Nunavut government spent nearly $3M on employee payouts since 2011
Health Department accounts for nearly half of settlements
The Sivummut building in Iqaluit, which houses many Government of Nunavut offices. The GN has made $2.9 million in settlement payments to departing employees between the fiscal years 2011-12 and 2018-19, in 64 settlement cases. (File photo)
The Government of Nunavut has doled out nearly $3 million in settlement payments to 64 employees since 2011.
Nearly half of those totals come from the Health Department alone—far more than any other department.
Following the money trail shows both Inuit and female employees are significantly under-represented among those who received settlement payments.
That’s all according to the results of an access-to-information request filed with Nunavut’s Finance Department.
The public doesn’t know about these settlements because the bulk of the payouts include non-disclosure agreements, which prevent those who receive money from discussing their settlements. Only six per cent of the payouts did not require such an agreement.
The government paid $2.9 million between the fiscal years 2011-12 and 2018-19 in 64 settlement payments, according to the data.
The Health Department accounted for 29 of those payments, worth $1.2 million.
The departments with the next highest number of payments—human resources, which shut down in 2013-14, and justice—had five payments.
“A majority of the settlements are from resolving grievances for Nunavut Employees Union employees,” said a statement from the Health Department.
Settlements include grievances over harassment, termination, paid overtime and leave applications, the statement.
The “complex nature of the workforce and the environment that we operate in can lead to interpretation issues, which can result in … grievance settlements,” the department said.
The department did not provide any statistics for the different types of grievances and denied an interview request.
“Health is one of the largest departments in the Government of Nunavut, operating services 24/7,” the statement said.
Health Department staff account for 21 per cent of all GN employees since 2011, according to quarterly public service reports. The 29 settlement payments issued by Health represent 45 per cent of all payments from all departments.
The number of Inuit employees in the public service has hovered around 50 per cent since 2011. But only 15 of the 64 payments have gone to Inuit employees, according to the information received. That means less than a quarter of the payments went to Inuit, and more than three-quarters to non-Inuit employees.
Similarly, the government workforce has typically been two-thirds female and one-third male over the same time span. But the number of settlements is almost equally split: 34 settlements went to women while 30 went to men.
Non-disclosure agreements were signed between employees and the government in 54 of the 64 payments, the information shows. It is unclear if such agreements were signed in six of the payments. In four of the payments, agreements were not signed.
A similar request for information about settlement payments was filed with the Legal Services Board of Nunavut. However, the legal aid agency did not provide any information. “The LSB does not maintain [such] data.… There is no duty to create a record,” the board said. This information request is now under review by the Information and Privacy Commissioner.
Thomas Rohner is a freelance investigative reporter based in Iqaluit, where he has lived for the past five years. You can reach him at thomas.rohner@gmail.com or on Twitter @thomas_rohner.
Decentralized main Health Departments in Nunavut ship outdated/ used inventory equipment’s i.e. wheel chairs etc… to smaller Health Centre’s in Nunavut, while modern inventory equipment’s are provided to larger Health Centre’s in Nunavut… kind of makes you wonder how thing’s are administered backwards with Health Department’s in Nunavut from services to health care. What are you proposing for exchanged?
“Following the money trail shows both Inuit and female employees are significantly under-represented among those who received settlement payments.”
And…? That’s a prime example of a completely context-free statistic. Are Inuit employees getting less, are there fewer complaints from Inuit employees and/or women, are there the same number of complaints but more judgments are not going their way? Without that sort of information and context, the story is presenting an interesting, but totally useless, fact.
When writing, or putting on any kind of public display, it’s always necessary for social justice warriors to demonstrate there ‘bone fides’ by decrying the oppression of what are perceived to be the most vulnerable groups. This ritual exercise is typically accepted without criticism or the application of context.
I’m a white male, highly critical of social justice ideology… those are my bona fides.
I’ve known about a number of these cases over several years, or at least potential issues (I’m not aware of actual payouts, but I could point to quite a few likely candidates in the organization where I work, which isn’t Health).
From what I’ve seen the non-Inuk, male skew rings true, and is associated with a kind of entitled labour union attitude… sticking it to the man, $100k at a time from the public purse.
May I suggest that there would be no payouts at all if there were no legitimate issues underlying them? That non Inuit men are most effective at securing these payouts could mean more than ‘entitlement’. I could also point to better education and efficacy on their part. Would you agree?
This. Also, it seems to be the white men who are often Articled 23’d the most, and given how often the procedures and rules are not followed around this process by the GN this statistic is not surprising.
Inuit and female employees are significantly under-represented among those who received settlement payments = White men are getting free money.
But I’m sure if it were the other way around, Rohner would write that Inuit and female employees are the greater recipients of harassment, wrongful termination, and being discriminated against when it comes to paid overtime and leave applications… which is what these (successful) grievances are about.
There is a very legitimate story here but it isn’t one of racism or sexism as the article infers. The real story here is that the GN involuntarily terminates far too many employees for completely indefensible and arbitrary reasons. It then uses public money to cover up its misdeeds with these settlements. These settlements used to process improper terminations often involve senior managers and amount to well over a hundred thousand dollars a piece.
The real story here is why are so many settlements needed and not the race or the sex of the recipients.
Over a period of 8 years. Average payout $46,875. Actually not bad.
Those are just the ones that are settled I’m sure there are more that are not reported yet….
Maybe tied to the retention issue that the Government of Nunavut is facing? Why not deal with those difficult employees versus the easy route, do nothing and just pay them off so they go away. Are managers compensated to manage employees? This practice is a classic act of rewarding bad behaviours and not much of a morale booster for those who are not being rewarded for good behaviour. Someone is not doing their job and as a result, these so called employees, are laughing their way to the bank. SHAMEFUL!
I’m sure the managers are, in some of these cases (if not many) part of the problem. The “bad behaviors” might be entirely theirs. There are a lot of possible variables to consider here.
If the actions of management were appropriate in the first place, you would not have to compensate employees for management wrongdoings. Who is responsible for training management how to become effective managers?
This is the exact point that needs to be made. Who is training people to be managers? We see people put into management or supervisory positions with very little to no experience all the time. Most of these have very rudimentary ideas about how to manage people that typically center on a sort of command and control approach. Sadly for them, this is the least effective way to manage and the one most susceptible to abuse.
These are not payouts to reward poor behavior this is for employees that have been treated unfairly and have grounds to be paid much more should it go to court and if the latter were go happen it would expose the wrongdoings of management and target them specifically. Gn doesnt give money for nothing it’s the damages awarded for management’s toxic behaviour and you do not want to be one of those harassed ex GN employees they deserve every penny that they get and then some. If the GN wants to clean shop they s hi would look at the managers that have more than one grievance or award against them…gn is very good at promoting managers that a re e known to be harassers when they should be turning them out on their butts
If you average out the number of settlements, it comes out to eight settlements per year since 2011. The GN has a workforce of 3,539, resulting in .002 percent of the workforce having received a settlement. The settlements could be for various reasons, not necessarily all having to be related to wrongful or constructive dismissal or without cause terminations. It could possibly be related to restructuring or other reasons. The Health Department has the highest payouts likely because it’s the second largest employer of all departments, at 661, combined with the highest vacancy rate of 543, causing significant burn-out of its employees. The .002 percent of payouts seem pretty low in the overall context of employees doing two to three times their job duties. I’d compare such statistics with other provinces or territories or large private sector employers and analyse whether the .002 percent is reasonable. We really need to have a long term plan of training, recruitment and retention to reduce the high vacancy rates, as well as lower the turn over rate caused by burn out. We can train Inuit doctors, nurses, lab/ultrasound/x-ray technicians. We can build a university in the north and bring educational opportunities to Inuit. It’s easy enough to say Inuit are only receiving a quarter of the settlements, likely because we are employed more in the lower positions because of their lower educational attainment. It’s harder to convince that Inuit can succeed if given enough opportunities that non-Inuit have and don’t have barriers to.
You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means. It’s 0.2%, not 0.002%.
Not the first time I’ve had to correct a commenter on Nunatsiaq on how to calculate a percentage. Sad.
This is indeed a nice aspiration, but not really tempered by reality. It will be decades before we have Inuit health care staff in large numbers, and that alone will never be anywhere sufficient, particularly if the incredible birth rate continues. What are we doing in the meantime?
By the way, I forgot to mention the GN salaries are likely approximately $700 million now, so the $47K times eight per year averaged out by Paul Murphy is pretty miniscule.
I also forgot to mention kudos to the health care workers – good Lord, you work thrice that much harder than Captain America or the Avengers.
If you think it is necessary keep records of how you are treated by your supervisors; are you supported or undermined? Does your employer use gossip ostracize or exclude you? Record it. We all know the Employee Relations is completely whipped and ineffective. You truly are on your own here.
If the majority of the payouts are for settling Union grievances, and the cash is mainly being paid out to white males, would not the Union be complicit in this disparity?
This is exactly what Nunavut needs. Another half written story that pits White vs Inuit, and world against women. I dont understand why this has become the norm for many new articles written. these story often leave out facts facts, or even just justifying statements that would suggest that, this may not be a case of Racism, or sexism. Maybe the people who got payouts just had a different, and more justifiable set of circumstances than others. Not evening that happens is about hate, or persecution. SO sick of this approach. Like the divide in this small territory isn’t bad enough.