Voluntary separation of staff could save government $500,000 a year
Sixteen civil service workers have filed successful applications for “voluntary separation” from the service, a move the government estimates would save $500,000 annually.
The voluntary separations came about under a program proposed last year by Deputy Governor Franz Manderson.
Mr. Manderson said the separations would assist to some extent in reducing the civil service workforce by a total of 360 jobs. That reduction was slated to occur between the previous 2012/13 budget year and the government’s 2016/17 financial year.
Not all government workers who asked to be separated from their jobs were approved. “Only those applications with the strongest underlying business case could be approved,” said Gloria McField-Nixon, chief officer of the Portfolio of the Civil Service.
Compensation payments
The government budgeted some $500,000 in the current fiscal year to support payments to civil servants who agreed to take voluntary separation.
However, those compensation payments operate as a one-time settlement – amounting to as much as two years’ worth of salary for some applicants – rather than a continuing payment government would have to make for the salaries each year.
The 16 successful job separation applicants will now have to decide whether to accept the offers government provides. If they do not, they would continue working in the civil service.
The voluntary separation option was offered only to Caymanian civil servants below the typical public sector retirement age of 60, although the policy was weighted to encourage older government workers to take job separation.
Non-Caymanian government contract holders, Caymanians aged over 60 who are working in the civil service on fixed-term contracts, and individuals working on other fixed-term agreements did not qualify for voluntary separation.
“These contracts already have a pre-determined end date which provides the employer an opportunity to choose not to renew a contract without the need for additional compensation,” the policy stated.
Awards of compensation to successful applicants are based on the number of consecutive, continuous years of employment the worker has in the civil service.
Examples
Several examples are given in the policy of what might be offered to a civil servant who agreed to separate from their work. An applicant who is age 50 to 59 with 10 or more years of service in government would be eligible for three weeks of pay for every year worked, three months of their salary in a lump sum, and the ability to begin drawing their pension immediately and receive retirement health benefits.
Younger workers [under 50] with six or more full years of consecutive service might be offered three weeks of pay for each year, or three months in a lump sum for their salary. The workers will also be offered six months of free government health-care coverage.
No return
Any workers who agree to accept voluntary separation from the government service are not eligible to return to work as a civil servant for at least five years and, even then, rehiring of ex-government workers would only be done in “exceptional” cases, according to Mr. Manderson.
Although it will be difficult for voluntarily separated civil service workers to return to government, the policy differentiates between early retirement options for civil servants – which can only be taken upon a government worker reaching 50 years of age and attaining 10 years of service.
According to the government, where a worker’s agreement is amicably discharged in such a way: “Such separations do not amount to a dismissal, redundancy, disability retirement or retirement under special circumstances.”
The civil service officer responsible may decide to make the voluntarily separated employee’s post redundant after their departure.
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