Key points to guide the speech of

Maria Barrados
President
Public Service Commission of Canada

The New Public Service Employment Act and Employees

delivered at the
National Joint Council Annual Seminar

September 21, 2006

Introduction

Thank you for inviting me here today. I would especially like to thank the bargaining agents for giving me this time slot. As you all know the PSEA came into force December 2005. Bargaining agents are one of our key stakeholders. Indeed, the new PSEA requires us to consult bargaining agents. I am proud to say we have been doing that for years. In 1998, the PSC created the Public Service Commission Advisory Council (PSCAC). This is our own unique consultative body. Senior representatives of bargaining agents are key members of the Advisory Council.

I would like to take the opportunity to thank John Gordon who has been co-chair of the PSCAC for last four years. I would like to welcome Ed Cashman, who is the new co-chair. I would also like to recognize Paul Burkholder, the other PSCAC co-chair who is with us today. Thank you all.

The PSCAC is an important forum for getting advice and input from bargaining agents and departments. For example, over the last three years, the Council was key in implementing the new PSEA, primarily through its working groups on the new appointment framework and political activities in the federal public service. We have worked extensively with bargaining agents, managers and HR professionals on the lead up to the coming-into-force date. Our focus at the Commission, as you know, has been putting the framework in place – creating tools for managers and HR professionals; strengthening ties to Parliament; and reforming ourselves in Audit, Investigations, and Services to take on our new roles and responsibilities.

As we move to fully implementing the new Act, we would like to ensure that we are addressing employee interests and concerns. With your help we have accomplished a lot. At the PSC, we are asking ourselves if we have addressed the needs of employees sufficiently. I recognize bargaining agents, on behalf of employees, have concerns that the new Act gives managers too much discretion and that the right to recourse has been limited.

The new Act does give managers more discretion but this is balanced by the PSC’s stronger oversight role. And the opportunities the new Act presents are opportunities for employees too – and that is what I want to talk about today.

Specifically, I would like to talk about employees and the new appointment process; oversight and its visibility; career development; and access to recourse.

Appointment processes

Employees have expressed frustration about what we used to call competitions. For example, the length of time to finalize these, and the lack of transparency. The new PSEA provides opportunity for innovation and working in new ways. With full delegation, there are opportunities to establish approaches to staffing that best meet an organization’s business needs and align these with human resources plans. Another example is the use of collective staffing processes. For employees this could mean faster staffing as managers save time involved in interviewing, testing and evaluating a large number of candidates every time they want to staff a position.

Employees would only have to go through one evaluation process to be potentially eligible for a number of positions within one or more organizations. A look at the PubliService Web site shows that many appointment processes are being used to staff more than one position. There is also a new definition of merit.

We have heard concerns that hiring managers will abuse the new features of Act, particularly the greater discretion they have – that they will have carte blanche to staff any way they wish.

I certainly hope this is not the case. The PSC has made its expectations clear. In the application of merit, qualifications and requirements must be established at the outset, linked to HR plans and widely communicated. Greater discretion is also balanced by strengthened accountability. In this delegated model, deputy heads are accountable to us for respecting the values that underlie staffing in the public service. Merit, non-partisanship, fairness, access, transparency, representativeness – these are values that protect employees.

The PSC, in turn, is accountable to Parliament. We are independent from the executive. We have a continuum of accountability tools to ensure adherence to the values. These include binding policy; delegation agreements; reporting requirements; monitoring; audits and investigations.

We have teeth. We can put conditions on delegation. We can withdraw delegation. We can revoke appointments (where not delegated). And we have a track record. We have conducted audits of the Canadian Space Agency, the Commission for Public Complaints against the RCMP, and the Military Police Complaints Commission. In 2005-2006, we removed eight names from eligibility lists and revoked two appointments as a result of investigations that were founded. Twelve appointments were revoked as a result of appeals that were allowed.

Career development

The new Act puts a focus on meeting organizational needs through a stronger link to planning. Managers need to proactively identify staffing needs in order to apply the more flexible merit definition. This should minimize ad hoc staffing. Employees will benefit by having a better idea of the type of people, skills and experience their organization will need in the future. They will be able to create a career plan based on something tangible.

Recourse - the opportunity for feedback and dialogue

In the past, employees expressed frustration that it wasn’t easy to understand why they weren’t selected for a position or what they could have done differently to be successful. The new PSEA addresses that concern through a new feature – informal discussion. This feature is of direct benefit to employees in that it gives them a chance to ask the hiring manager for the reasons behind their decisions. If an error was made there is now a chance to correct it, and put the person back into the process if need be.

More formal processes

Participating in informal discussion doesn’t preclude a candidate from using a more formal process, like filing an appeal with the new Public Service Staffing Tribunal. There can also be deputy head investigations into internal staffing actions which can result in the revocation of an appointment if an error has been made.

I understand bargaining agents are concerned that the grounds for appeal are more limited. The grounds are different – that is what the legislation has given us. As an independent organization, the PSC will play a role. We have standing at the Tribunal and will present an independent view from that of the employer. At times we may agree - at other times we will not. Under the legislation, we are entitled to be heard by the Tribunal in all cases including where we have delegated authorities to deputy heads. My General Counsel appeared at the first PSST hearing in Belleville at the end of August. The Tribunal chair has promised a quick decision. The PSC will always focus on and be concerned with the overall health of the system.

Conclusion

For now, we have to work with the legislation we have. I am committed to make it work. In five years, the new PSEA will be reviewed. There will be an opportunity to improve the Act.

In the meantime, we have lots of work to do to fully implement it. This remains one of the PSC’s key priorities.