Privacy commissioner questions GN’s handling of Do Not Hire lists
Graham Steele shares 4 recent cases involving the alleged blacklisting of government employees
Graham Steele, Nunavut’s information and privacy commissioner, says the issue of Do Not Hire and Hire with Caution lists has come up in four recent review reports involving Department of Health employees. (File photo)
Job applicants are entitled to know whether they have been blacklisted from employment by the Government of Nunavut, says the territory’s information and privacy commissioner.
“The issue of a Do Not Hire/Hire with Caution list has come up in four recent review reports,” Graham Steele said in an email to Nunatsiaq News.
“All of the four cases involved the Department of Health.”
Steele’s four reports stem from three complaints from three different employees, two of whom were contract workers. One decision was published on May 27, two were published on Aug. 27 and the most recent was published on Sept. 7.
Steele, who has been access to information and privacy commissioner since January 2021, said these reports are the first time he’s dealt with the issue of Do Not Hire lists in the course of his role.
He told Nunatsiaq News he looked into past decisions and believes these complaints are the “first cases” Nunavut’s access to information office has ever seen where former employees asked for a review over transparency about blacklisting.
In the most recent complaint, Steele looked into how the Department of Health applied the access to information act to a contract health-care worker who was trying to determine why they were not rehired by the Health Department.
The complainant — who was not identified — had previously been hired for short-term contracts in Nunavut communities.
They filed an access to information request to learn why they were suddenly ineligible to work for the GN, Steele’s report said.
The documents showed an allegation of misconduct against the worker but “what the allegation was or who had made it” was redacted, Steele’s report said.
“The applicant is in a Kafkaesque situation. They have been accused of something, but Health will not tell them what the accusation is.”
Steele’s report revealed no workplace investigation into the allegation was conducted and no formal complaint was made to the health worker’s agency.
He noted that in this case, a Do Not Hire decision was made without involvement of the employee relations division within the Human Resources department.
“Whether there are formal lists or not … a decision by the GN not to rehire someone is a serious one with potentially career-limiting or career-ending consequences for the person concerned,” Steele said in his Sept. 7 decision.
The GN is entitled to keep Do Not Hire and Hire with Caution lists, Steele said in his Aug. 27 report.
However, he said, these lists raise “a number of privacy and access issues” and questions, including how someone gets on or off the list, whether they are made aware of it, and who gets to see the list.
Nunatsiaq News contacted the Department of Human Resources with these questions but has not received a response.
Steele’s Aug. 27 report recommended the Health and Human Resources departments disclose whether there are Do Not Hire and Hire with Caution lists, where those lists are kept, and whether the complainant’s name is on those lists.
Indeed the Department of Human Resources does maintain Do Not Hire and Review with Caution lists, said Human Resources Minister Pamela Gross in her response to Steele’s Aug. 27 report.
Employees who are on this list receive a “termination letter” advising them they are unable to work for the GN for “a period of two years,” Gross said in her response, which is dated Sept. 23.
A Review with Caution list includes employees who have been removed from the Do Not Hire list but pose “a serious risk to the employer,” said Gross.
They can apply for a position within the government, but must provide a reference letter from the last GN department they worked for.
Oh oh, some people’s ego are going to get bruised, personal vendettas and maliciousness is going to be exposed all because someone stood up for themselves or someone did not like another and placed them on the do not hire or rehire list, this has potential to get real juicy.
This is a new low, even for an organization as core-rotten as the Government of Nunavut.
Low…most certainly. New…not so much. GN HR has been doing this since ’99.
If one isn’t related to GN employees and shot callers in a village, one is already black listed.
Anger the wrong relatives and your better off leaving town. 🤕
Maybe professionals should start a “do not work there list”. Beginning to look that way.
Like…”Welcome to Nunavut. Abandon all hope when entering…”
I believe there is a nurse that “did time” in Nunavut and found it scary.
Now the person is telling friends & co-workers to stay away from Nunavut.
GN is &$## and environment.
I empathize with the experience of being overlooked for employment within the Health Department due to internal workplace rumors involving local staff members. Despite my professional qualifications and extensive experience, my efforts to engage with the department’s directors via email have not yielded any response. It appears that the Health Department’s recruitment practices may prioritize personal connections over the recruitment of suitably qualified candidates, particularly evident in the case of Kivaliq. This situation is compounded by the presence of individuals in directorial roles lacking in effective supervision and management skills, relying instead on informal and unreliable sources of information. Regrettably, my attempts to address these concerns with Health HQ have not resulted in any discernible action, as there seems to be a reluctance to acknowledge these issues.
If you emailed me with writing like that, I wouldn’t respond to you either.
I did not send the content of my comment on NN via email. I believe that I am entitled to my opinion, just as you are entitled to respond to my comment. When individuals are pursuing employment opportunities, they typically refrain from expressing emotions and instead focus on conveying their interest in employment and presenting their qualifications.
Those are concise , well-written sentences in plain english. There is no ambiguity. Not sure what the problem is.
The problem is that people who like to tout their own extensive experience are seldom people who are also easy to work with.
They are sentences in English, I will give you that much. Are they concise and well-written? No, they are very stilted.
Why not? Trouble reading it?
If such complaints related to patient care where such employees’ behaviour could have been deemed questionable, blacklisting through the HR process could make sense. But it still isn’t a transparent process for both the employee or the complainer to determine whether conduct was addressed or corrected. This is where professional associations like the nursing association, dental professionals association or the doctors’ association would be the more appropriate and transparent venue to deal with patients’ complaints. In such cases, the employee would have a right to represent themselves in a tribunal-like manner, or takes steps to correct their behaviours or conduct to meet the professional standards. And the public could view whether there has been disciplinary hearings or recommended actions. But unfortunately, because Nunavut’s professional associations are very inaccessible to the general public, this is what we end up with. It’s even more difficult to issue disciplinary hearings or review questionable conduct when you have a constant fly-in, fly-out of dentists, doctors, nurses, psychiatrists and other medical staff. The public gets the short-end of the gaps in quality service and quality providers, or appropriate healthcare. Maybe blacklisting is much quicker, more expedient and appropriate to weed out insensitive and uncaring staff.
The GN’s no-hire list has no legal foundation. There is nothing in the Public Service Act or Regulations that justifies the list nor is it something that has been negotiated into any Collective Agreement. Not only is it illegitimate, it is often weaponized by HR and applied to employees who have done nothing wrong.
I am guessing that the contractor in question works for a nursing agency. I think that it is important to distinguish between employees, who have a right to process under the Public Service Act and Human Resources Manual, and contractors, such as the one singled out in this article, who work for an agency. They are not GN employees, and may be rejected based on the terms of the GNs contract with its contracting partners/nursing agencies.
This definitely proofs all the good nurses are gone and terrible management are still here bullying health employees.
Gaslighting, bullying, and racism from managers are all alive and well in the Kivalliq region.
Couldn’t agree more. Black workers are not safe working for the Dept of Health!
Here’s what the DO NOT HIRE list really should look like:
-Unmotivated, unqualified, incompetent workers
That’s 85% of the current workforce in the GN lol
I thought it was closer to 90 %.
Damn this Commissioner is good.
Can you give him a raise and let’s keep him.
They should investigate too to the Human Resources workers how they work and check with public people, I have evidence and rcmp about health workers for what they have done and they are just using patients information and use them to make excuses. There might be more people having difficulty to get help by health workers. And social workers are part of the problem too and both are trying to controlling everything and both needs to be investigated.
Like all things in Nunavut, the gossip among people in these little, little isolated places carries weight. Like the gospel.😂😝
A No Hire List is not required.
Just here say.
Sounds like you ticked off the wrong relatives.😂🤣
GN “blacklisted “ alive an well”
Whether casual or agency. Manager aincompetent in there roles and that best goes on!
I worked 15 yrs in the territory. An unhealthy amount of hrs…saw unimaginable tragedy. No support… the moment of weakness you’re done with them. No mental health f/u or support after critical incident.
Use you and owne you nothing !
The poor people of the territory
Have fun GN..,paramedics and LPN’s are not the way to provide quality care!