affected employee who can demonstrate that his or her duties have already ceased to exist.
• 1.1.10 Departments shall send written notice to the PSC of the employee's surplus status, and shall send to the PSC such details, forms, resumes, and other material as the PSC may from time to time prescribe as necessary for it to discharge its function.
• 1.1.11 Departments shall advise and consult with the bargaining agent representatives as completely as possible regarding any work force adjustment situation as soon as possible after the decision has been made and throughout the process and will make available to the bargaining agent the name and work location of affected employees.
• 1.1.12 The home department shall recommend in writing to the PSC whether the employee is suitable for appointment. Where an employee is not considered suitable for appointment, the department shall advise the employee and his or her bargaining agent of that recommendation. The department shall send to the employee a copy of the written communication to the Public Service Commission, indicating the reasons for the recommendation together with any enclosures. The department shall also advise the employee that he or she may make oral or written submissions about the matter to the Public Service Commission before the PSC makes its decision. Where the Public Service Commission does not accept the department's recommendation, the department shall provide the surplus period required under this directive, beginning on the date the department is advised of the decision. The department shall so advise the employee.
• 1.1.13 The home department shall provide the PSC with a statement that it would be prepared to appoint the surplus employee to a suitable position in the department commensurate with his or her qualifications, if such a position were available.
• 1.1.14 Departments shall provide that employee with a copy of this directive simultaneous with the official notification to an employee to whom this directive applies that he or she has become subject to work force adjustment.
• 1.1.15 Deputy heads shall apply this directive so as to keep actual involuntary lay-offs to a minimum, and lay-offs shall normally only occur where an individual has refused a reasonable job offer, or is not mobile, or cannot be retrained within two years, or is laid-off at his or her own request.
• 1.1.16 Departments are responsible to counsel and advise their affected employees on their opportunities of finding continuing employment in the public service.
• 1.1.17 Appointment of surplus employees to alternative positions, whether with or without retraining, shall normally be at a level equivalent to that previously held by the employee, but this does not preclude appointment to a lower level. Departments shall avoid appointment to a lower level except where all other avenues have been exhausted.
• 1.1.18 Home departments shall appoint as many of their own surplus employees or laid-off persons as possible, or identify alternative positions (both actual and anticipated) for which individuals can be retrained.
• 1.1.19 Home departments shall relocate surplus employees and laid-off individuals, if necessary.
• 1.1.20 Relocation of surplus employees or laid-off persons shall be undertaken when the individuals indicate that they are willing to relocate and relocation will enable their redeployment or reappointment, providing that
  • there are no available priority persons, or priority persons with a higher priority, qualified and interested in the position being filled; or
  • no available local surplus employees or laid-off persons who are interested and who could qualify with retraining.
• 1.1.21 The cost of travelling to interviews for possible appointments and of relocation to the new location shall be borne by the employee's home department. Such cost shall be consistent with the Travel and Relocation directives.
• 1.1.22 For the purposes of the Relocation directive, surplus employees and laid-off persons who relocate under this directive shall be deemed to be employees on employer-requested relocations. The general rule on minimum distances for relocation applies.
• 1.1.23 For the purposes of the Travel directive, laid-off persons travelling to interviews for possible reappointment to public service are deemed to be "other persons travelling on government business".
• 1.1.24 For the priority period, home departments shall pay the salary costs, and other authorised costs such as tuition, travel, relocation, and retraining for surplus employees and laid-off persons, as provided for in the various collective agreements and directives; all authorised costs of termination; and salary protection upon lower-level appointment, unless the appointing department is willing to absorb these costs in whole or in part.
• 1.1.25 Where a surplus employee is appointed by another department to a term position, the home department is responsible for the costs above for one year from the date of such appointment, after which the appointing department becomes the new home department.
• 1.1.26 Departments shall protect the indeterminate status and surplus priority of a surplus indeterminate employee appointed to a term position under this directive.
• 1.1.27 Departments shall inform the PSC in a timely fashion of the results of all referrals made to them under this directive, whether such referrals are for immediate appointment, for retraining designed to qualify individuals for appointment, or for anticipated vacancies.
• 1.1.28 Departments shall review the use of private temporary agency personnel, employees appointed for a specified period (terms) and all other non-indeterminate employees. Where practicable, departments shall not re-engage such temporary agency personnel nor renew the employment of such employees referred to above where such action would facilitate the appointment of surplus employees or laid-off persons.
• 1.1.29 Nothing in the foregoing shall restrict the employer's right to engage or appoint persons to meet short-term, non-recurring requirements. Surplus and laid-off persons shall be given priority even for these short-term work opportunities.
• 1.1.30 Departments may lay off an employee at a date earlier than originally scheduled when the surplus employee requests them to do so in writing.
• 1.1.31 Departments, acting as appointing departments, shall cooperate with the PSC and other departments in accepting, to the extent possible, affected, surplus and laid-off persons, from other departments for appointment or retraining.
• 1.1.32 Departments shall provide surplus employees with a lay-off notice at least one month before the proposed lay-off date, if appointment efforts have been unsuccessful.
• 1.1.33 When a surplus employee refuses a reasonable job offer, he or she shall be subject to lay-off one month after the refusal, however not before six months after the surplus declaration date. The provisions of 1.3.3 shall continue to apply.
• 1.1.34 Departments are to presume that each employee wishes to be redeployed unless the employee indicates the contrary in writing.
• 1.1.35 Departments shall inform and counsel affected and surplus employees as early and as completely as possible and shall, in addition, assign a counsellor to each opting and surplus employee and laid-off person to work with them throughout the process. Such counselling is to include explanations and assistance concerning:
  1. the work force adjustment situation and its effect on that individual;
  2. the work force adjustment directive;
  3. the PSC's Priority Administration System and how it works from the employee's perspective (referrals, interviews or "boards", feedback to the employee, follow-up by the PSC, how the employee can obtain job information and prepare for an interview, etc.);
  4. preparation of a curriculum vitae or resume;
  5. preparation for an interview with the PSC;
  6. the employee's rights and obligations;
  7. the employee's current situation (e.g. pay, benefits such as severance pay and superannuation, classification, language rights, years of service);
  8. alternatives that might be available to the employee (alternation, appointment, relocation, retraining, lower-level employment, term employment, retirement including possibility of waiver of penalty if entitled to an annual allowance, Transition Support Measure, Education Allowance, resignation, accelerated lay-off);
  9. the likelihood that the employee will be successfully appointed;
  10. the meaning of a guarantee of reasonable job offer, a Twelve-month surplus priority period in which to secure a reasonable job offer, a Transition Support Measure, an Education Allowance;
  11. the Human Resources Centres and their services (including a recommendation that the employee register with the nearest office as soon as possible);
  12. preparation for interviews with prospective employers;
  13. repeat counselling as long as the individual is entitled to a staffing priority and has not been appointed; and
  14. advising the employee that refusal of a reasonable job offer will jeopardize both chances for retraining and overall employment continuity.
• 1.1.36 Home departments shall ensure that, when it is required to facilitate appointment, a retraining plan is prepared and agreed to in writing by themselves, the employee and the appointing department.
• 1.1.37 Severance pay and other benefits flowing from other clauses in collective agreements are separate from, and in addition to, those in this directive.
• 1.1.38 Any surplus employee who resigns under this directive shall be deemed, for the purposes of severance pay and retroactive remuneration, to be involuntarily laid off on the day as of which the deputy head accepts in writing the employee's resignation.

1.2 The Treasury Board Secretariat

• 1.2.1 It is the responsibility of the Treasury Board Secretariat to:
  1. investigate and seek to resolve situations referred by the PSC or other parties, and
  2. consider departmental requests for retraining resources.

1.3 The Public Service Commission

• 1.3.1 The PSC shall establish and modify staffing policies and procedures to ensure the most effective and efficient means of maximizing the redeployment of surplus employees and the appointment of laid-off persons to positions in the public service.
• 1.3.2 The PSC shall temporarily restrict or suspend any authority delegated to deputy heads to make appointments in specified occupational groups when such action is necessary.
• 1.3.3 The PSC shall actively market surplus employees and laid-off persons to all departments unless the individuals have advised the PSC in writing that they are not available for appointment.
• 1.3.4 The PSC shall advise the Treasury Board Secretariat when departments fail to comply in good faith with this directive and/or to cooperate with the PSC in redeployment, retraining, or appointment activities.
• 1.3.5 The PSC shall determine, to the extent possible, the occupations in which there are skill shortages for which surplus employees or laid-off persons could be retrained, and advise departments accordingly.
• 1.3.6 The PSC shall provide surplus and laid-off individuals with counselling on their work force adjustment situation and its impact on them during their priority entitlement.
• 1.3.7 The PSC shall provide information directly to bargaining agents on the numbers and status of their members who are in the Priority Administration System and, on a service-wide basis, through reports to the National Joint Council's Work Force Adjustment Committee.
• 1.3.8 The Public Service Commission shall decide whether employees are suitable for appointment. Where a deputy head recommends that an employee is not suitable, the PSC shall, after considering such a recommendation, and representations of the employee or his or her representative, advise the deputy head, the employee, and his or her representative of its decision whether the employee is entitled to surplus and lay-off priority and the reasons for the decision. The PSC shall also inform the bargaining agent of its decision.
• 1.3.9 The PSC shall, wherever possible, ensure that reinstatement priority is given to all employees who are subject to salary protection.
• 1.3.10 While the responsibility for retraining lies with the home department, the PSC is responsible for making the appropriate referrals and may recommend retraining where it would facilitate appointment, and the appointing department is responsible for considering retraining the individual and for justifying a decision not to retrain.
• 1.3.11 The PSC shall inform, in a routine and timely manner, a surplus employee or laid-off person, his or her home department and a representative of his or her bargaining agent, when he or she has been referred to a department for consideration but will not be offered the position. The PSC shall include full details of why he or she will not be appointed to or retrained for that position.

1.4 Employees

• 1.4.1 Employees have the right to be represented by their bargaining agents in the application of this directive.
• 1.4.2 Employees who are directly affected by work force adjustment situations and who receive a guarantee of a reasonable job offer, or who opt, or are deemed to have opted, for Option a) of Part VI of this directive are responsible for:
  1. actively seeking alternative employment in co-operation with their departments and the PSC, unless they have advised the department and the PSC, in writing, that they are not available for appointment;
  2. seeking information about their entitlements and obligations;
  3. providing timely information to the home department and to the PSC to assist them in their appointment activities (including curriculum vitae or resumes);
  4. ensuring that they can be easily contacted by the PSC and appointing departments, and attending appointments related to referrals;
  5. seriously considering job opportunities presented to them (referrals within the home department, referrals from the PSC, and job offers made by departments), including retraining and relocation possibilities, specified period appointments and lower-level appointments.
• 1.4.3 Opting employees are responsible for:
  1. considering the Options of Part VI of this directive;
  2. communicating their choice of Options, in writing, to their manager no later than 120 days after being declared opting.

1.5 National Joint Council Work Force Adjustment Committee

• 1.5.1 The terms of reference of this committee are to review and, where necessary, to recommend to the National Joint Council, changes to the Work Force Adjustment Directive, and to provide interpretation of the intent of the directive upon request.

 

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