Define "Effective Immediately" & "Hiring Freeze"

Once you have done so send an eMail to City Manager Shirley Hoy and cc: Comrade Miller and members of city council.

August 2, 2007 Too hot for a hiring freeze? By SUE-ANN LEVY Almost two Fridays ago -- on July 20 -- city manager Shirley Hoy announced she was waging war on the city's deficit with a serious "cost containment" campaign. On that day, Hoy made it clear a key cost containment measure would be a hiring freeze -- "effective immediately" -- across the corporation. That decree and the words "effective immediately" were contained in a memo from Hoy to the city's senior staff. Only those new jobs deemed essential -- those that meet legislated requirements for staffing ratios or collective agreements, those related to health and safety or those that are 100% funded by the province -- would still be open. Yet just two business days later, on July 24, some 121 so-called "essential" temporary and permanent positions (the bulk of them unionized) were advertised on the city's internal website -- jobs which according to the information provided by a city source would add $8.1-million in annual wages and benefits to the city's deficit-plagued budget! On July 20 alone (the same day as Hoy's decree) an ad was posted for 42 new practical care aides (making up to $24.05/hr.) who work "as members of the multi-disciplinary team" in various Homes for the Aged. Another ad sought three support assistants (at up to $25.37/hr.) to "prepare, research and process documents" and maintain records at a family hostel on Kingston Rd. Another ad was looking for four leadhands (at $26.93/hr.) who'd "direct the day-to-day activities of the crews" in three different parks yards. Four parks handyworkers (at $22.68/hr.) were sought in another ad -- perhaps to give the leadhands, I'm guessing here, more workers to supervise. Another posting says Hoy's own office -- the very office that is leading this hiring freeze -- needs a $100,000 manager of corporate issues. Human Resources has an ad for an organization development and learning consultant (up to $79,970 per year). That consultant will provide a "full range of organization development ... and consultation services in the areas of change management, etc.) What a hoot. Perhaps HR could use this person to hand all employees their life jackets just before SS Toronto completely drowns in debt. Rest assured, this was not a blip or an unusual occurrence. On Tuesday, July 31 -- two days ago -- at least 19 more new positions were added to the internal job board, including an environmental educator with the Toronto Region and Conservation Authority. Maybe I've just misinterpreted the words "effective immediately." In City Hall-speak perhaps "immediately" means, well, I'm not really sure what it means. But if this is evidence of cost containment measures to come, look out property taxpayers! Barbara Shulman, Director of Staffing Compensation and Employment Equity, said yesterday they're "kind of in limbo" at the moment -- that all the advertised jobs are "on hold." She said Hoy is meeting with her deputy city managers tomorrow to review all of those jobs and some may be cancelled. I asked her why any jobs were posted after the hiring freeze was announced, or shortly before as people must have known it was coming. "It takes a little bit of time for the right message to get understood and interpreted properly," she said. "As much as it seems like it could be a no-brainer, it's a little bit complicated." Like other hiring freezes instituted by council in years gone by -- former councillor Jane Pitfield led such an effort two years ago -- I fear this one will not being taken at all seriously. In my understanding, a hiring freeze means a hiring freeze -- full stop. It doesn't mean an ongoing series of negotiations about which jobs are still needed in an already overstuffed bureaucracy. Coun. Denzil Minnan-Wong called the explanations and mixed messages I received "bureaucratic gobbledygook" that undercut the city manager's ability to "tell the public she's going to do what she says she's going to do." His colleague Rob Ford said what's needed is a hiring freeze, plan and simple, and that any talk of further reviews, excuses and exceptions strike him as "outrageous" and "a bunch of malarkey." City Hall is an employment centre," he said. "I don't think there's such a thing as a hiring freeze."