Manual 500 Changes - Spring 2012

In spring 2012, the Public Service Commission (PSC), the central human resources department of Government with oversight responsibility for the content of Manual 500, undertook some changes to the Manual.

Manual 500 is one of four corporate administrative policy manuals administered by Treasury Board. The PSC pursued the changes to Manual 500 in close collaboration with Treasury Board Office and Executive Council Operations staff.

The changes resulted in the repeal and removal of some policies and the reorganization of some of the remaining contents. Policies were generally removed because the information they contained was more complete and up-to-date in other, often more authoritative sources such as legislation, regulations and collective agreements. There are no changes to the provisions that had been set out in the policies. Rather, the redundant policies have been removed and managers and employees are now being redirected to the best sources of policy information on those topics.

In addition to the removal of policies, the PSC has reorganized the Manual's contents. This includes the renaming of some chapters to better align with the PSC's core human resources functional areas and the relocation of some policies across chapters to align with the new chapter names. In this process, there were minor changes of a housekeeping nature made to some policies in the Manual. However, the substantive content of policies and the provisions they set out has not changed.

Policies Removed from Manual

The policies that have been removed from the Manual are identified here, along with links to alternate sources of information on the topics that had been covered by those policies. Links that are common to information sources for multiple topics are provided at the end of the section.

Classification Policy

Overtime Policy

Job Sharing Policy

Employee Assistance Program (EAP) Policy

  • Refer to the EAP page on the Public Service Commission website

Smoke-Free Workplace Policy

Personal Protection Policy

Refer to the following:

Special Leave Policy

Time-off Less Than One Day Policy

This policy contained information on time-off that can be granted to attend medical or dental appointments, vote in an election and participate in blood donor clinics.

For information on time-off for medical or dental appointments:

For information on time-off to vote in an election:

For information on time-off to participate in blood donor clinics:

Provincial Appointee Liability Policy

Public Service Awards Policy

Information Links

Collective Agreements

Civil Service Act's General Civil Service Regulations

Casual and other direct employees of government should also refer to the Labour Standards Code for information on applicable topics covered by policies that have been removed from the Manual.

Contract employees should also refer to the specific terms of their contracts.

Managers and employees should also refer to the Public Service Commission website for information on other programs and services administered by the PSC.