From Thursday's Globe and Mail
Published on Wednesday, Mar. 03, 2010 5:30PM EST
Co-operation, not confrontation, is the path to fiscal salvation
For a hint of the turmoil to come
between Canada's public-sector workers and government, look to Europe.
The centrepiece of Ireland's recent budget was salary cuts across the
board: Nurses, the national police force and parliamentarians were all
caught in the dragnet. The British government is trying to trim its
public payroll, while austerity measures aimed at resolving a debt
crisis in Greece have led to riots. (More)
Public service bracing for cuts
By Kathryn May, Ottawa Citizen March 3, 2010
OTTAWA The Harper government targeted the public service with "aggressive" plans to freeze salaries, the operations of all departments and launch a major spending review that many predict will cut jobs and services to Canadians.
The plans, laid out in the federal government's throne speech Wednesday, came as no surprise for Canada's bureaucrats who were braced for the government to turn to its own employees, along with their pay and pensions, for savings. (More)
Civil servant unions pushing back on feared cuts to pensions
Civil servant unions pushing back on feared
cuts to pensions
By Kathryn May, Ottawa Citizen
OTTAWA — Canada's bureaucrats are steeled for this week's budget to
reduce the value of the deluxe pension plan that the government pitches
to new recruits as a reason to join the public service.
While
the two largest federal unions and the Canadian Labour Congress showed a
united front Tuesday to fight any cuts to federal pensions, the
government is wrapping up a recruitment campaign partly built around
"attractive compensation," including one of the best pension plans in
the country.
Departments have a target to hire 4,000 new
graduates by the end of March.
But the uncertainty over
pensions could deter new recruits and spark a stampede of retiring
workers who may opt to leave before the government guts their pensions,
said Gary Corbett, president of the Professional Institute of the Public
Service. He said the union is getting calls from workers pleading to
know whether they should retire now before pensions are cut. (More)
