PIPSC marked the third anniversary of Phoenix, in February 2019, with a National Week of Action. Members organized events in their workplaces, hosted meet and greets, and President Debi Daviau made our voices heard loud and clear in her call for sufficient funds in the next budget to ensure Phoenix’s replacement proceeds without delay.
“President Debi Daviau held a press conference Monday on Parliament Hill to provide an update on the third anniversary of the failed Phoenix pay system. Daviau called for the proper funding allocation in the federal budget 2019 to ensure a smooth implementation of the overhauled pay system.” reported Global News.
CTV News reports, “civil servants this month are marking three years since the initial roll-out of Phoenix, which resulted in more than half of federal employees being overpaid, underpaid or not paid at all.”
“The Phoenix system was launched three years ago across a limited number of government departments with the goal of streamlining what had become a cumbersome, out-of-date structure. It was also supposed to save taxpayers $70 million annually by eliminating the jobs of thousands of pay advisers,” reports Canada’s National Observer.
The article continued, “the combined cost of implementing the system and subsequently trying to stabilize it is now estimated to exceed $1 billion.”
The Star reported, “unless cash is earmarked this spring for a new system to pay federal employees, the tens of thousands of workers affected by the current system’s problems could be left in limbo for months, or even years, the head of the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada warned.”
“Daviau said the government appears to be on a “fast track” toward finding a new system to replace Phoenix, having trimmed the list of prospective vendors down to three,” reported The Globe and Mail.
You can see President Daviau’s complete press announcement on CPAC.