Plans to reduce the federal service mean thousands of roles will change or disappear, in a complicated process that thousands of employees across the civil service are navigating as they receive notices this month.\u00a0<\/p>\n
How the downsizing will impact employees depends on their department, and whether they\u2019re covered by a union\u2019s collective bargaining agreement.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Many are being offered buyouts, early retirement packages and voluntary departures. <\/p>\n
Others are engaging in a process allowing civil servants to trade jobs. The program \u2014 negotiated by unions in collective bargaining \u2014 matches job-seekers with employees exiting the civil service.<\/p>\n
The Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) has more than 2,100 members using an online platform it created to help civil servants find these matches, while the Treasury Board\u00a0launched its own internal platform last year.<\/p>\n
Other unions, like the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada (PIPSC), and some government departments, have created similar platforms.<\/p>\n
The online sites connect federal workers and allow them to share experiences about different jobs.<\/p>\n
Known in bargaining as \u201calternation\u201d, PIPSC president Sean O\u2019Reilly says the process helps employees affected by job cuts stay employed by finding positions being vacated through someone leaving the public service.<\/p>\n
But some departments \u201cdon\u2019t want to participate\u201d in the job-matching process, O\u2019Reilly said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt doesn’t seem like there’s a concerted effort to actually try to make sure that the alternation process works,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
PSAC National President Sharon DeSousa called the process \u201cone of the best ways for workers who received an opting or surplus letter to stay in the public service,\u201d but said a centralized government platform would have been more \u201ctransparent\u201d and \u201cfair.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u201cCuts were already happening, and workers were left to figure it out on their own,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Employees covered under collective-bargaining may know what their options are, but not their specific situation yet.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Departments are moving at different paces, and until the budget passes after Parliament returns next week, certain measures \u2014 like early retirements \u2014 can’t happen. <\/p>\n
DeSousa says her members need to know what their future holds, but \u201cdon\u2019t have that information.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
If a department does not sufficiently reduce staffing through early retirement and voluntary departures, workers wanting to remain employed will have to apply for other positions. <\/p>\n
In such cases, members of the same team may have to compete with each other for a limited number of remaining positions. This process does not take union seniority into account and is known as “selection of employees for retention or layoff”. <\/p>\n
This amounts to the government pitting workers against each other, according to PIPSC.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s going to be like The Hunger Games<\/em>,\u201d O\u2019Reilly said, referring to the dystopian action film in which adolescents fight to the death in a televised event.<\/p>\n The government plans to eliminate approximately 40,000 positions<\/u><\/a> compared to the peak reached in 2023-2024.\u00a0<\/p>\n This 10 per cent reduction in size is aimed at making savings of nearly $13 billion over four years<\/u><\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n In the last year, the civil service has already shrunk by 10,000 jobs.\u00a0<\/p>\nShrinking public service\u00a0<\/h2>\n