Criteria for the Provision of “No guarantee of reasonable Job Offer” in Workforce Adjustment Situations within HRSDC

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Background

  • Under Work Force Adjustment agreements (WFA), indeterminate employees whose services are no longer required because of a work force adjustment situation may or may not receive a guarantee of a reasonable job offer (GRJO).

Overall Considerations

  • A GRJO should only be provided to employees affected by workforce adjustment for whom the Deputy Head knows or can predict employment availability within the core public administration (normally within 12 months).
  • The provision of a GRJO represents an ongoing commitment on the part of the department and should take into account current and future departmental budget limitations. Decisions about whether to provide a GRJO should take into account financial pressures and the cost of replacing well-qualified employees in meeting future needs.
  • If it is determined that it will not be possible to provide a GRJO, a consistent and transparent approach should be used to ensure that decisions can be explained to affected employees and their bargaining agents.
  • No-GRJO decisions should be made on a case-by-case basis and must result in a position being eliminated.

Context

The determination of whether a GRJO can be provided must take into consideration the broader Government of Canada operating context in which 67 departments are participating in a review of their operating expenditures at the same time. First and foremost, consideration must be given to the absorption capacity of surplus employees within HRSDC. On a secondary basis, consideration should be given to considering the placement capacity of surplus employees within the core public administration.

Criteria for the Provision of no GRJO within HRSDC

  1. Consideration of the affected employees’ willingness to be marketed to other positions (i.e. is the employee willing to be marketed for other jobs within and/or outside the Department? Does the employee want to remain employed in the federal public service?).


  2. Given salary budgets, business plans, internal vacancies and projected staffing for the planning period (12 to 18 months), there is not a reasonable likelihood that funded positions are or will become available to which a surplus employee could be deployed or appointed within their headquarters area. This determination may be based on the following factors:
  • Planned staffing/absorption capacity within HRSDC over the next 12 months.
  • Employee work location mobility – employee is in a remote location with little federal presence that may limit the potential for re-employment and/or the employee is not mobile to where jobs are located in the Department.
  • Employee language profile – how the language profile compares to language profiles requested for that same or equivalent level.
  • Employee’s skills – is there potential to transfer the employee’s skills (i.e. are the skills of the affected employee are very specialized whereby retraining for another position would be onerous or inappropriate).
  • Consideration of whether there will be a future need for the skills of the affected employee and of the vacancies that may open up in the next year across the core public administration, including an examination of the number, types of positions within the relevant occupational groups, levels and locations. This determination should be based on the following factors:
    • Number and types of priorities within the Public Service Commission Priority Information Management System (PIMS) for the relevant occupational group, level and locations;
    • Trends in staffing and placement activity based on PIMS data;
    • Population of indeterminate employees working at the same or equivalent levels;
    • Consultation with Regional Federal Councils to determine whether there are opportunities for deploying or appointing surplus employees in other organizations in the same locale or region.