Government restructuring and program review

January 26, 2004

Reclassification freeze and spending freeze

This document is an update on the government’s reclassification freeze and spending freeze.

Click on the following links for an update of government’s restructuring, on the program review announcements, the reclassification and spending freezes and the actions that have been taken by the PSAC to date.

Reclassification Freeze

• The government announced an immediate freeze on reclassifications.
• In one instance they say that the freeze is in effect until the President of Treasury Board and colleagues have reviewed concerns arising from the findings of the Auditor General regarding the Radwanski case.
• In another instance they say that the is freeze will continue until the end of the current fiscal year and is necessary to provide stability as the major organizational changes announced by the government on December 12, 2003, are implemented.
• The government says that reclassification process is not intended to interfere with due process insofar as statutory and legal processes are concerned.
• In order to justify the government’s position Treasury Board takes great efforts to delineate the differences between the reclassification of a position as opposed to the appointment to a position.
• It is the position of the PSAC that all of our members have the legal right to be paid for the work they perform. Where a position has been improperly classified, the incumbent is being paid less than what they are legally entitled to earn. A reclassification, therefore, is simply an adjustment in wage scales to bring a worker to the level which accurately reflects the value of the work they are performing. As such, we do not believe that any government can simply decree that they have the right to underpay their employees by refusing to adjust positions which are found to be improperly classified.
• Although the government appears to be at best mixed up at worst duplicitous they have made the following observations related to classification:
• Because the employer is bound to comply with the legal obligations related to classification grievances stipulated in the Public Service Staff Relations Act, reclassifications that result from classification grievances are exempt from the freeze.
• Employees participating in apprenticeship or professional development programs where prior legal commitments have been made are exempted from the freeze.
• There is an obligation to appoint employees in an incumbent-based system once the departmental promotion committee has approved the promotion case.
• If the appropriate departmental authority has formally approved/signed off on the classification decision before December 16, 2003, it is within the authority of the delegated Deputy Head to decide whether or not to make an appointment.
• If a classification committee met before December 16, 2003 and made a decision to reclassify a position but it has not been formally approved the government is advising its representatives that no further action related to this position or its incumbent may be taken at this time. The reclassification is affected by the freeze.

Spending Freeze

The government has said that:

• The freeze on public service is a "freeze on the total size of public service" i.e. the total salary budget.
• The freeze is on hiring, staffing or promotions within existing salary budgets.
• There is no freeze on increments in collective agreements but rather on the "incremental growth" of the public service.
• The freeze should not affect the movement of people to and from positions affected by recent organizational changes. There will be special measures for them as well.
• The overall goal of the freeze according to the government is to ensure the government can meet its commitment to transfer $2B to provinces for health.