Petulantly Entitled

      The ‘Harper Hates Me’ campaign was the Public Service Alliance of Canada’s peevish response to the Conservative government’s initiatives to cut spending, eliminate 20,000 jobs and ‘bring them in line with the private sector.’

"It's a grand slam home run. Reform the public service to make it more efficient, and save monies in so doing while receiving applause from supportive voters across the country in the private sector.
"It seems very clear to me that the Harper government is genuinely driven by all three goals -- each of which are mutually reinforcing and consistent -- not contradictory.
"And it can be used as a wedge issue against both the Liberals and NDP in the next election. I fully expect the Conservatives to flip the NDP and Liberals and accuse them of a hidden agenda to undo reforms and bring back these benefits."
Professor Ian Lee, Carleton University, Sprott School of Business

"By and large the public service is populated by dedicated people who care about their country and they want to contribute to it, and that's how I see them. Are there exceptions to that? Absolutely ... as there are exceptions in any field of work.
"But no, I want to work with public servants and I really do believe the approach I am taking is fair and reasonable and will actually help those who want to work hard, get compensated and do productive things for government services and therefore our economy.
"I'm not going to give you my wage and benefit target for collective bargaining, but it has to be in the line of sight of what people see in their own lives. There can't be a complete disconnect between what is being paid to the pubic sector versus what's compensated for in the private sector. It's not acceptable, it's not sustainable, and the taxpayer won't stand for it."
Treasury Board President Tony Clement

The Government of Canada is on track in its campaign to change the public service, to bring it into the 21st Century in service to the public. There is, of course, the issue of cost-cutting as well, to bring down Canada's deficit and its debt. Public service hiring was on an upward spiral under this government's earlier years in office. And a turnaround is now in the works, deflating a bloated bureaucracy.

In response to the announced changes-to-come, including the loss of jobs in the public service remake, the Public Service Alliance of Canada predictably embarked on a campaign of their own, slandering the Prime Minister as someone who is opposed to the public service, considering those who work for government to be laggards and inefficient anchors preventing services from moving forward in a more efficient and timely, constructive manner.

They initiated a "Stephen Harper hates me" campaign to energize union members into protest action, and to try to convince the voting public that the Prime Minister is on a collision course with the public service. We're in what is termed the digital age, but one might hardly know it from the lack of use of the medium throughout the public service. But it's time and past time to move forward, streamline the workforce and enlist modern technology in the process.

Mr. Clement's moves to eliminate severance pay, altering the public service pension plan for new hires to save the government billions, tying executive pay to demonstrated performance, freezing departments' operating budgets, and eliminating 20,000 jobs has not endeared either him or the Conservative-led government and the Prime Minister to federal public service unions. The notorious rate of absenteeism linked to "sinking morale" within the public service is next on the agenda.

Morale has, in fact, little to do with the sky-high rate of absenteeism and other entitlements that public servants take for granted. They quite simply have bought into that culture; since the sick days are there to be taken when needed, they feel they need to take them irrespective of actual 'need' related to illness. They're laughingly referred to as 'mental health days' by workers who feel they could use a little time off from jobs they're not fully invested in other than for solidly reliable wages.

The Canadian Federation of Independent Business issued the results of studies that showed federal bureaucrats earning double-digit premiums over the private sector workforce. The Conservative government listened and took notes. Other studies validate those findings, that public servants earn more; even lower-end clerical and administrative jobs, since the recognition of the right to pay equity, are compensated over private sector counterparts.

Within professional and managerial jobs the gap is less evident, then it levels out and shrinks comparatively with private sector CEOs who receive enormous wage packets. The fact that mostly women are in those low-level jobs, who would be hit hardest if government ever decided their wage packet should reflect that of the private sector, will act as a deterrent to radical changes in downward wage compensation.

A report led by former senior bureaucrat James Lahey resulted in 77 recommendations for change, a few of which were implemented; that report updated in 2011, estimating that public servants receive an 8 to 9 percent premium on salaries. That premium really racks up on several hundred thousand jobs. The studies suggest primary factors in premium wages for public servants rest with loose controls, uneven management and bias at the bargaining table with governments negotiating costlier settlements than required.

More latterly, a high-powered committee of private sector executives has been tasked with advising the prime minister on the public service, the panel headed by David Emerson, formerly a Liberal then a Conservative cabinet minister, businessman and former Privy Council clerk Paul Tellier. Bureaucrats should learn to use technology to network and bring Canadians inside government, mastering social media, learning to manage information to collaborate, rather than control, they suggest.

"We have been dealing with the prime minister and we haven't really focused on compensation at all in terms of the relative levels between the public and private sectors. We have been looking at the overall way the public service operates and whether it is keeping up with private sector practices and standards of what I would call high performance organizations in a modern, global, competitive digital environment. That's the focus", explained Mr. Emerson.

So stay tuned for more government initiatives and increased agitation on the part of the public service unions.