1413d - Employee Service Recognition

Introduction
Application
Definitions
Guidelines
Procedures
Authorities and References

Introduction

To recognize the long-term commitment of its employees, the Government of the Northwest Territories (GNWT) honors those who have served long periods of uninterrupted service with the Government. This recognition serves as an acknowledgement of employee dedication.

Application

These guidelines and procedures apply to all employees, except those employed by the Northwest Territories (NWT) Power Corporation.

Definitions

Territorial Public Service (TPS) means the date an employee was hired or re-hired by the Government. This date includes casual employment if it preceded regular employment with no more than a thirty-day break. It also includes all periods of employment with breaks of less than three months, in cases where an employee was terminated for reasons other than dismissal, abandonment of position, or rejection on probation, and periods of less than one year where an employee was on lay-off status.

Non-cash awards (are defined by the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA)):This excludes cash or items that are near cash such as stocks, bonds, raw precious metals, digital currency, a pre-paid card issued by a financial institution and gift cards that do not meet all the conditions outlined by CRA. Employee non-cash awards must be direct purchased by the government department or agency. They cannot be purchased by the employee and later reimbursed.

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Guidelines

On an annual basis Departments and Agencies are responsible for recognizing the long service of all employees with five or more years of service with the GNWT.
Length of service for the purpose of long service awards is continuous service with the TPS. This service is established by the employee's TPS date and is considered to be uninterrupted if the employee has been on approved leave. Previous service with other governments does not count towards TPS long service recognition (i.e., employee worked 15 years with the Federal government before coming to work at GNWT for the last 5 years. Employee is entitled to a five-year award not 20-year award).
The Territorial Public Service date is used to identify all long service award recipients including:
1. full-time employees;
2. term employees;
3. part-time employees;
4. seasonal employees; and
5. relief employees.
Employees with 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, and 35 years of service are honored at a Department or Agency event such as a reception, lunch, dinner or in combination with other events.
Employees are entitled to the following:

Years of Service	Framed Certificate Signed by	Non-Cash Award
5 years	Deputy Head	$0
10 years	Minister	Maximum of $100
15 years	Minister	Maximum of $175
20 years	Minister	Maximum of $225
25 years	Minister	Maximum of $300
30 years	Premier	Maximum of $400
35 years	Premier	Maximum of $499

The service recognition will be based on the calendar year in which the service recognition event is held. This means that some individuals may be recognized before their service milestone has been reached (i.e. if the long service recognition event is held in June and the 10-year milestone is reached in September, the employee receives his/her 10 year long service award in June).
Departments and Agencies determine the nature of the long service function. Events should take into consideration regional recipients and may be coordinated among Departments and Agencies.
10. Departments and Agencies are responsible for all costs relating to long service recognition events including certificates, frames, non-cash awards and social events.
The long service awards do not include travel costs for employees to attend a function.
The purchase of alcoholic beverages and/or cannabis is not an eligible expenditure.
All forms of public recognition shall be administered with the prior consent of the award recipient.
Award recipients may be contacted in advance before the award event to determine suitability and appropriateness of the award.
If the employee chooses an award that has a value that is greater than the amount they are entitled to, and pays the difference themselves (the amount of the item less the amount they are entitled to as a non-cash award), the amount paid for by the employee is not considered taxable income by the CRA even if the amount of the item is greater than $500. The employer portion paid (which may not be greater than their entitlement) must be paid for by the GNWT directly and not reimbursed later to the employee.
At an employee’s request and in lieu of a non-cash award, Departments and Agencies may make a charitable donation on behalf of the employee to a charity of the employee’s choice registered with the Canada Revenue Agency. Such donations are made at the discretion of the Deputy Head.
Awards provided to employees must follow the CRA Administrative Policies for non-taxable awards.

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Procedures

In December each year, the Department of Finance runs the "Years of Service (TPS)" Report in PeopleSoft to verify long service award recipients for the coming calendar year and provides the information to the respective Department or Agency.
The Department of Finance obtains the required long service certificates. The Department of Finance provides them to Departments and Agencies as necessary through a chargeback arrangement. When required, three weeks advance notice should be provided to the Department of Finance.
The Department of Finance prepares the certificates and obtains the appropriate signatures.

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