Public service sees biggest staffing squeeze since 1990s

OTTAWA – A growing list of jobless public servants, coupled with spending cuts and a shrinking pool of jobs, signals a staffing squeeze in the federal government not seen since the massive downsizing of the 1990s.

Maria Barrados, president of the Public Service Commission, says the number of workers on the government’s priority list for jobs is climbing and she’s braced for that list to grow as spending restraints kick in and more workers are laid off or declared surplus.

The latest twist is the commission isn’t placing as many of these workers in new jobs now that the growth in the size of the public service for much of the decade has all but stopped in its tracks.

"As we move into slower growth and real downsizing that will reduce the size of the public service, there will be fewer positions and more people coming onto the list," Barrados said. "That means we won’t be able to place as many."

Deputy ministers and agency heads are responsible for staffing and decide what jobs they need. But the government offers many protections and hiring preferences for workers who lose their jobs or take leave. The commission keeps an inventory, called the priority list, of all workers with hiring preferences for job vacancies as they come up.

The first in line are public servants who lose their jobs because they are declared surplus, laid off or on leave.

The spouses of slain military, reservists and other bureaucrats fall into the next tier of candidates who get preferences. They also include employees who have become disabled, those whose spouses are relocated and members of the military and RCMP who have been medically released from service.

The number of people on the list grew consistently over the decade, but jumped 31 per cent last year when 1,635 new cases were added. With carry-overs from previous years, the list hit 2,850 people by year-end. About 740 people were placed.

The biggest increase came from surplus workers, whose numbers soared 294 per cent. Although their jobs have been declared surplus, they remain on payroll and many are guaranteed a "reasonable job offer" before they are terminated or laid off. At the same time as this major increase in surplus workers, the number of requests from departments looking for people on the list slipped 10 per cent.

The priority list is still far from the record highs of the mid-1990s with the Liberals’ program review, which wiped up to 50,000 jobs off the payroll. In 1994-95, the list swelled with more than 12,100 people. About 3,860 were carry-overs, but 8,250 were new and the majority were surplus workers.

Unlike the deep and immediate cuts of program review, Barrados said the public service is facing steady cumulative cuts which become more difficult to manage over time.