Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I want to ask the Minister of Human Resources some questions about the department’s position on employees who have been charged. I’m not too clear if they’ve got a policy or a guideline or a procedure or how it works when it comes to our employees. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The Minister of Human Resources, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Each case is quite specific. It would depend on whether or not the individual was management, excluded, union. In the case where an individual was unionized, then what we’d recommend to the employee, if there are issues that they’re not happy with if they’re to be charged and not feeling that they’re being treated fairly by the departments, is they have the option to deal with their union. Thank you.
Earlier in my Member’s statement I spoke about the presumption of innocence, which means, of course, you’re innocent until proven guilty. I’ve got a scenario where an employee was actually suspended without pay, pending the court case. If there’s no policy or guidelines, how can this happen? Like, we’re an employer, we’ve got beautiful policies on maintaining and keeping and expanding on our employees, yet when somebody gets in a situation like this we suspend them without pay. How can this happen? I’d like the Minister of Human Resources to answer that. Thank you.
Aside from any court situation, we have a code of conduct with our employees. So, employees are expected to follow a code of conduct. There is also a possibility that individuals could be new employees and still be under probation. Therefore, there’s a possibility that the department could be looking at rejection based on probation. Thank you.
Natural justice must prevail. I clearly laid out in my Member’s statement with regard to the Charter of Rights and Freedoms that people are innocent until proven guilty, yet here the Minister is saying perhaps they are breaching a code of conduct. They’re actually not. It has to be proven in a court of law. I would like to cover off in other departments, Justice, maybe RCMP, people are actually not suspended without pay. They are delegated other duties in their department.
Why are we taking a hard-line position, especially when we’re not following any natural justice process? I think we’ve got to be fair to all our employees, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.
It is very difficult to speak in an open forum like this about individuals’ employment status. My best advice to the employee or to the Member, and the employee has gone to the Member for advice and support, is to actually discuss with the union the situation the employee is encountering. He is likely a union employee. In that case, then the union would provide the support necessary so that when he feels he is being treated unfairly, the union will represent that individual with the management of the department. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I know that the Minister thinks I’m trying to be specific, but I’m trying to be general about this. When it comes to treating employees fairly, it means treating them all fairly.
Why would we want to treat one employee more unfair than other employees, especially when he’s not management, he’s not an excluded employee and he’s fairly low level as an employee? So just generally, he’s sitting there, he’s the Minister of Human Resources, the law and natural justice must prevail and everybody must be treated equally, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.
To be general, in the Public Service Act, Section 29 allows the deputy head to suspend individuals in the public service that are considered to have misconduct. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.
