Published On Fri Mar 12 2010 The Star
Critics are crying foul after provincial tax collectors hit the HST jackpot. Ontario's 1,251 collectors are each receiving up to $45,000 in severance pay as their jobs transfer from the provincial ministry of revenue to the federal equivalent. Displaced employees are being offered jobs with the Canada Revenue Agency because collecting the 13 per cent harmonized sales tax will be a federal responsibility. The HST, which blends the 8 per cent provincial sales tax with the 5 per cent GST, comes into force July 1. In British Columbia, where the HST also comes into force in July, provincial tax collectors who accept a transfer to the federal government will not get severance pay.
That differs from British Columbia, where Graham Currie, spokesman for the B.C. Ministry of Finance, said the agreement signed with provincial employees matches them to a position in the federal government where they will receive similar salaries and keep their seniority in terms of job security. Erin Sikora, a spokeswoman with the B.C. Government Employees' Union, said the collective agreement signed in 2006 does not require severance for employees transferred to another employer. "It's quite different here in than in Ontario. Our collective agreements are different," said Sikora. "There is no severance for transfers."
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It is also noteworthy to remark that civil servants working on the soon-phased out PST regime received a transfer package to work for Canada Revenue Agency (CRA). Unlike the Ontario provincial government (who generously pay its transferred employees a 6-month severance pay when they suffer no loss of employment and their job security is guaranteed by a 2-year contract), B.C. government will not pay severance pay to those who are about to be transferred to CRA.
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Don Quixote Note: I can find no details of 'Transfer Package". Yet. Perhaps some blogreaders know details ??
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