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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                  August 28, 2002

 Joint PSAC/Treasury Board study recommends making term employees permanent after two years

             OTTAWA - The Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) is pleased with the findings and recommendations of a joint union-management committee study on term employment in the federal government, the first ever to include the perspective of term employees themselves.

             “We are particularly pleased with the joint committee’s recommendation that term employees be automatically converted to indeterminate status after two years of cumulative service in the same department,” says PSAC National President Nycole Turmel.  “A key finding of the study is that waiting five years to appoint a term employee to an indeterminate, or permanent, position is just too long.

                        The conversion for term employees would be phased in.  Employees with three or more years of cumulative service would be converted immediately to indeterminate status upon implementation of the policy.  One year later, term employees with two or more years of service would be converted.  At the end of that year, and in future, term employees would be converted upon completion of two years of service. 

            According to Turmel, “the number of employees hired for limited periods of time has increased steadily since the mid-80’s when thousands of permanent public sector jobs were slashed.  PSAC has been raising this concern at the bargaining table for years.  During the last round of bargaining, Treasury Board finally agreed to establish a joint committee to review the use of term employment and the recruitment, treatment and retention of term employees.”

             The joint committee, composed of equal numbers of PSAC and employer representatives, reviewed existing research and met with approximately 1,000 employees and managers to formulate their recommendations.

             Among the committee’s 30 recommendations are included:  developing long-term human resources strategies, increasing the number of permanent employees, ensuring that term employees compete only once for their job upon initial appointment and offering orientation sessions and career counseling to term employees.  The full set of recommendations can be viewed at the PSAC web site. 

             “Many of the study recommendations don’t require a policy change,” explains Turmel.  “Departments can and should start implementing them immediately.  We strongly urge them to consult with us and to begin converting long service term employees immediately.  They’ve suffered enough job insecurity.

             “The joint committee deserves our thanks for a job well done.  Now, it’s up to the federal government to do the right thing and implement all the committee’s recommendations without further delay.  The Treasury Board is undertaking a policy review of term employment.  We believe the joint study should form the basis for a new policy, fast-tracked for implementation at the beginning of the next fiscal year, April 1, 2003.  The PSAC will remain vigilant in pushing for the timely implementation of these recommendations and protecting the rights of our term members.”

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 For information:         Nycole Turmel, PSAC National President, (613) 560-4330

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