Conservatives unveil plan to eliminate 19,200 federal civil service jobs in 2012 budget
Layoff notices started going out in the federal public service sector last week as part of the federal government’s plan to eliminate 19,200 jobs.
Although the number is lower than expected, eliminating that many jobs will be a long and frustrating process, according to John Gordon, president of the Public Sector Alliance of Canada (PSAC).
“We can’t get any detail,” he says. “We don’t know which programs or which departments they’re coming from yet.”
He estimates it will be four to six months before workers know for certain whether they’ll have a job or not, since about 7,200 of the lost jobs are expected to come from retirement and other voluntary departures.
But some union leaders say the government’s numbers are low. Since 2006, term and contract employees have been let go and spending freezes in place since 2010 have stalled hiring.
The overall impact is likely much higher, according to Gary Corbett, spokesperson for Public Service Professionals, a coalition representing more than 75,000 unionized workers.
“It’s being overplayed as underwhelming,” he says. “It’s serious with what’s going on in terms of jobs.”
The overall direct and indirect job losses will be closer to 50,000 when the cuts are fully implemented, estimates Chris Roberts, senior economist with the Canadian Labour Congress.
“It signals more difficult and anxious times — not that the last few years have been a bed of roses,” Roberts says. “It’s going from gloomy to downright grim.”
The federal government has said about a third of the cuts will be made in the Ottawa region, with the rest coming from across the country.
It’s anticipated many of those positions will come from employment insurance, defence and food inspection.
The approach is not fine-tuned enough, Corbett says.
“It’s too much about the money and not enough about people and communities,” he says. “We’re talking about destructuring. When we take a piece out, the whole system goes into a rethink.”
Gordon says he’s not sure whether the savings will be there in the end either.
“Many of these jobs are traditionally in remote areas and small communities,” he says. “It’s going to be much more difficult to find employment elsewhere.”
For those who remain, there will be some significant changes to their benefit plans as well.
The budget proposes changes that will see public-sector workers making pension contributions equal to their employer. Presently, they contribute about 37 per cent of their pensions.
Although the change was anticipated, Gordon is concerned with the lack of detail around how the figure was arrived at and how the increase will roll out.
“It’s the arbitrary way they do things that gets us,” he says. “If there is an imbalance, show us the numbers and we’ll deal with it.”
The budget also proposes to eliminate severance benefits for voluntary resignation or retirement.
In 2010, some PSAC members gave up voluntary severance in exchange for wage increases.
And Corbett says his members have reached several collective agreements in recent months that contain provisions on severance.
“I thought we were making progress,” he says. “Now there’s an edict from the federal government.”
Gordon at PSAC is similarly unimpressed and sees the inclusion of the severance provision in the budget as another attempt by the federal government to involve itself in labour relations.
“When you negotiate, there’s something you give for something you get,” he says. “There’s a feeling that when people are at the wire, the federal government will now yank the rug out and legislate them.”
There’s a longer-term impact of this budget, Roberts adds. By including provisions on things such as severance, he says the federal government is sending a signal to private sector employers.
“One of the ways to try to influence private-sector wage growth is to reduce the wages of your own employees,” he says.
While unions may feel the budget went too far, it didn’t go far enough for others.
Gregory Thomas, national director for the Canadian Taxpayer’s Federation, was expecting much deeper cuts.
“In the current situation, we’re not only collecting taxes to pay for these jobs but we’re also borrowing money and going into debt to create jobs,” he says. “There’s inefficient value in this.”
