Vaughn Palmer: The NDP job freeze has lots of exceptions. It recalls a prior NDP government that vowed to cuts thousands of jobs, and cut 14
VICTORIA — Premier David Eby announced a public sector “hiring freeze” last week in response to concerns that the government has been adding jobs at three times the rate of the private sector.
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“There is currently a hiring freeze among the public sector,” Eby assured the B.C. Chamber of Commerce during a speech in which he pledged to “reset” the NDP relationship with the business community.
The freeze would not apply to “front-line services like health care and education” but only “among the administration of the public service,” the premier hastened to clarify.
Finance Minister Brenda Bailey echoed the message in releasing this week’s update on provincial finances.
“This hiring freeze is really about us being smart with our internal resources, and as we work on the path to fiscal sustainability, the path to balance,” she told reporters in Victoria.
Bailey provided no details about any plan to restore balance and sustainability to provincial finances.
The fine print of her budget update did provide a telling perspective on the reputed hiring freeze.
In the first half of the current financial year, the New Democrats have already added the equivalent of 1,600 full-time jobs in central government, which is a four per cent increase in employment in just six months.
A serious-minded freeze might have commenced with a vow to phase out all the positions added this year. But that is not the NDP way.
This NDP government has already increased the number of full-time positions in central administration by 33 per cent during its seven years in office. Many of those are administrative, including non-union or excluded positions.
I doubt that will be the end of it, judging from an overview the government released after the premier’s announcement last week.
For starters, Eby’s hiring freeze is not, in fact a freeze, it is “a temporary pause in external hiring.”
“This is not a hiring freeze,” says the key passage in the document dated Dec. 12. “But rather a proactive measure to make sure the B.C. public service is making the best use of its resources in a constrained fiscal situation.”
There follow a number of exemptions and exceptions, large and small.
One: “The temporary external hiring pause applies to core B.C. public service positions. It does not apply to Crown corporations or other public sector organizations.” Along with Eby’s announced exclusion of schools, hospitals and other front-line service providers, the exemption for Crown corporations and agencies has the effect of excluding almost 90 per cent of all positions in the broad public sector.
Two: “Competitions where an offer has been made on or before Dec. 11, 2024 will proceed to completion.” Where eligible candidates have been identified, “they are to be offered a position in accordance with their placement on the list.”
Three: Despite the temporary pause, the government will continue to recruit and hire outside candidates “to fill critical and front-line positions or to meet an urgent government priority.” Which is to say, an urgent NDP priority.
I’m guessing that will allow the New Democrats to staff up the new Ministry of Infrastructure, charged with consolidating capital planning and procurement for schools, post-secondary institutions, health care facilities, court houses and correctional facilities.
Four: “The B.C. public service remains committed to reconciliation, equity, diversity and inclusion, and we recognize many of our internship programs support diversity. These programs remain unchanged and are an exception for hiring external candidates. Ministries are encouraged to continue their support for these programs.”
Five: Deputy ministers in each ministry have leeway to decide if a position meets “the criteria of critical and front-line or urgent government priority, for external posting.
“Primary consideration should be given to positions outside of Victoria and Vancouver and those that support increasing diversity and being more representative of the communities we serve.”
In short, the pause has many loopholes and there are plenty of ways to get around the restrictions on hiring.
It recalls a stunt the New Democrats pulled back in the 1990s, when then Premier Glen Clark was trying to make himself look tough in his dealings with the public sector unions.
Clark announced the elimination of 1,500 government positions and later expanded the target to include thousands more jobs. He reaped a lot of favourable news coverage, drew convenient protests from the union representing government employees, and the apparent showdown helped him win the 1996 provincial election.
Later, union head John Shields disclosed how many unionized workers were actually laid off in Clark’s staged winnowing of the public sector. Only 14.
Something to keep in mind during the unfolding of Eby’s open ended “pause” in public sector hiring.
“While there is no defined end date, this is considered an interim measure,” according to the Eby government overview. “The head of the public service (Shannon Salter) is committed to continued open communication about the hiring pause.”
By no coincidence the premier announced the pause at the outset of a year of contract bargaining with the public sector unions.
The unions doubtless saw through the government’s bogus freeze in a flash. But neither should the public be fooled.