Guiding Document on the Assignment of Meaningful Work to Employees Affected by Workforce Adjustment

Context

Within the Department, many employees have reached their decision point in accordance with workforce adjustment agreements (e.g. they have selected an option; they have decided whether to relocate with their work unit, etc.)

Requirements

Employees who have been informed in writing that they are subject to workforce adjustment (WFA) must be assigned meaningful work for which they are qualified and which would be seen to be reasonably within their skill sets/competencies.
Regardless of how the employee reached surplus status, employees can be assigned their current work up until a date specified by management. Once that date has passed they must be assigned other valid work.
Employees cannot refuse to perform meaningful work.
Employees must not be sent home and must be assigned valid work.
Meaningful work can include, for example, an assignment to work on a special project, or other functions that are a continuing part of the Department’s mandate.
Any work assigned should be regarded as temporary in nature and not as a formal appointment to another position.

Considerations

The following are considerations to guide managers in the assignment of work to employees during the surplus and/or opting period:

Surplus employees with a guarantee of a reasonable job offer (GRJO) or an opting employee who chooses option A, a twelve month limited surplus priority period, will be placed in the Public Service Commission’s Priority Information Management System and be referred to positions for which they qualify as a surplus priority.
Employees who have been identified as Option A, a 12-month surplus priority period, are mandatorily registered in the departmental Vacancy Management System (VMS) to enable the Department to fulfill its commitment to work with them in finding alternate employment during their surplus period. By selecting option A, employees are deemed to have provided their consent to be registered in the VMS and referred for available positions.
In accordance with WFA agreements, employees are responsible for “actively seeking alternative employment in cooperation with their department or organization and the PSC”.
The home branch/region must allow sufficient time for surplus employees to prepare resumes, receive counselling, search for positions, attend interviews, etc.
The challenge is in striking a balance between providing sufficient time to employees to make themselves available for the “job search” and to continue assigning them meaningful work when they are in the work place. Common sense should prevail.

Discontinuance of a Function or Lack of Work

In the case of surplus and opting employees, management is responsible for determining the date that the functions of the surplus position will discontinue or become redundant. Employees can continue to be assigned their current functions up until the date the functions are to be discontinued. In the case of opting employees, this date can be beyond the 120-day opting decision period.
Surplus and opting employees whose functions have already ceased to exist should not be assigned work that is the same as those responsibilities of the position from which the employee was declared surplus.
If the Department assigns the same duties to a surplus employee after the date that their position ceases to function or becomes redundant, they run the risk of a grievance/challenge by that employee arguing that the function still in fact exists or that there is not a lack of work, as the Department is still requiring them to perform the same duties.

Relocation of Work Unit

Employees impacted by a relocation of their work unit can continue to be assigned their current work up until the date the work is to be relocated.
After the relocation date (as specified in the letter advising them of the relocation of work unit situation), employees must be assigned other meaningful work while in surplus/opting status.