Library of Parliament Legislative Summary of the Priority Hiring for Injured Veterans Act

The Library of Parliament recently published a legislative summary of of Bill C-11 known as the Priority Hiring for Injured Veterans Act:

"Under the PSEA [Public Service Employment Act] and the Public Service Employment Regulations (PSER), certain categories of individuals who meet specific criteria are given priority to appointments in the federal public service over all other persons. Provided that the eligible candidates meet the essential qualifications of the position and that preference is given to Canadian citizens, the priority levels set out in the PSEA follow this order:

1. An employee who is surplus within his or her organization - who has been informed that he or she will be laid off but has not yet been laid off - because the employee’s services are no longer required by reason of lack of work, the discontinuance of a function or the transfer of work or a function outside of the public service...
2. Both an employee on leave of absence whose position was staffed for an indeterminate period and a person who replaced an employee on leave of absence, if that replacement was appointed for an indeterminate period, a priority over all others for up to one year following the return of the employee who had been on leave of absence...
3. A person already laid off because his or her services are no longer necessary for the reasons listed in point 1 ...
4. The following persons or classes of persons designated by the PSER pursuant to section 22(2)(a) of the PSEA, who are given fourth level priority over all others, in no particular order:
   • before a layoff becomes effective, a surplus employee from another federal organization whose services are no longer required but before any layoff becomes effective ...;
   • an employee who becomes disabled and is no longer able to carry out the duties of his or her position ...;
   • a member of the CF [Canadian military] or the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) who is released or discharged for medical reasons ...;
   • the surviving spouse or common-law partner of an employee or of a member of the CF or the RCMP whose death is attributable to the performance of duties ...;
   • an employee on a leave of absence as a result of the relocation of his or her spouse or common-law partner ... ; and
   • a priority employee who was appointed or deployed to a lower level position in the public service..."

"Currently, priority consideration given to members of the CF released for medical reasons - attributable to service or not - has the same standing as other fourth-level priority categories provided by the PSEA."

"Bill C-11 adds a priority right that will take precedence over all others. This right will be given to members of the CF released for medical reasons, provided that these reasons are attributable to their military service. In other words, this creates a distinction between members of the CF released for medical reasons that are attributable to service and those released for medical reasons that are not attributable to service. This second group will continue to receive priority under the PSER (now for a longer period), while the priority for those released for medical reasons that are attributable to service will take precedence over any other group designated in the PSEA or the PSER."