"Severance" for tax employees a farce

transfer to the federal revenue ministry to administer the new tax. That’s right, severance. These employees won’t be losing their jobs. In fact they likely will be working at exactly the same desks they’re in now. But because they will “lose” their employment with the province and become employees of the feds, under their collective agreement, their current jobs effectively will have come to an end. Premier Dalton McGuinty said it would not be right for the government to reneg on an agreement and therefore should pay the money. Interesting that the Province of British Columbia was able to make the transition without a windfall descending on its revenue employees. The total price tag in Ontario could amount to $25 million. Collective agreement or not this is the kind of entitlement that leads so many taxpayers to despise how government conducts its affairs and the public unions that skim the cream from the generous contracts negotiated from their supine employers. McGuinty may like to wear a halo over his head with his rhetoric about respecting union contracts. But it would have been interesting for him to challenge the provision simply as a matter of common sense and standing up for those who pay these generous benefits. Furthermore, wouldn’t it have been nice if the union had stepped up and done the honourable things and rejected the severance? What’s that about hell freezing?

WindsorOntarioNews.com March 14 2010