Canadian officers shun cultural awareness training

Canadian Federal Public Servants appear indifferent to a variety of Indigenous cultural awareness and sensitivity programs offered through the Canada School of Public Service (CSPS), with the highest Department attendance being just 16 per cent.

 The CSPS offers 15 different training sessions on Indigenous issues, known as the Indigenous Training Series, but less than a fifth of Public Servants have attended any one session, according to the numbers from the CSPS.

 The most-attended session, called Reflecting on Cultural Bias: Indigenous Perspectives, has seen 51,430 Public Servants participate as of June this year.

 Other sessions, including Taking Steps Towards Indigenous Reconciliation, saw participation rates lower than one per cent.

 While employees in Indigenous Services Canada and Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada are required to complete 15 hours of culturally-competent learning each year, there is no Government-wide directive for mandatory training on Indigenous topics.

 A former Federal employee and a plaintiff in a class-action lawsuit alleging systemic discrimination in the Federal Public Service, Letitia Wells said the low participation rates were disappointing, but not surprising.

 "Confronting racism when you are part of an organisation that has that very racism embedded as part of its culture is painful," Ms Wells said.

 A statement from President of the Treasury Board, Mona Fortier said the CSPS provided a number of training resources on Indigenous topics, but Departments were responsible for determining what was made mandatory.

 Meanwhile, a recent survey has found Federal workers are increasingly cynical, sceptical and disillusioned about the idea of reporting wrongdoing in the Public Service.

Research firm Phoenix Strategic Perspectives Inc. found that pessimism was more “palpable and widespread” now than it was before the pandemic, and bureaucrats have become more likely to fear reprisals for whistle-blowing.

The report was delivered to the Office of the Public Sector Integrity Commissioner, which investigates serious abuses within the Federal Government.

The Commissioner, Joe Friday, said there was a maze of oversight mechanisms available to Public Servants and it could be discouraging or exhausting to figure out where to lodge a complaint.

“Public Servants are feeling more isolated and disconnected during the pandemic, making it more difficult to feel confident in coming forward, let alone to gather the sort of documentation that whistle-blowers need,” Mr Friday (pictured) said.

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Black Canadian officers take complaint to UN

Black Canadian Public Servants have filed a complaint with the United Nations, alleging their civil rights have been violated.

The complaint by the Black Class Action Secretariat has been sent to the UN Commission for Human Rights Special Rapporteur on racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance.

It follows a class action lawsuit the same group filed against the Canadian Government accusing it of systemic racism, discrimination and employee exclusion.

Executive Director of the Secretariat, Nicholas Marcus Thompson said the complaint “details systemic and anti-Black racism in hiring and promotions within Canada's Federal Public Service".

"With this complaint, we are elevating Canada's past failures and failure to act in the present to an international body," Mr Thompson (pictured) said.

He said he hoped the UN Special Rapporteur would investigate the complaint and call on Canada to meet its international obligations to Black employees.

“We want a plan to be established to increase opportunities for Black women in the Government and develop specific targets for hiring and promoting Black workers,” Mr Thompson said.

Amnesty International has thrown its weight behind the complaint, noting that 70 per cent of the 1,500 employees who had joined the class action were Black women.

Secretary General of Amnesty International Canada, Ketty Nivyabandi called on the Government to establish a designated category under the Employment Equity Act for Black employees. The Government has launched a task force to review this legislation.

President of the Treasury Board, Mona Fortier agreed that far too many Black Canadians still faced discrimination and hate.

"The Government is actively working to address harm and to create a diverse and inclusive Public Service free from harassment and discrimination,” Ms Fortier said.

“We have passed legislation, created support and development programs, and published disaggregated data, but we know there is still more to do."

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Report highlights aging Greek bureaucrats

Greece ranks third in member countries of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) for the percentage of its Public Servants aged more than 55 years, a new report from the OECD has found.

More specifically, while the average for the OECD countries is 26 per cent, in Greece that percentage is 37 per cent.

With 48 per cent, Italy has the highest percentage of middle-aged Public Servants, followed by Spain with 46 per cent.

In Greece, the implementation of restrictive measures on new recruitment in the public sector during the decade of the country’s financial crisis certainly played a role as new blood was not allowed to enter.

However, a public administration official says the biggest problem is not age but mentality.

“When I told an employee many years ago I wanted to show him how to make computerised receipts and stop writing them by hand, he replied: ‘What do I need these for? In 20 years I will retire’,” the unnamed official said.

According to the OECD, countries with older bureaucrats are more likely to experience difficulties in enacting necessary policies.

Experts note that Public Services must be able to cope with the challenge of digital transformation on the one hand, but also with the new demands of citizens in their relationship with the State on the other.

“As the entire population of the European Union, and Greece in particular, is aging, it will need more and more help and support,” the OECD report states.  

“Public officials will also need to develop the ability to help and interact effectively with citizens. In particular, an increasing number of necessary documents can now be searched for digitally, which requires different processing times.”

The report said that the familiar phrase of Public Servants: “We need another document” will no longer be used as an alibi for delay.

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New salary framework for Singapore officials

                                                

Singapore’s Public Service Division (PSD) says it will adjust the salaries of Administrative Service officers as well as judicial and selected statutory appointment-holders by between five and 12 per cent from October.

In a statement, the PSD said these salaries were last adjusted almost 15 years ago.

“Since then, gaps with market benchmarks have increased significantly. These adjustments will enable the Public Service to continue to attract and retain its fair share of talent for key leadership roles,” the statement said.

The salary adjustment will affect about 300 Administrative Service officers as well as 30 judicial and statutory appointment-holders, PSD said.

They include the Chief Justice, Judges of the Court of Appeal, Appellate Division and the High Court, as well as Judicial Commissioners.

Aside from those, the Attorney-General, Deputy Attorneys-General, the Chair of the Public Service Commission and the Auditor-General will also benefit from the pay adjustment.

The PSD said it would continue to strengthen its development efforts across all schemes of service beyond just providing competitive salaries.

“Administrative Service officers can continue to look forward to job rotations, attachments in the private and people sectors, as well as leadership milestone programs,” the statement said.

“The Public Service will continue to periodically review salaries of public officers and adjust them when necessary to broadly keep pace with, but not lead, the market.”

Economist, Song Seng Wun said the salary adjustments were timely given that the last review was some 15 years ago.

“Whether you are in the Public Service or in private sector, everyone should be paid according to their skill sets, and be rewarded accordingly with a salary that is consistent with the market value in that particular point in time,” Mr Song said.

Asked whether the private sector will take the cue from the PSD’s wage initiative, Mr Song said it had always been the private sector that “leads because it is market-determined”.

“It’s always the case of public sector playing catch-up to whatever is happening in the private sector. This is why you see the private sector ‘pinching’ workers from the public sector. They always look at the public sector to find talent,” he said.

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‘Orthodox’ UK Treasury chief sacked

The Permanent Secretary of the Treasury has become the first casualty of Prime Minister, Liz Truss’s promised shake-up of the bureaucracy with Sir Tom Scholar announcing his exit.

New Chancellor of the Exchequer, Kwasi Kwarteng said it was time for “new leadership”.

Ms Truss had repeatedly railed against “Treasury orthodoxy” during her leadership campaign as she promised tax cuts, despite warnings from rival, Rishi Sunak that they could fuel spiralling inflation.

Sir Tom (pictured) had worked under Labour Prime Minister, Gordon Brown and was the top Public Servant when Mr Sunak rolled out the furlough scheme during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In a pointed reference to the energy crisis, Mr Scholar said he wished his colleagues at the Department “all the best for the times ahead”, adding that he would be “cheering on from the sidelines”.

Lord Macpherson, who previously held the top role in the Department, condemned the move, saying Sir Tom’s experience would have been invaluable in the coming months.

“Tom Scholar is the best Civil Servant of his generation. Sacking him makes no sense. As Gordon Brown used to say, ‘They’re not thinking’,” Lord Macpherson said.

Meanwhile, Jacob Rees-Mogg’s brief but eventful stint in charge of Public Service reform has ended with his appointment as Minister for Business in Ms Truss's reshuffle.

The freshly-installed Prime Minister appears to have abolished the Cabinet-level post of Minister for Government Efficiency and Brexit Opportunities.

Nadhim Zahawi has been named Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, the most senior Minister at the Cabinet Office after the Prime Minister and a role that usually includes overseeing Public Service reform.

Edward Argar, previously a Junior Health Minister, has been named Minister for the Cabinet Office, replacing Michael Ellis.

Ms Truss has not yet set out the precise division of labour between Mr Zahawi and Mr Argar, but both will have some responsibility for leading cross-Government and public sector reform and efficiency.

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German spy probe targets senior officers

Germany’s Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) is investigating allegations that two senior Public Servants working in the Ministry of Economy could have been spying for Russia.

The national newspaper, Die Zeit, which first revealed the case, said the officials being investigated had close involvement with energy supply issues and held key positions.

Neither the Ministry nor the BfV, which is the country’s domestic intelligence Agency, would comment on the reports.

The Ministry would only say that it was in continual dialogue with the BfV, and that the Ministry found itself “under particular focus” due to its work tackling the energy crisis.

Die Zeit said it was aware of the names and pay grades of the officials under suspicion, but it was not at liberty to publish them.

The employees have been described as holding a “pro-Russia stance” and are suspected of having sought to obstruct the policies of Minister of Economy, Robert Habeck over the past few months.

The newspaper said it was members of the Green party, to which Mr Habeck (pictured) belongs, who took the complaint to the BfV, possibly directed by Mr Habeck himself.

Mr Habeck was an opponent of the now defunct gas pipeline, Nord Stream 2, long before it was abandoned by the German Government in protest at Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Die Zeit suggested that the officials, who would have worked on the pipeline project under Mr Habeck’s predecessor, Peter Altmaier, could have struggled to accept the German Government’s U-turn when the scheme was scrapped in February.

The newspaper said that according to its contacts, the suspects’ CVs were examined and found to have “biographical peculiarities”, including time spent studying in Russia and proof of “an emotional proximity to Russia”.

There is no indication as to what the specific allegation relates to, or whether the officials are accused of having taken money from Moscow or having acted out of a sense of conviction.

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Civil Servants to join UK's ‘summer of discontent’

Strikes that have erupted across the United Kingdom’s railways and airlines are about to spread to the Public Service, extending the ‘summer of discontent’ into the autumn and beyond.

Workers in schools, hospitals and the courts are threatening to walk off the job in the coming weeks in protest that their real wages, adjusted for inflation, are falling at the quickest pace on record.

The most active run of industrial action since the early 1970s is likely to compound the miserable period the UK is enduring following travel chaos and drought.

Anger building among Government workers is part of the bleak backdrop that will greet Liz Truss as she takes over as Prime Minister from Boris Johnson.

It reflects decades of spending cuts across the Public Service that have left key public services struggling to cope and workers fed up and ready to pick a fight with Ministers.

Public sector employees, including teachers, nurses and Public Servants are weeks away from voting on whether to walk out from their positions. Meanwhile, barristers in criminal courts have voted for an indefinite strike (pictured).

Government workers are falling further behind after decades of neglect. Since the 1960s investment in the public sector has been on a downward trend from a peak of eight per cent of Gross Domestic Product, to 1.6 per cent in the wake of the financial crisis in 2013-14 after successive Governments slashed spending. 

Those levels crept up once more to 3.4 per cent during the COVID-19 pandemic as the Government spent heavily to stem the damage from lockdowns, but have since subsided.

Criminal law has always been one of the worst-paid specialties in the legal world, but the Government piled on the pressure with cuts to Legal Aid.

Now, many criminal barristers at the start of the careers could earn more working in pubs.

Rosalind Burgin (28) got paid more working at a coffee shop before she qualified as a lawyer specialising in crime and housing. 

“Genuinely having no money coming in means I’m borrowing money from different friends, from my partner, and I’ve never had to do that before,” Ms Burgin said.

“I’ve never been in so much debt. I can’t turn away cases — so the option is work through the night or get a different job.” 

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