Public service cuts put PIPSC members’ jobs on the line

HRSDC says 2,100 positions will be eliminated

About 900 federal government workers who are members of the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada (PIPSC) and work at Human Resources and Skills Development Canada (HRSDC) could lose their jobs as part of the government’s plans to cut various services.

More than 5,200 of PIPSC’s 60,000 members have received workforce adjustment notices, stating their jobs could be affected, since the 2012 federal budget was tabled. Of the 900 PIPSC members receiving notices, 886 are information technology specialists who support Service Canada’s management of employment insurance, old age security, the Canada Pension Plan and other benefits and seven are nurses who work as medical adjudicators and determine CPP applicants’ eligibility for disability benefits.

A further 589 HRSDC employees represented by the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) have also received notices.

"We are concerned about the impact of these cuts on our members and on the key services they provide Canadians," said PIPSC vice president Debi Daviau in a press release. "It may well be yet another step towards outsourcing public service work to the private sector, where data privacy and security are an issue.”

This is the second round of cuts at HRSDC. About 22 per cent of its staff have now received job notices, but the department told the CBC about one-half of those jobs will actually be eliminated.

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