Enterprise minister won’t apologize for saying Manitoba workers lack loyalty

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This article was published 10/04/2018 (2768 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Growth, Enterprise and Trade Minister Blaine Pedersen refused NDP and Liberal demands Tuesday that he apologize for saying Manitoba workers’ lack of loyalty to their employers is causing high vacant job rates.

“His comments are insulting and undeserving,” said Liberal MLA Cindy Lamoureux, who told the legislature she is among the young generation of workers Pedersen attacked during his department’s estimates hearing April 5.

“Ageism works both ways. I am offended the minister would accuse us of having a poor work ethic.”

New Democrat MLA Tom Lindsey said Pedersen isn’t loyal to his own staff: he’s cut 58 jobs in the department (14 per cent of the employees). It has a 12 per cent vacancy rate Pedersen blames on workers’ lack of loyalty to the employer, he said.

“Why has the minister attacked the reputation of Manitobans? Why is he hiding that he is dismantling his own workforce?” Lindsey said.

Pedersen initially responded to questions Tuesday by listing companies that have created new jobs in Manitoba, but when he was specifically asked to apologize, Premier Brian Pallister and Finance Minister Cameron Friesen responded instead.

Neither addressed the apology issue, though Pallister praised “the honesty and work ethic of the people who live here.”

Friesen reminded the house the Tory government will be unveiling a transformation plan for the civil service.

The official Hansard transcript shows Pedersen said during the April 5 hearing, in reference to his department’s 12 per cent vacancy rate, “There is no loyalty in the workforce anymore. It used to be… a person would get a career and they would stay there for 30 years.”

Hansard shows Pedersen and Lindsey went back and forth, with more than a half-hour of squabbling over Pedersen’s insistence he’s trying to fill the vacant jobs and Lindsey’s allegations the minister is leaving them open to save money.

Pedersen also outlined a list of 17 steps the government must follow in a lengthy process just to hire one person.

Such a list is normal these days, said Barbara Bowes, president of the human resources and management consultant Legacy Group.

“I know it seems like a long time,” Bowes said Tuesday. “It takes a minimum of 12 weeks to get the finalists in front of your clients.”

Meanwhile, Manitoba Government and General Employees’ Union president Michelle Gawronsky said the vacancies at Growth, Enterprise and Trade are just a part of a larger government plan to cut jobs.

The province has said it wants to reduce the civil service by 1,200 positions, or eight per cent, through attrition, by the spring of 2019.

“The minister keeps blaming others for vacancies in his own department, but the reality is that his own government is deliberately not filling vacancies and leaving vital public services without enough staff,” the MGEU president said.

“In fact, they have announced a target of eliminating 1,200 jobs as positions become vacant. That’s not someone else’s fault; that’s their policy.”

nick.martin@freepress.mb.ca