Classification

• Author: Christopher Rootham
• Pages: 433-459

 

CLASSIFICATION

A. INTRODUCTION

is book is the only legal text that would dedicate an entire chapter to job clas-

sications. is reects the importance of job classication to employees in the

federal public serv ice. e second-largest federal public ser vice union — the Pro-

fessional Institute of the Public Service of Canada — was founded in  in

response to concerns about classication reform, in particular the hostility of

higher civil ser vants to the U.S. rms that had been h ired to survey the organiz a-

tion and classication structure of the Canadian civil service. e larger bargain-

ing agents in the federal public service have dedicated classication “experts”

to assist their members in challenging the classication of their jobs. Manage-

ment also has its own classication “experts” to review classication decisions

and, when necessary, reclassify positions. Employees of the federal public service

are very concerned about their job classication, hence the need for all of these

experts. Classication is important because the identity of an employee’s bar-

gaining agent, t he level of pay for an employee, and the employee’s promotional

prospects depend upon the employee’s classication. As discussed in Chapter

Five, bargaining u nits in the federal public service t ypically follow classication

lines. Furt her, the various collective agreements i n the federal public service con-

tain dierent levels of pay for each classication level. Finally, some positions in

the federal public ser vice require experience at a part icular classication level i n

order for a candidate to be eligible for that posit ion. erefore, classication can

have a signicant impact on an employee’s career.

Classication in t he federal public service, l ike bargaining, has a lso been sub-

ject to legislative control. e  Public Service Reform Act required the feder al

government to prepare new occupational groups. e impact of this Act on the

Public Serv ice Reform Act, S.C. , c.  .

433

434         

bargaining unit structure in the federal public service has already been addressed;

however, creating new occupational groups required new job classications as

well. us began what seems l ike an endless strea m of classication reform. While

attempts to reform the public serv ice classication system date back to the mid-

s, the major reform began in  with t he Universal Classi cation Standard

(UCS) project. e goal of this project was ostensibly to make the classication

system simpler, less burdensome, and to reduce administrative costs. e original

design was to reform the classication system on a universal basis applicable to

all occupational groups, except the Executive Group. ere were two reasons for

this plan. First, it was hoped that a common approach to job measurement (one

standard versus the seventy-two in place in ) would greatly simplify the sys-

tem, reduce the administrat ive burden on managers and lower the administrative

overhead costs of maintai ning the system. Second, a single c lassication standard

would facilitate the creation of a single corresponding pay structure. Collapsing

all of the occupational group pay structures into one structure also appeared to

be the most promising way to ensure compliance with the requirements of the

Canadian Human Rights Act for equal pay for work of equal value.

Despite these good intentions, Treasury Bo ard abandoned the UCS project in

. It decided that a universal approach to clas sication would impair human

resources. Instead, it decided to focus on reforming the classication standards

for certain occupational groups. While the Public Service Human Resource

Management Agency maintains that the UCS project provided a benet to the

public serv ice, it is hard to escape the conclusion that the public service wasted

millions of dol lars on fruitless clas sication reform.

On  December , the federal government announced a “freeze” on re-

classications. at freeze was lied on  February . At the same time, the

government announced mandatory publication of information concerning the

reclassic ation of occupied positi ons in the Public Ser vice of Canada . Every three

months, departments must publ ish a list of positions that have been reclassied.

 SeeChapter.See Chapter .

Canadian Human Rig hts Act, R.S.C. , c. H-.

 iswasannouncedinaTreasuryBoardPressReleaseeuphemisticallycalled“Govern-is was annou nced in a Treasury Board P ress Release euphemistic ally called “Gove rn-

ment Moves Ahead wit h Classication Reform” ( May ).

 ecurrentfocusisontheForeignService(FS)groupclassication(whichhasbeene current focus i s on the Foreign Service (FS) g roup classication (which has be en

implemented) and the Ec onomics and Social Scienc es (EC) Group and Program and

Administ rative Service s (PA) Group. See Public Ser vice Human Resourc es Management

Agency of Canada, Modernizi ng the Classication Syste m: Annual Report –,

online: ww w.hrma-agrh.gc.ca /reports-rapports/mcs-msc _e.asp.

 PublicServiceHumanResourcesManagementAgencyofCanada,Public Serv ice Human Resources Ma nagement Agency of Canada , Classication Mod-

ernization , FAQ Manager ( November ), online: Public Serv ice Human Resources

Management Agency of Canada: www.hrma-agrh.gc.ca/Classi cation/FAQ/Manager_e.asp.

 eseareusuallyfoundonthedepartment’swebsite.ese are usua lly found on the depart ment’s website.