Government swamped by severance requests

Newfoundland and Labrador's finance minister said it's impossible to get severance cheques out to every government worker who wants one this fiscal quarter, as there are simply too many requests to process in time.

A recent contract between the provincial government and the Newfoundland and Labrador Association of Public and Private Employees (NAPE) offered early severance payouts to anyone with more than a year of service.

In a memo circulated Wednesday, government advised its core workers the money may not be paid out until later this year, even if they want it in the next few months.

"Essentially, we guaranteed that anybody who wants the severance payment in this fiscal year will get it," Tom Osborne told CBC's St. John's Morning Show.

"What we can't guarantee is that everyone will get it in the first quarter."

Osborne said the roughly $250 million worth of severance payments take a considerable amount of time to process, as each one has to be done by hand by government workers.

He said out of the approximately 7,000 NAPE members, around 2,300 requested a severance payout. About 2,100 of them are asking for payment in the first quarter of this year — nearly 90 per cent of those availing of the offer.

The province only expected about a quarter of its core workforce would want their money in the first quarter.

Humans, not machines

The finance minister said each person's request has to be processed individually to determine how long the employee worked there, what their salary was and what percentage of their payout they want in cash or retirement contributions.

"It's not something where we just put a name into a computer and the computer will tell us how much you can expect in your severance payout," Osborne said.

"It's real people doing this as a job, and they can only handle a certain volume of requests."

The more people that call, the slower the process becomes- Tom Osborne

Osborne said while he can only speak to severance paid out to core government workers, and not to agencies like Eastern Health, he said staff are trying to process the requests as quickly as possible.

While he understands people's need to find out exactly what's happening with their payment, he's urging that they don't call to ask questions unless absolutely necessary since it slows things down further.

"The more people that call, the slower the process becomes."

NAPE not surprised given volume

NAPE leader Jerry Earle said it's not surprising that there are delays in payments given the high volume. He also notes that it is NAPE members who are processing the payouts.

From talking to members who could have their severance cheques delayed, Earle said most are understanding.

"We've had only a small number concerned saying, 'I wanted my money now. I should get it now,' but that's been very few," he said.