Pallister labouring over transformation

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 11/12/2017 (3054 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It certainly wasn’t the most newsworthy excerpt from the recent speech from the throne delivered by Manitoba’s Progressive Conservative government. But it may be among the most important going forward if that government is going to achieve any of its fiscal goals.

“A new public service transformation strategy will challenge public servants to better understand and meet the needs of citizens, question past practices and experiment with innovative ideas, and harness their collective talent. With a focus on outcomes and a strong vision in place, the Manitoba public service is moving forward in a unified way to deliver better outcomes for Manitobans.”

The reference to a soon-to-be-revealed transformation strategy will come as some surprise to provincial public servants, many of whom were likely under the impression they were already undergoing significant transformation at the hands of the austerity-minded Tory government.

Shortly after acquiring the levers of power in the 2016 election, Premier Brian Pallister signalled that public servants would have to do their part to help balance the budget. To that end, the Pallister government has passed legislation to freeze public sector wages, cut swaths from the ranks of middle management, significantly reduced the ranks of communication and political staff, and reduced the size of cabinet by consolidating departments and staff.

There has also been a pretty rigid hiring freeze. Although the Pallister government has repeatedly refused to divulge its vacancy management numbers — an accounting of all approved but unfilled jobs — a KPMG fiscal performance audit revealed earlier this month included an up-to-date summary.

KPMG found that between 16 and 20 per cent of approved full-time positions in many departments are actually unfilled, an extraordinarily high number that raises questions about the capacity of government to perform basic duties.

Pallister has insisted that his government’s approach to labour management has been deliberate, well-planned and data driven. The reality — as confirmed by his own government’s throne speech — is that the most impactful decisions he has made to bring down labour costs have been done without a formal workforce transformation strategy.

In other words, the cart is significantly out in front of the horse on this one.

And that may ultimately prevent the Pallister government from ever achieving the lofty goals associated with a true transformation — more innovation, better productivity and better outcomes in key government services.

The Pallister government is certainly right to be pursuing a transformation strategy; many of the world’s largest and most successful employers are investing heavily to transform their workforces to deal with escalating global competition and digital disruption.

Employers like IBM.

Over the past two years, IBM has been firing tens of thousands of employees and hiring nearly equal numbers of what the company calls “new collar workers.” It’s all being done to help ensure that one of the world’s most powerful technology companies remains competitive and innovative.

If we use private-sector examples like this as a guide, we can see that in the human capital world, the word “transformation” implies a certain degree of pain for overall organizational gain.

In Manitoba, the Pallister government has certainly delivered on the pain, although it’s decidedly unclear what kind of gain it is pursuing.

This ambiguity is perhaps best exemplified by Bill 28, the Public Services Sustainability Act, which would impose wage freezes on provincial government employees.

Bill 28 was passed easily by the Tory majority in the legislature, but has not yet been enacted. Much of the delay is due, no doubt, to the fact that a coalition of unions representing more than 110,000 employees have applied for an injunction to block the law from coming into force.

If the injunction is unsuccessful, the unions have said they will go to court to challenge Bill 28 on constitutional grounds.

When asked about the fate of Bill 28, a senior government spokesman insisted that it was the premier’s preference to achieve fiscal sustainability “in the boardroom, not the courtroom. We have made this clear to public sector union leadership and will continue to do so. Dialogue and cooperation should be our focus, not premature and distracting litigation.”

Again, the reality of the situation may vary a bit from the claims in that statement.

Officials from public sector unions representing some of the province’s largest bargaining groups — some of which have been without a contract for months — claim that little meaningful negotiation with the government has taken place since Bill 28 was introduced and passed.

Even though it is not law yet, the unions believe the government is using the threat of imposed wage freezes, along with a refusal to bargain, to keep a lid on labour costs.

It’s not clear how long that approach can continue. Like any employer with unionized workers, the Pallister government has a legal obligation to bargain in good faith. Not even the proclamation of Bill 28, an event that seems increasingly unlikely now, would eliminate that duty.

Transformation does not need to be mild, pain-free or absent of conflict. Transformation is change and change is often difficult to deliver and painful for those who resist.

However, unless the premier is going to fire all current employees, he is going to have to develop some sort of rapport with them. Shooting first on transformation and asking questions later about the impacts is not a good approach.

Neither is ignoring expired contracts to achieve all the benefits of a wage freeze without any of the hard work that comes with thoughtful planning and collaboration with the employees most affected.

In the throne speech, the premier described the dawn of a new era of collaboration with public sector employees to “deliver better outcomes for Manitobans.” Before he can achieve that vision, he will have to deliver better outcomes for his employees.

dan.lett@freepress.mb.ca