The Auditor General’s 2014 Work Plan included a review of the City’s non-union employee separation costs. The City has statutory and legal obligations to provide separation pay to an affected employee when the employment relationship is terminated by the City. From 2011 to 2013, 90 terminated non-union employees received separation payments. Annually, this represents less than one per cent of the 4,200 non-union employees employed by the City. The average separation amount was approximately $120,000 per employee.
The objective of this review was to ensure that non-union employee separation costs have been awarded in accordance with City policies. For the most part, our review found that separation costs were awarded in accordance with City policies, procedures and applicable regulations. However, there are opportunities to enhance certain oversight activities.
This report contains eight recommendations along with a management response to each of the recommendations.