Revolving door HR policies

January 8 2004 - Ontarians are facing horrendously long waits for official documents because of revolving door human resource policies at the Office of the Registrar General (ORG), according to the OPSEU.

Ontario residents who need to replace their identification such as birth certificates are having to wait four months for service because the Office of the Registrar General is systematically using casual and expendable labour. The union also says that the ORG skirts the collective agreement by laying off any staff who have worked long enough (18 months) for permanent employment status.

OPSEU president Leah Casselman has written to Ministry of Consumer and Business Services Jim Watson asking him to clean up this Tory-created HR mess at the ORG.

In his letter Casselman writes:

"This is not just a union issue. Children are being denied access or being expelled from schools because they haven't been able to get their birth certificate. People are being deported because they are unable to provide marriage certificates or birth certificates for their children.

"University students are not being able to return to schools outside of Canada because they have lost their birth certificate. Others are unable to collect their student loan money for the same reason. People are unable to settle estates, collect pensions or sell property, as they do not have the death certificates and birth certificates needed.

"Ontarians pay twice for this core service, through user fees and through their taxes. They should at least be able to get timely service from the ORG," said OPSEU President Leah Casselman. "Instead of systematically laying off trained professional staff when they reach 18 months of service, and replacing them with new recruits, the ORG should convert these people to full time employees."

Staffing issues in the ORG are not limited to the Thunder Bay office according to the OPSEU. A recent ORG call for "staff volunteers" to deal with the long line-ups in Toronto failed to generate sufficient response because of low morale and heavy workloads. As well, the ORG work is slowed because it has brought in a new computer system that (the union claims) does not fully function.

"Official documents are a core government business. In the light of security issues, government has to get this one right. You cannot overestimate the importance of having a trained, professional public service in this sensitive area of government service," Casselman said.