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-
sications. is reects the importance of job classication 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 classication 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 classication structure of the Canadian civil service. e larger bargain-
ing agents in the federal public service have dedicated classication “experts”
to assist their members in challenging the classication of their jobs. Manage-
ment also has its own classication “experts” to review classication decisions
and, when necessary, reclassify positions. Employees of the federal public service
are very concerned about their job classication, hence the need for all of these
experts. Classication 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 classication. As discussed in Chapter
Five, bargaining u nits in the federal public service t ypically follow classication
lines. Furt her, the various collective agreements i n the federal public service con-
tain dierent levels of pay for each classication level. Finally, some positions in
the federal public ser vice require experience at a part icular classication level i n
order for a candidate to be eligible for that posit ion. erefore, classication can
have a signicant impact on an employee’s career.
Classication 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 classications as
well. us began what seems l ike an endless strea m of classication reform. While
attempts to reform the public serv ice classication 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 classication
system simpler, less burdensome, and to reduce administrative costs. e original
design was to reform the classication 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 lassication 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 sication would impair human
resources. Instead, it decided to focus on reforming the classication standards
for certain occupational groups. While the Public Service Human Resource
Management Agency maintains that the UCS project provided a benet to the
public serv ice, it is hard to escape the conclusion that the public service wasted
millions of dol lars on fruitless clas sication reform.
On December , the federal government announced a “freeze” on re-
classications. at freeze was lied on February . At the same time, the
government announced mandatory publication of information concerning the
reclassic 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 reclassied.
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 Classication Reform” ( May ).
ecurrentfocusisontheForeignService(FS)groupclassication(whichhasbeene current focus i s on the Foreign Service (FS) g roup classication (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 Classication 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 , Classication 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.
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