Mr. Chairman, I appreciate that
this is an issue where the Member has concerns, not specifically with Health and Social Services alone but government-wide. I believe the answer has been given in that regard, in that a decision was made to notify the employees of their potential impacted status. Then the choices are given to the employees to see whether they want to pursue other options. I do understand there are affected employees who have chosen not to do that. That’s their option as well.
As the Member is aware, the principle behind it and the good intention behind it was so that instead of having the entire civil service of 4,500-plus employees wondering whether they would be impacted or not.... It was thought it would be a better idea to have 100 or so employees who were potentially impacted notified of that. Obviously, nobody is forcing these employees to be looking at other options, but there are constantly positions being opened for competition, and these employees are free to consider other options if they have chosen to. If they want to wait until the budget is processed, that’s up to them as well. I believe that’s how the processes were rolled out.