Locally Engaged Staff Exclusion Order

Summary#

The Canada Gazette published the Locally Engaged Staff Exclusion Approval Order: SI/2024-7 on February 14, 2024. It updates a long-standing exclusion from the Public Service Employment Act for people hired abroad to work in Canadian diplomatic, consular or foreign military support roles, and is mainly housekeeping to match new rules for those workers.

What it does#

• Confirms that the Public Service Commission will re-apply parts of the Public Service Employment Act to the jobs that were covered by Order in Council P.C. 1967-444 (the old exclusion) and to the people in those jobs.
• Approves excluding from the Public Service Employment Act a person who is appointed and employed outside Canada and who:
  • performs duties directly related to diplomatic or consular operations or a military support unit of the Government of Canada located outside Canada, and
  • is subject to the laws of the host country where they work.
• Updates references in the old order (it now refers to section 20 of the current Public Service Employment Act instead of section 39 of the 1967 law) and removes an outdated mention of postmasters.
• Supports the rollout of the new Locally Engaged Staff Employment Regulations, 2024, which replace the older rules.

Who's affected#

• Locally engaged staff — people hired outside Canada by the Canadian government to work at missions or military support units abroad.
• Global Affairs Canada and the Department of National Defence, which manage these workers.
• The Public Service Commission and the Treasury Board’s human resources office are involved in how the rules are applied.
• The change does not appear to change the employment conditions of locally engaged staff currently employed by those departments.

Why it matters#

• Locally engaged staff provide local knowledge, language skills and contacts that help Canadian missions and military support units operate abroad. They work under the labour laws of more than 112 jurisdictions, so a separate set of rules helps keep staffing flexible and practical.
• This order is mainly administrative: it modernizes references and aligns the exclusion with new regulations. It is not presented as changing the day-to-day status of current locally engaged employees.